Mrs. Jane Hunter
Lecturer
Advisor

While a pursuing a BS in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona, Mrs. Hunter obtained a co-op with IBM in 1981. The co-op placed her in the technology development of high-speed, institutional size printers and process integration where she continued to work after graduation. In this position, she was assigned to work with other mechanical, electrical, and materials engineers in the department on the project. She then moved into IBM’s magnetic storage devices sector where she was responsible for head-tape interfaces. She worked on the early phases of making sure that the low cost print head worked on media under all sorts of conditions in high control studies.

Mrs. Hunter was then presented with an opportunity to move into a management position, which she accepted. At this stage, IBM was getting ready to put their print heads into production. Mrs. Hunter was assigned to manage the department responsible for testing the prototype. Feeling that she was lacking in the area of understanding the business end of her job, she enrolled in a newly developed distance learning program offering a Masters of Engineering Management at the National Technological University (NTU). NTU at the time was only satellite transmitting courses from Universities to corporate sites, so she was able to earn her MS in Engineering Management while working at IBM.

Several years later she transferred to sales within IBM to Madison, Wisconsin in 1987 as a marketing representative. In Madison, IBM put her through extensive training to sell-midrange systems to well developed companies. One in particular was Anequest, a manufacturer of anesthetics. They were losing their manager of their information technology function so they offered her the position and she accepted. At Anequest her department was responsible for supporting their business systems, interfacing with manufacturing systems, and the sales division.

After working there for several years, she relocated back to Tucson where she setup a consulting firm called the Software Tutor, which taught individuals and small companies how to effectively use their computer applications. At this point she decided to teach after her experiences with Software Tutor along with teaching being one of her aspirations. She accepted a position at Pima Community College where she taught Engineering 102. At the time UA was short on staff, so Dr. Hal S. Tharp, the associate department head for the UA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, asked her to come teach Engineering 102 as an adjunct for the Department. While teaching Engineering 102, Mrs. Hunter was informed about a newly developed degree in Engineering Management at UA so she decided to look into it. To her surprise, Dr. Geiger told her she was the only one the department with a MS in EMG. At the time, the course requirements in marketing weren’t meeting the needs of the department. Mrs. Hunter worked with Dr. Geiger on coming up with a proposal for a technical marketing course. Soon after, Technical Sales & Marketing (SIE 415) was established and she has been teaching it ever since. A year ago Mrs. Hunter started working on her Ph.D. in Education directed toward the college level. She plans to do her dissertation in Engineering Education where there are numerous opportunities to research its effectiveness.

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