DYK Series: Felix Vazquez
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.
Felix Vazquez is a Senior Network Engineer and has been on the infrastructure team since 2017. Before joining IT, Felix graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Bachelors in IT and worked as a network engineer for a candy company. In addition to getting lots of free candy, soda, and snacks, he worked on developing network strategies, identifying vulnerabilities, and strengthening the company infrastructure. With a location in Colonial Williamsburg, he was able to help a local business from behind the scenes!
In his current role, Felix ensures the phone systems and networks work throughout campus. He collaborates with other infrastructure team members and focuses on the phone systems and network capabilities. His work is vital to securing stable network services for the campus community to allow our students, faculty, and staff to reach the internet and make phone calls from anywhere on our 1,200 acre campus in Williamsburg. Felix finds it incredibly rewarding getting to see the impact of IT and the infrastructure team throughout campus through the accessible technology that they implement for our community’s use.
Throughout his time in IT, Felix is most proud of his work on the switch to Microsoft Teams Calls from our prior phone system. This is the biggest project that he has worked on since joining the team and the most interesting to be a part of. Watching the project grow and develop from its early planning stages to the recent steps of production and completion has been incredibly interesting for him. The switch to Microsoft Teams allows our campus community to make and receive phone calls from anywhere worldwide! This project was a significant undertaking, and it took talent from across the department and campus to make the implementation go smoothly. Throughout the past year and a half, the project has been developed and is now complete. Felix is grateful for the time he had working with other departments on campus and their shared collective investment in the project’s success!
Felix firmly believes in “iron shapes iron,” meaning helping each other learn and grow makes the team strong. This is true for the infrastructure department and the entire IT team, which he says has been the most unique and valuable work experience in his career thus far. Felix admires W&M IT’s cohesive, collaborative, and supportive work environment that pushes him to learn, teach, and train in new products and programs to stay current with technology in such an ever-changing field.
Did you know?
Outside of work, Felix enjoys growing spiritually and spending time with family and friends. Whether at the movies or at the park with family and friends, Felix appreciates the time spent with his loved ones.
