Joseph Mertz
Director of the undergraduate Information Systems Program, Teaching Professor, Director of the Technology Consulting in the Global Community (TCinGC) Program
Joe is a Teaching Professor and Director of the undergraduate Information Systems Program which is a joint major of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Joe's teaching focuses on two threads: developing technical-professional leadership skills and using technology for development.
Since 1998 he has developed and taught a "Technology Consulting in the Community" course that has engaged highly talented students as technology consultants helping over 300 nonprofit organizations, schools, and businesses in the Pittsburgh region.
Using the same capacity-building IT consulting model, he directs the international program, Technology Consulting in the Global Community, that has sent over a hundred students to fourteen developing countries to help government ministries and NGOs improve their strategic use of technology.
Joe has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science (from Penn State and the University of Southern California), and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon. Between degrees, he worked as a systems software developer for Bell Laboratories for 5 years.
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