Jim
Christensen received his Bachelors Degree in General Engineering
in 1977. He began his career at Caterpillar Tractor
Company in Peoria as a Research Engineer, but left Caterpillar
in 1984 to join the Engineering and Scientific Computing
group at Travenol Laboratories, now Baxter International,
Inc. During the past 18 years, he has held a number
of positions of increasing responsibility for application
development and support as well as computing infrastructure,
including systems architecture, network engineering, desktop
services, help desk support and data center operations.
Currently he holds the position of Director of Systems
Integration in the Corporate Information Technology Department,
with a special emphasis on integration activities to support
mergers and acquisitions. In 1990, Jim was listed
in “Who’s Who in the Computer Industry.”
Carla
Christensen graduated in 1977 receiving her Bachelors
Degree in Business Education. She started her career
with IBM Corporation as a Systems Engineer and spent 17
years with IBM gaining experience in marketing, systems
implementation, project management, and leadership.
Carla then joined Hewitt Associates. In 1995 she
founded her own consulting business providing project
management and facilitation services along with training,
coaching, instructional design, and technical writing
services for Information Technology departments of mid-size
to Fortune 1000 companies in a variety of industries.
Today, Carla enjoys working for Endeavor Information Systems,
Inc., a leading software development company that provides
software and services to help research libraries. a
Jim
and Carla are life members of the University of Illinois
Alumni Association and members of the President’s
Council and the Dean’s Club. They have two
sons.
Recipients
