Computer Science Advisory Board

JoAnna Lio Amos is a Producer at Electronic Arts for Maxis, the studio behind The Sims™ and SimCity™. EA is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment, posting GAAP net revenue of $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2016 thanks to its 300 million registered players worldwide. The Sims alone has sold more than 175 million units since its launch in 2000. In her 12+ years at EA’s headquarters, she has led internal and external development teams to create entertainment experiences ranging from traditional retail video game hits to the live service world of downloadable content.

Before her dream job of being a producer, she worked as a game designer and community manager for EA and a software engineer for Structural Dynamics Research Corporation. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and English. She also has a master’s degree in Immersive Mediated Environments from Indiana University.

A native of Lexington, KY, JoAnna now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Scot. In her spare time, besides playing games, she helps get women into the outdoors through Unfolding Adventures for Women.

Mike Bender has held numerous management and software development positions at Lexmark International including Director of Embedded Software and Director of Device Software development. He currently manages the Business Alignment and Strategy team for the Global IT organization at Lexmark which has recently integrated ten acquired software companies across the globe into the Lexmark Portfolio. His expertise in agile software delivery and process governance has helped integrate processes and strategies across divisions within the corporation as Lexmark transforms from a printer company to a solutions company. Mike currently holds 5 US Patents for software design that are assigned to Lexmark.

Mike studied Computer Science at UK in the early 90s and is a graduate of UK College of Engineering (BSEE, 1986). He was an early member and ongoing supporter of the Computer Science Industrial Partners program at UK and has sponsored many Lexmark exhibits for Engineer’s Week over the years.

Outside work, Mike is a licensed select youth soccer coach and currently serves as a Coordinator for the Kentucky Select Soccer League and a Team Manager for the Storm Soccer Club.

During his 32 year career with IBM, Owen Cropper has developed broad based competencies across all aspects of information technology support and management, including executive leadership of large, complex, global IT delivery and headquarters organizations. He has demonstrated skills especially well-suited for delivering cost effective and high quality managed operations services and customer focused support to both internal and commercial customers across multiple technologies, environments and industries. Results oriented and highly successful across the IT organization, Mr. Cropper brings a broad and highly collaborative IT perspective to his assignments.

Encouraged by one of his University of Kentucky math professors, Mr. Cropper joined IBM in 1981 as a part-time “academic hire” while studying as a computer science major. In that role, he worked with hardware, wrote software programs and learned as many aspects of the business as he could. As a result, Mr. Cropper says his experience at IBM helped him understand how information technology fits into the wider scope of a business’s strategy. Upon graduating in 1982, he was hired full-time as an associate programmer.

After serving in a variety of programming roles, Mr. Cropper’s career took a new turn in 1991 when IBM became heavily involved in providing IT services. As a business area manager, Mr. Cropper was responsible for the overall project coordination and customer interface for a new data center. Mr. Cropper’s proficiency and experience in IT services allowed him to take multiple management positions within IBM in the 1990′s. In late 2000, he received his first executive level appointment, taking charge of operations and end user support for one of IBM’s service delivery centers. As director, Mr. Cropper oversaw 1,600 employees in six customer support call centers handling over 3.5 million inbound calls per year and managed yearly costs of approximately $150 million.

After demonstrating superior leadership in four different executive positions, IBM appointed Mr. Cropper vice president of global delivery resource management in 2009, where he was responsible for resource management to countries on three different continents. Mr. Cropper was then appointed to his current role of vice president of service operations (SO) delivery workforce management. He is responsible for creating the first ever global workforce management function across SO delivery, finding a way to lead disparate workforce management teams across the globe—each using different toolsets and operating models—and mold them into a globally integrated, cohesive team.

Mr. Cropper remains actively involved with his alma mater, serving on the board of directors of the Engineering Alumni Association and the Department of Computer Science’s industrial advisory board. In addition, he is also on the board of directors of the United Way of the Bluegrass. He was also recently inducted into the UK College of Engineering Hall on Distinction in April 2013.

Mr. Cropper lives in Lexington, Ky., with his wife Janet. They have two children, Carrie and Andrew and one granddaughter.

Jill Eaton is the IT Director – Global Finance/HR/Legal at GE Appliances & Lighting. She is also the leader of the IT Leadership Program (ITLP) recruiting top talent into IT for GE.

Jill started her career as a programmer/analyst, then moved on to IT project management and is certified as a Six Sigma Master Black belt.

She was later promoted to Global Team Leader with teams in US, India and Hungary. During her career, Jill has led multiple IT teams supporting the Supply Chain, Service, Technology, Finance, HR, Six Sigma and Legal areas of the GE Appliances & Lighting businesses. In her current role, she leads the global IT Finance, HR and Legal teams across both the GE Appliances and GE Lighting businesses.

In Jill’s other role as the entry level leadership program (ITLP) leader, she is responsible for identifying, recruiting and developing key IT talent for GE. She is a frequent visitor to the University of Kentucky (and other regional universities) looking for talented Computer Science/Engineering students to join the GE ITLP program.

Jill holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina- Charlotte. Jill has 2 adult children (One a UK Computer Science Alumnus!) and resides with her husband in Louisville, KY.

John Kyle is the President of ApeSoft, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of APE Software Components, SL an enterprise software and services company based in Barcelona, Spain. He is also the founder and principal consultant of Kyle Venture Advisors, LLC, a firm devoted to the advancement of early- and mid-stage startup companies. Previously, Mr. Kyle served as Vice President of Marketing for LogiXML (enterprise software) and Vice President & General Manager at ARC (financial and data services). He has also held leadership roles with MicroStrategy, EMC, Silicon Graphics and Cray Research. He holds an M.B.A. from Heriot Watt University in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky. Mr. Kyle has served on numerous boards and advisory boards including Teradata Corporation, LogiXML and the University of Kentucky Computer Science Department.
 

Karen Maxwell is a Business Owner and Philanthropist. She is co-founder and managing partner of KJMM Capital Partners, a real estate investment company. Karen is founder and president of Suite Originals, an interior design business.

In 1985, Karen graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky. She had a summer college internship at First Security Bank in Lexington, Kentucky. After graduation, First Security hired her as a programmer/analyst in the Management Systems Division. Upon relocating to Washington, D.C., she served as a civilian Software Consultant for the Pentagon’s Military Sealift Command in logistics. Karen later joined MCI Communications (currently Verizon) as a Project Manager in billing services and human resource systems.

After leaving D.C. for Ithaca, New York, Karen worked at Cornell University at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER). CISER supported the computational and data needs for the University’s social scientists and economists. While at CISER, she was certified in SAS (Statistical Analysis Software).

Karen’s career took her to Cincinnati, Ohio where she managed Target Marketing Systems for Federated Department Stores (currently Macy’s). Following her time at Federated, she returned to the logistics field at Procter and Gamble, as a Senior IT Consulting Manager for the Health and Beauty Care division.

Karen’s IT career with leading companies in major end markets included the government, retail, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and education. While raising children, she resigned from P&G and started her own businesses. Karen has 2 adult children in college and resides with her husband in Leawood, Kansas. She is active in her community with the Kansas City Young Matrons (KCYM). KCYM has over a 100-­‐year history of philanthropic and charitable endeavors supporting the society. She volunteers at Ronald McDonald House. Karen is a member of the Kansas City UK alumni club.

Lucas Cockerham is the Director of Engineering for Opentext Communications, formerly known as Exstream. Exstream started in 1998 as a Lexington, KY-based start-up founded by Davis Marksbury and Dan Kloiber before being sold to HP in 2010, and eventually being acquired by Opentext in 2017. Opentext Communications is a global leader in Customer Communications Management. Many corporate communications sent from the largest banks, health and auto insurance companies, and utilities are generated using Opentext's Communications software. Lucas joined Exstream as an engineering manager in 2013, briefly left for two years in 2022 to join the software scale-up dbt Labs, and rejoined as the Director in January 2025. He leads a global team of engineers to create and maintain products used by the largest corporations in the world. 

Lucas graduated with an Honors undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Eastern Kentucky University in 2001 and received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky in 2004. He spent the first decade of his career as a quality engineer, software engineer, architect, and eventually manager and Director at ACS/Xerox before joining Exstream. Lucas has extensive experience in relational databases, agile software development, customer management, HR management, release engineering, developer productivity, and neural networks, including large language models. 

Lucas is heavily involved with both EKU and UK, serving on CS advisory boards for both of his alma maters, as well as the EKU Alumni board. He regularly attends events at both universities and actively recruits from central Kentucky universities. He is originally from Lee County in eastern Kentucky. Today, he lives in Richmond, KY, with his wife Jacinda and their dog Kona.

Neal Vittitoe is a Senior Technical Staff Member at Lexmark, a subsidiary of Xerox.  He graduated with a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky, with his graduate work focused on Control Theory.  He subsequently attended Duke University, where he earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, researching the use of artificial intelligence in medical X-ray computer-aided diagnosis applications.  After graduating from Duke, he initially worked in Medical Physics at the University of Michigan Department of Radiology, and then began working at Lexmark in 2000.

Following initial experience as a Lexmark firmware developer, Neal spent the next 12 years in firmware management, where his team was involved in the implementation of over 30 new product color science and imaging technologies.  Subsequent responsibilities included involvement in diverse cross-functional efforts related to new product solutions, corporate strategy assessments, sharing technology with purchased companies, physical unclonable function technology, anti-counterfeiting technology, data science, and corporate intellectual property efforts.  His current role is leading AI innovation and roadmap efforts within the IT organization.

Outside of work, Neal is married with three children and lives in Lexington.  He has served as President of the Kentucky Aquatics youth swim club and on the UK Department of Engineering Technology Industry Advisory Board.