Meet Your Professor

I'm Dawn Tatum and I'll be your professor for this course. I earned my master's degree from SPSU.  I teach programming, project management and security related courses in the Information Technology department and am the Internship Coordinator for the College of Computing and Software Engineering.  I advise the Association of IT Professionals, the College of Computing Club, Upsilon Pi Epsilon (Computing Honor Society) and the Chess Club.  I also Chair the Annual CCSE Hackathon during Fall semester. I've been teaching at SPSU and now Kennesaw State since 2012.  Prior to teaching at SPSU, I taught at Chattahoochee Technical College since 2002.

Teaching is my second career, having followed a 25-year career in information technology beginning in 1982, when I started my own consulting company (while attending UCF pursuing a BS in Computer Science).  After graduation, I moved to NYC and began my career in IT by consulting and also working full time for the Guggenheim Museum, AIG, Inc. and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield.  I moved to Georgia in 1994 when I continued working in consulting and also for Americorps Partners in IT, Whitefoord Community Program, and Checkfree Corp (now FiServ).

I teach because I love to see students create new solutions to old problems.  I also enjoy helping students navigate the start of their careers in IT.  I wish I had a mentor when I was in college.  That certainly would have helped me make fewer mistakes along the way.