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Dave Ragsdale | Stephany Freeman | Don Gathers | Tim Miller
By Vickie Nelson (vmn@oregon.uoregon.edu)
A frequent feature of Computing News, our Who's Who staff profiles are designed to acquaint you with some of the people who work behind the scenes to facilitate your computing experience on campus. As usual, our winter issue features a mix of brand-new and veteran staff members. Our new web specialist, Dave Ragsdale, joined us only last May, while Stephany Freeman, Don Gathers, and Tim Miller have been Computing Center employees throughout much of the past decade.
Dave
Ragsdale
Web Specialist,
Academic User Services [back to top]
Meet the Computing Center's new web specialist, Dave Ragsdale. Dave, who also goes by the name Rags, brings over 15 years of media design and development to the job, including extensive experience in photography.
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Dave hopscotched between Arizona State University in Phoenix and the University of Arizona in Tucson before graduating with a B.S. in Industrial Design from ASU.
As part of his Industrial Design program, he took photographs of product models that he and other students designed, and discovered a calling in photography. With a partner, he started a photography business, specializing in product and fashion photography as well as weddings.
Dave took a job as staff photographer at ASU, continued to do photography on a freelance basis, and started working toward his Masters in Educational Media and Computers. In the early '90s he moved to Palo Alto for a multimedia position, where he developed his computer graphics skills further. Before coming to the UO, Dave was the multimedia-Internet development specialist at the University of Nevada in Reno.
Dave's wife Debbie, daughter Lindsey, 4, and son William, 2, have joined him in Eugene, along with his mother, who moved from Phoenix to spend at least a year near her grandchildren.
Stephany
Freeman
Systems Analyst,
Auxiliary Services [back to top]
Born in Nebraska, Stephany Freeman moved around a lot as a child. Her family finally settled down in Oregon, and she finished her last three years of high school in North Bend on the Oregon coast. While earning her B.A. in Computer Science and Math at the UO, she held a job as a flight instructor and air taxi pilot.
After working five years at the UO College of Education as a research programmer, Stephany spent some time in local companies. She began work at the Computing Center in 1994, the same week she graduated with a Masters in Computer Science.
As a system analyst in Auxiliary Services, Stephany works with BANNER and is the Computing Center's primary support person for FIS, the university's financial information system. She enjoys her work and says there's always plenty to do: troubleshooting problems, adding new features, fixing identities, and helping make FIS as easy to use as possible.
Stephany and her partner of 14 years, Rick Brown, live in south Eugene. Another member of the family, Gemmy, a 14-year-old horse, boards in Marcola, and Stephany goes there as often as she can to ride. She used to compete with Gemmy in dressage, but now she just rides for pleasure. She's also an avid walker and gets out daily for a long walk.
Don
Gathers
Network Engineer,
Network Services [back to top]
If you have questions on file servers, Don Gathers is the man to see.
Born in the small town of Clarion, Pennsylvania, Don earned a BS in Communication from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, then headed for California. He entered the computer world through data entry, and got involved with Novell servers while working on a data conversion project. In the early '90s he moved to Oregon and began work in the UO Budget Office, where he received further Novell training and eventually earned CNE certification. In 1993 he joined Network Services as a network engineer.
In addition to serving as the central contact for people on campus with file server questions, Don administers KAHUNA, the file and print server for the Computing Center. He is also presently involved with setting up an archeological database on a web server for Infographics, a research facility associated with the Geography Department.
Don says he and his wife Lori came to Oregon "on a whim." Lori's parents were looking at Oregon property, and she and Don joined them and other family members in buying a subdivision in Veneta. Don, Lori, and their children, Jordon, 9, and Cierra, 8, now live surrounded by family and within bicycling distance of Fern Ridge Reservoir.
When Don's not fishing on the McKenzie River or spending time with his kids, he enjoys working in the garden and listening to jazz.
Tim
Miller
Academic Microcomputer Lab Manager,
Computing Facilities [back to top]
Tim Miller was born in the Midwest and arrived in Eugene at age four when his father joined the faculty at the UO School of Music. Before he graduated from high school, he spent four years in Europe during his father's sabbaticals and teaching assignments.
Tim earned a B.A. in German Language and Literature from the UO, took some graduate classes, and then went to work for the Oregon Department of Justice. He also worked for Software Sciences, a real estate software company, doing installations and tech support and coding before coming to the Computing Center in June 1996.
Tim now provides tech support for both Klamath and Millrace instructional labs. He keeps the labs up and running, does networking, installations, and maintenance, and supervises student assistants. The biggest challenge, he says, is figuring out what users mean when they complain that something "isn't working right."
Tim has two daughters, Chloe, 12, who's a helper in her web design class at Roosevelt, and Edie, 9. He and the two girls often bike around town together.
In addition to juggling work and family life, Tim also juggles balls, knives, and flaming torches. He's performed at the Lane County Fair, Country Faire, Saturday Market, Creswell Fourth of July picnic, and other gatherings.Tim also enjoys riding and fixing up bikes and collects "cool 20th century furniture."