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Amanda Gish Web Content Coordinator

Amanda Gish is the Web Content Coordinator for Missouri Southern State University. Amanda has been involved in life on the MSSU campus since 1996, when she transferred in from Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), first as a student then as a computer technician. During her time on campus she has earned several degrees:

  • Associate of Science Degree in Network Systems, December 2001
  • Bachelor of Science -Technology Information with a minor in Web Site Administration, May 2006
  • Bachelor of Science-Technology Information/Criminal Justice Administration - Computer Forensics, May 2006

As a student, she was involved in the CIS club, among the guest speakers were FBI agents and Mayo Clinic managers, explaining programs such as computer forensics and bioinformatics. She helped professors bring in FBI agents to speak at career fairs.

Starting out as a computer technician on campus, she worked with hardware, software and the network. As she worked her way through the MSSU Information Technology department she has built a strong relationship with the MSSU community, not only working on their office computers but their home computers as well. In addition she has built a solid working relationship with the student technicians on campus, training them not only in computer work but MSSU procedures and policies too. She enjoys the comradely and is always learning something new from them.

She designed the first web site for the criminal justice department at MSSU. Working with Dr. Wolf, the web site not only featured the programs taught at MSSU but also the POST classes available to the peace officers of our area, offering her an opportunity to work with such people as Missouri Highway Patrol officers. During her work in the criminal justice department she became interested in criminology and decided to combine her interest in computer and criminology so she earned the hybrid Bachelor of Science Computer Forensics degree which was new at that time.

Before moving to University Relations and Marketing she was a Disaster Recovery technician then Identity Manager in the Information Technology department for 3 years, working for Al Stadler, Nathan Achey and Ryan Halstead. She was responsible for making and maintaining security on Novell and GroupWise accounts and Novell mapping (the I, J, R and S drives familiar to campus employees and students). With Jimmie Collins, she worked on the virtual server backups and was involved in implementing projects such as GoPrint. She answered the appropriate calls from the helpdesk. Her diverse experiences and knowledge of procedures and personnel on campus help her get projects done in a timely manner.

While a student she travelled with the school of technology to Australia, among her experiences:

  • She was addressed by an Australian Supreme Court Judge.
  • Shown the training grounds and operations of SOG (Special Operations Group, the equivalent of American SWAT teams), including a tour of the facility while a team practiced hostage rescue and bomb remove and disposal and canine training.
  • Toured the New South Wales Harbor Patrol facilities and the Darling Harbour as a guest of the Harbour Patrol.
  • Talked with and observed Melbourne police detectives tracking computer crime, analyzing evidence, police protocols and laws, and how technology is applied to unidentified persons.

During her years in school she also worked part-time at the pharmacy in Carthage Missouri, Furthering her education, her manager and professors recommend her for an information technology internship with Wal-Mart, in Bentonville, Arkansas during the summer of 2000. She worked with the NetWare Server group. She worked with outside vendors such as Dell and Microsoft to solve problems. She worked with SCSI technology, building enterprise servers and shipping them to stores all over the world, replacing hard drives in critical situations and explored new technologies such as server clustering. She learned how to work in stressful situations with time limitations. She was involved in all phases of implementing the software Wal-Mart stores use to fill prescriptions, first as a pharmacy tech in the Carthage store, then as a software tester in the Bentonville main office. She helped Wal-Mart IT employees roll out the optical fiber backbone in the Carthage store.

Her contacts with MSSU alumni and faculty have offered her many opportunities in business, including computer repair and web site building (selling art for American, German and Chinese artists) and teaching HTML.

Amanda is from Sarcoxie, Missouri. She likes taking care of her dog and cat, international travel, civil war history, including touring civil war sites nationwide. She sponsors a soldier in Afghanistan.

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