Mack Wingfield

Contact

jmw9z@virginia.edu

Position, company, location, and industry

Director, Funds Control Assurance Division, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC
Industry: Federal government

How has the M.S. in MIT Program helped you create value in your current role or organization?

My agency is currently developing a new system to capture and store data for informed decision-making and validation that was previously delegated to third parties. The MSMIT program provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make meaningful contributions to this process.

What strategies have worked best for balancing coursework with your full-time job and personal life?

I carve out time to work on specific assignments. Additionally, I take public transportation to work, which gives me time to focus on the readings. I also utilize my lunch time to do classwork. Having an understanding spouse is of great help.

How have your classmates’ experiences and backgrounds enhanced your learning?

It has been enormously helpful to hear from IT and data folks about their challenges and how they solve problems. It allows one to gain a better understanding of where concerns originate in the IT space and how to alleviate them and proactively address potential issues.

Which course or module has had the greatest immediate impact on your thinking or work?

I’m currently in Module 1 [Enterprise Architecture], and its impact has been huge. I do not have a background in computer science or IT, so learning about databases, SQL queries, and the larger internet infrastructure has been enormously helpful to me. My team is experiencing challenges navigating data access, including inconsistencies and unclear definitions. I now know what to ask and can approach problems and ask questions in a way that enables IT and data specialists to better understand them.

What made you choose a program like this at this point in your career?

I have become increasingly involved in the system development space over the past couple of years. I needed to know the language of IT and how to translate programmatic requirements into actionable information technology requirements. Additionally, my team is developing a wide array of automated tools to do more with fewer resources. The automations require approval to use, and I need to understand the technical documentation that I’m signing off on. Finally, with AI gaining prominence, having faculty with that knowledge and ability to incorporate it into the coursework is a boon to students.

What has surprised you most about the learning experience so far?

The amount of support from the faculty has been a most pleasant surprise. I had some concerns about the initial coursework, as I hadn’t coded anything since the original HTML in 1996! The faculty makes themselves available for questions one may have about the assignments. They are a great resource to help clear roadblocks you are facing, provide feedback on proposed approaches, and do an initial stress test on your ideas.

Additionally, the career resources have been nothing short of amazing. I had a couple of sessions with career staff to revise my resume and develop a strategy for where I should focus my career prospects if I needed to start looking for a job.

Finally, being surrounded by a classroom of incredibly smart and curious students, as well as knowledgeable and engaged faculty, makes for the best learning experience imaginable. The MSMIT team does a great job of cultivating both the student body and faculty for a superior academic experience.