After 15 years at the helm of Northern Kentucky University’s College of Informatics (COI), Dean Kevin Kirby is preparing to return to his roots. Provost Diana McGill announced today that Kirby will step down from his deanship at the end of June to rejoin the faculty, marking the end of a transformative era that spanned three-quarters of the college’s history.
In McGill’s email, she reflected on her personal friendship with Dr. Kirby over their years of working together.
“Kevin joined NKU the year after I joined; we have worked together on projects and have been friends and teammates over these many years. When I was offered the dean’s position in the College of Arts and Sciences, I was thrilled that Kevin was my official mentor, helping me learn the many difficult nuances of deanship.” McGill wrote.
For Kirby, the transition is a full-circle moment. He served as the chair of the Department of Computer Science before becoming the college’s second-ever dean in 2011. Now, as the COI prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Kirby leaves behind a legacy defined by the work he has done and relationships he’s built over his time in COI.
“It’s all about relationships,” Kirby said. “We want a very close culture of trust and high morale within our own faculty and staff. We want students to feel at home at NKU.”
COI teaches topics ranging from cybersecurity, journalism and broadcasting, with artificial
Intelligence literacy soon to join the mix.
The dean represents the school to various parties, whether they be fellow faculty members, potential students interested in enrolling or outside sponsors and regional figures of importance.
Prior to Kirby being employed at NKU, he was a student at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, graduating with a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1988, studying various computer-related topics, such as algorithms, more than 40 years ago.
His time with the university dates back to the 1990s, serving in many different roles around the school, from a faculty member to directing the school’s computer science program, before heading the College of Informatics’ Computer Science Department, and finally ending up as dean of the school.
“15 years ago, I was chair of the Computer Science Department here in the College of Informatics, and the dean we had back then was moving on,” Kirby explained. “Someone said, ‘Hey Kevin, we need an interim dean, … can you do it?’ I reluctantly said yes.”
Kirby’s time as the interim dean inspired him to apply for and take up the position on a
permanent basis.
He staked his claim to the throne after a national search, becoming the university’s 2nd
official dean of the school, succeeding Douglas Perry.
Kirby takes pride in NKU having a school dedicated to the study of informatics, which is defined in part as “the science of how to use data, information and knowledge” to aid people’s lives.”
“Not too many universities have a College of Informatics. … They are rare,” Kirby said. “It’s where tech meets media, … and that’s such a cool thing. I just love the interdisciplinary work.”
Leading one of the seven schools that make up NKU’s academics, Kirby’s day is often busy, involving plenty of duties that he carries out on a day-to-day basis.
One of the tasks Kirby handles is reading the evaluations sent by COI students on the classes they’ve taken over the previous semester.
“Sometimes students wonder whether people really read teaching evaluations. I just got done reading their teacher evaluations written by a student,” Kirby said.
His day doesn’t just involve duties he can do from the comfort of his office, he also has to represent the school at events around the region, with many important eyes and ears in attendance.
“I am going out to an event in Blue Ash, [Ohio]. The president of a large group of companies is having a 20th anniversary celebration, a former governor will be there, and I want to represent the College of Informatics there,” Kirby noted.
The COI has plenty of connections with companies that do business in the region, such as the E.W. Scripps Company, Duke Energy, and others. Kirby says maintaining these types of partnerships is essential.
“We need those external relationships. These are companies that hire our students. These are companies that throw project work our way,” he said. “These are companies that invest in us with scholarships that we can give to our students and other programs.”
Part of the itinerary for Kirby’s day is meetings, one of which recently involved discussing a new Artificial Intelligence literacy class, which will be offered to NKU students starting in the fall semester. He emphasized the importance of AI in today’s world.
“You cannot escape people talking about AI and worrying about AI. … We’re gonna have students graduate into a very top job market,” Kirby said. “If we can get them, no matter what their major, … a little bit of an AI edge, that would be awesome.”
A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that approximately half of all U.S. adults are “more concerned than excited” about AI’s increased presence in many people’s day-to-day lives.
Despite the data and worries on what the future has in store for individuals in an AI-driven landscape, staying educated on AI topics is crucial to a student’s success in the real world, according to Kirby.
“They can be AI skeptics, they can be AI haters. As long as they’re informed and know what they’re talking about, … that’s so important to be responsible AI people, that’s the best thing we can have,” he said.
Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor Dr. Brandi Neal will be debuting the university’s first ever “AI literacy” course and has nothing but praise for the long-tenured dean.
“Dean Kirby is really good at creating this culture that promotes innovation,” she said. “Not only does he promote it, he expects innovation.”
Neal believes Kirby’s wealth of experience can aid her in making choices, such as the decision to establish AI literacy courses, a topic which may affect students going forward, not just in academics, but in the workforce as well.
“Kirby’s been around NKU for a while, and he can speak to a lot of the decisions that were made at NKU. … Having that perspective and having that knowledge has been really helpful in making decisions that impact our students going forward,” Neal said.
John Gibson is a teaching professor in the College of Informatics’ Electronic Media and Broadcasting department; he sees Kirby as “the admiral of the college” and has worked closely with him to ensure the growth of the school.
From a faculty member’s perspective, he praised Kirby for “helping us look for opportunities where we can collaborate, but also encouraging us when we find opportunities to collaborate with others.”
Gibson likens a university environment to that of an ecosystem.
“Every person at a university, no matter what the role, is important to the success of the university,” he said. “We would not be here if we didn’t have students, we would not be here if we didn’t have faculty. … It’s important for students to understand kind of how that works.”
It’s not all serious talk when it comes to making sure the College of Informatics is running in its best shape possible, Gibson took time to appreciate what makes the dean a unique human being through highlighting his style of banter.
“Dean Kirby has a very delightful, weird sense of humor that tends to match my own in many ways. Not every joke lands, and some jokes will land in different ways, but it’s fun.” Gibson said.
As a huge Star Wars fan, Gibson described the dean as a “weird mishmash of characters” in George Lucas’ cinema-verse, comparing him to Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and C-3PO, although he admitted the dean prefers the Star Trek series.
Gibson often goes to the dean seeking financial backing for projects such as the PBS show OutSCIder Classroom. Often, the dean shows his full support for such creative endeavors, unless financial constraints get in the way.
Gibson said, “It’s really good to have somebody who encourages you to test your creativity because they know that it’s going to be beneficial to the students ultimately.”
Kirby has served in his position as the college’s dean since 2011. A lot has changed in the world of technology and global events since then.
“I would like it when anyone thinks of NKU, they think ‘they do something called informatics, and that’s kind of awesome,’” Kirby concluded.