Mark Kensington

IT Leader and Assistant Professor | Bridging Government, Industry, and Academia

Profile

My career spans IT leadership and academia, two domains that reinforce each other and strengthen my work as a problem solver. The systems thinking and research discipline developed in academic environments sharpen how I diagnose unfamiliar and complex organizational and technical problems. The experience leading cross-agency IT initiatives grounds that thinking in operational reality.

As a problem solver, I approach unfamiliar and complex problems systematically, break them down into measurable components, and drive solutions by both coordinating the work of others and contributing directly through my IT expertise and academic background.

Leading work across security, data center, network, firewall, and server teams while navigating compliance requirements demands command of technical detail, organizational coordination, and regulatory precision. An IRS Safeguards audit compliance rate that improved from 70% to 96% was achieved by making work visible, assignable, and trackable at every level across participating teams.

I bring management and data science certifications, interdisciplinary research experience, and leadership across state government, private industry, and academia. That foundation grows deliberately, through continuous learning in emerging domains, producing a combination that travels across disciplines and applies wherever complex problems need to be solved.

Please note:
Credentials, job titles, and organizations use blue font and are linked to their respective websites.

Education and Select Certifications

PhD

Computer Science (4.0 GPA, October 2010)

MS

Computer Engineering (3.8 GPA, June 2005)

BS

Electrical Engineering (3.8 GPA, June 2005)

AI Practitioner

AWS Certified AI Practitioner, AWS

GAIL

Google Cloud Certified Generative AI Leader, Google

Evidence Building

Executive Certificate in Data Literacy and Evidence Building, New York University, University of Maryland, Accenture

Data Science

Data Scientist: Analytics Specialist Career Path, Codecademy

ITIL 4

Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management, AXELOS, PeopleCert

PMP

Project Management Professional, Project Management Institute (PMI)

Change Management

Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner, PROSCI

CMQ/OE

Certified Manager for Quality – Organizational Excellence, American Society for Quality (ASQ)

Professional Experience

IT Program Manager

March 2020 – Present

Cross-team and cross-agency collaboration to coordinate project work performed by many subject matter experts across data science, IT systems, security, and compliance. Management certifications (PMP, Quality Management, Change Management, ITIL) applied daily across a broad portfolio spanning analytics, platform implementation, and regulatory compliance.

Working with software inventory data from two sources: a manual template completed by state departments (11,000 software titles, 62 attributes each) and CrowdStrike agent data (267,000 application records, 50 attributes each), supporting security posture improvement, license consolidation, cost visibility, and identification of unused and wasted resources.
Developing and troubleshooting ETL pipelines and data integration jobs using IBM Cloud Pak for Data / DataStage, spanning multiple input/output sources and processing tools.
ServiceNow implementation across 15 executive-level agencies: completed and deployed platform modules for incident management, service requests, and purchase justifications, now in active use with ongoing post-implementation improvements.
Configuring the Integrated Risk Management module to operationalize NIST moderate compliance, including approval, notification, and escalation workflows for audit-related processes.
Working with ServiceNow implementation contractor to embed the state’s data and system security classification policy into the platform, designing a framework that maps classification attributes onto data, devices, databases, applications, and services, covering regulatory types (CMS, CJIS, FERPA, IRS, SSA, PCI) and sensitivity tags (Public, Internal, Confidential, Restricted including Health/Life/Safety, Legal/Law Enforcement, and SCADA).
Investigating how IRS, NIST, SSA, and CJIS-required security controls apply to diverse systems and collaborating with system administrators across security, data center, network, firewall, and server teams to implement those controls.
Developed and deployed the agency’s disaster recovery plan, providing system administrators with a framework to document current hardware and software configurations.

IT Governance & Compliance Manager

February 2017 – March 2020

Led the Quality Department, managing staff and overseeing IT governance documentation including policies, standards, and processes, while managing cross-functional teams and working with federal, state, and private sector entities on major technology and compliance projects.

Improved the number of up-to-date governance documents by 433% and reduced time for documentation and auditing by approximately 50%.
Managed implementation of a new Identity and Access Management (IAM/SSO) solution for 47,000 users, achieving cost savings of 75%.
Improved IT security compliance rate for the IRS Safeguards audit from 70% to 96% through new processes for effective communications, work assignments, and tracking of action items.
Led development of the agency strategic plan, consisting of 5 goals, 12 strategies, and 56 initiatives, using prioritization and decision-making techniques, achieving complete alignment with the governor’s state strategic plan.
Managed additional projects including SSA compliance, CJIS IT security audit, FTI and CJIS trainings, Data Center Optimization, Office 365, and ITSM system including change management and ITIL 4 service management.
Served as senior officer in the Arkansas chapter of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and senior Baldrige examiner with the Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence.

IT & Business Intelligence Manager

July 2015 – October 2016

CSQT (Business closed in 2020), Little Rock, AR

Managed IT and business intelligence functions for a transportation company, applying data analytics to fleet management and operational performance.

Analyzed fleet Engine Control Module (ECM) data to identify operational inefficiencies, resulting in measurable improvements: +11% revenue per mile, -30% idle time, +12% fuel efficiency, and -17% over-the-road maintenance cost.
Recipient of the 2016 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay Excellence Award for leadership, placing in the nationwide top 1.5%.
Developed and presented the organization’s profile, values, and services.

IT Services Consultant

May 2013 – July 2014

Independent Contractor, Little Rock, AR

Delivered network design, build, maintenance, and repair of information systems for clients, including hardware and software support and data recovery.

Academic Experience

Department Chair, Assistant Professor

July 2014 – June 2015

Led budget, staffing, scheduling, and recruitment for the Computer Information Systems (CIS) department. Chaired the CIS Business and Industry Advisory Committee. Using industry research and employer input, identified in-demand skills and developed a new “Applied Computing” department replacing the outdated CIS department. Taught the following courses with labs: