ncwise North Carolina Window of Information on Student Education
ncwise Dr. John R. Wetsch, NC WISE Program Director |
| Dr. John R. Wetsch is the program manager for NC WISE and is responsible for ensuring that the program stays on task, on budget and is delivered on time. Prior to joining DPI, Dr. Wetsch has managed and implemented large federal IT systems for the past 20 years to include the U.S. Air Force Space Command, U.S. Courts, U.S. Postal Service and internal programs with the Northrop Grumman Corp. Wetsch has earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and philosophy, master’s degrees in astronomy and historical astronomy and a doctorate in information systems. He was a Technical Fellow with Northrop Grumman and has received numerous honors and awards including Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the South and Southwest and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering. |
John Gilmore, Manager, Business Services |
| John Gilmore is the Business Services Manager for NC WISE. He is responsible for business process implementation through NC WISE end user support and training. He brings more than 20 years of school experience with SIMS and NC WISE to the team. Prior to his current position, he was Post-Deployment Project Manager for NC WISE. Previously, he was a long-time employee with Sampson County Schools where he served in many capacities, including Director of Accountability Services. |
Joe LaRosa, Configuration Manager |
| Joe LaRosa is the configuration manager for NC WISE and is responsible for project configuration management, change management, software quality assurance and testing. LaRosa brings more than 25 years experience in IT operations and management. Prior to coming to NCDPI, he worked for IBM, Zenith Electronics and Loral Electronic Systems. |
George Batten, Project Services Manager |
George Batten is the deployment manager for NC WISE. He oversees vendor management for the new conversion tools as well as the processes for deployment activities including readiness and conversion. He is responsible for the development and coordination of deployment schedules. |
Rodney McLaurin, Operations Manager |
| As the NC WISE Operations Manager, Rodney McLaurin is the liaison between NCDPI and ITS coordinating infrastructure changes and additions to the NC WISE architecture. McLaurin brings extensive experience in the management, development and implementation of database systems. He has worked for a number of organizations including State ITS. |
Betsy Baugess, Software and Data Management Manager |
| Betsy Baugess manages the group responsible for the NC WISE data, SAS Adhoc Reporting tool, EDI, and the custom software associated with NC WISE. Her team supplies custom reports and extracts and other data services to all NC WISE schools and DPI. Baugess has a varied technical background in the corporate world and a strong history supporting customer data and providing software support and development. Within NC WISE she has worked with Quality Assurance and served as YET prime. |
Wayne Price, NC WISE/SIMS Service Desk Manager |
| Wayne Price is responsible for the SIMS and NC WISE Service Desks as well as SIMS training. He has been involved with education for almost 20 years as a teacher, administrator, SIMS coordinator and help desk staff. |
Jessica Exline, Training Manager |
| Jessica Exline is responsible for developing deployment training for new users and sustainment training for personnel already familiar with NC WISE. Exline was a NC WISE data manager at an elementary school before coming to NCDPI. Since then, she has worked with Tier 2 support for the NC WISE/SIMS Service Desk and served as a professional development consultant. |
| NC WISE Project Managers |
| Ken Weiss, Project Manager (919)807-3228 |
| Ken Weiss, as Project Manager for NC WISE, is responsible for ensuring that a variety of assigned projects stay focused, on budget and on time. Weiss brings more than 20 years of experience to the team in a variety of areas including staff and project management, business operations, IT systems design, development and support. Prior to joining NCDPI, he was a Principal at AT&T Labs/Bell Laboratories, VP of Operations for Landcore LLC, Consultant with TMP Worldwide/Hudson Highland Group and was Director of Scholastic Services and IT for Youth Education in the Arts. |
| Joan Nelson, Project Manager (919) 807-3363 |
| Joan Nelson, a PMI Certified Project Manager, is responsible for monitoring a range of projects to make sure they remain on track and on schedule. Most recently, Nelson served as Change Manager for the Configuration Management Section, and was Project Manager for YET 2007. Prior to NCDPI, she worked at IBM for more than 20 years, managing projects worldwide, supervising staff and guiding software development on IBM products. |
| Corwin Armstrong, Project Manager (919)807-4018 |
Corwin Armstrong is an NC WISE Project Manager assigned to LEAs in RACs 3 and 6. Armstrong is responsible for helping LEAs understand the NC WISE deployment requirement, developing plans to meet those requirements, guiding LEAs through each stage of the deployment process, and identifying and mitigating risks. Armstrong has over 15 years of project experience in the areas of systems and network management, internet engineering, distributed learning systems, and information technology support. |
| Skip Neal, Project Manager (919) 807-4018 |
| Skip Neal is an NC WISE Project Manager responsible for interfacing to Region 2 and 5 LEAs on the WAVE III NC WISE Deployment effort. His project management responsibilities involve leading the LEAs through the SIMS to NC WISE conversion effort and working with the NCDPI teams to ensure that the appropriate levels of training and support are delivered to the LEA participants. Neal is a former NC Wise Data Manager and NOVANet Teacher in the Wake County Public School System. In addition, he has extensive project management experience with large-scale systems development and delivery efforts for IBM and other software development firms. |
