DYK Series: Kari-Lise Slettemoen
William & Mary Information Technology is comprised of intelligent and hardworking individuals who exemplify the university’s core values of belonging and respect. Our “Did You Know?” series gives us the opportunity to shine a spotlight on members of our team and introduce others to their work, as well as the unique things that make them tick.
Kari-Lise Slettemoen is a senior applications administrator for W&M IT. A first-generation American of Norwegian descent, Kari-Lise charted her path by following in her father's footsteps by studying at the University of Minnesota, where she went on to pursue an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. When prompted to move to Williamsburg for her husband's job in 1993, she found herself working in Telecommunication. In this role, she worked on many projects including installing asynchronous interfaces in dorms. In an era when internet access was a premium commodity, if students wanted internet access, they would have to pay for an asynchronous data interface. Additionally, she worked with managing student billing systems. Each dorm room housed its own phone and each student had their own authorization code. Stacks piling high with phone bills would be printed and had to be sent to students and staff.
As technology evolved, so did Kari-Lise’s role within IT. She ascended to the position of senior applications administrator and became entrusted with working on major W&M online systems like Banner. Her role involves all things technical and administrative, performing a lot of behind-the-scenes, yet very critical work such as applying updates to Banner and ensuring seamless functionality for student self-service accounts. Her focus on working on software over hardware facilitated a smooth transition into remote work during COVID and even gave her the flexibility to relocate back to Minnesota.
Among the numerous projects she has been involved in, Kari-Lise highlights transitions to new versions of Blackboard and moving Blackboard to the cloud as the most notable. In general, Kari-Lise had been working with Blackboard for around 10 years and enjoyed witnessing its evolution into the robust platform it is today.
Kari-Lise says she loves her job because it never gets boring. She is always exposed to new technologies and challenges; thus, she is committed to staying up-to-date with technology by learning while she works. Kari-Lise also cherishes the people she works with, especially those who she has watched grow over the years. She says her colleagues are one of the most important aspects of her job and are a large part of what has made her time in W&M IT worthwhile.
Did you know?
Outside of work, Kari-Lise has a big passion for traveling both domestically and internationally. She has traveled around the US, Canada and Europe. Notably, she enjoys national parks and visiting family in Norway. She tries to limit her laptop use after work but loves leveraging it to plan trips, organize photos, make trip diaries and develop BlurbBooks to document her memories.
