Dr. David Eve

I came to teaching mid-career. Before MCLA, I ran IT and MIS at a multi-location nonprofit with offices throughout southern New England. I handled strategy, selection, deployment, and maintenance. I built multiple MIS systems from the ground up. I also taught as an adjunct at Springfield Technical Community College, where I first started bringing my experience into the classroom.

My career evolved alongside the technology itself. Internet access started with POTS lines and shotgun modems. Inter-office connectivity ran through frame relays, T1s, and DSL, tying together a dozen-plus offices in Springfield, Holyoke, Boston, Southbridge, Westfield, Fitchburg, Pittsfield, Greenfield, Manchester, Bridgeport, Poughkeepsie, Trumbull, and others. Networks migrated from IPX/SPX to TCP/IP as the internet took off.

There were a lot of systems back there. DEC Alpha with dumb terminals, Novell, Windows, and more, all running side by side long before anything was cloud. Multiple computer labs ran on top of all of it. Keeping the whole thing secure was its own ongoing job.

While they were all part of the same nonprofit, each location had its own personality, with its own processes, procedures, and culture. I learned early on that the technology was only half the work. The other half was aligning solutions with organizational culture, change management and all that.

Over time I built and oversaw a team of three, and at each office we developed local expertise together. In retrospect, much of that was teaching. Years in this kind of work also build a professional network where everyone helps everyone on their projects. Credit was always shared. Accountability was mine.

Underneath all of this was a database fascination, going back to an early version of rBase. The challenge is modeling reality with a database, knowing the map is never the territory. Business information systems are where human procedures and habits meet the stored procedures and structure of the database. That intersection is what I find most interesting. The IT side? Just a way to keep feeding the fascination. (Plus self-directed work teams, data-driven decisions, the whole bag.)

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My applied research is a continuation of that hands-on work, focused on systems-integration for nonprofit organizations. The work typically involves Windows-based environments, PostgreSQL databases, and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, stitched together to support organizations that need real production systems on limited budgets. I treat each engagement as continuous process improvement, not big rewrites but the steady, sustainable upgrades that resource-constrained organizations can actually absorb and maintain. Each project teaches me what works, what doesn't, and why under real production constraints.

That practice flows directly back into the classroom. It keeps the course material current and gives students a concrete sense of the trade-offs real organizations face. It also opens up internships and independent studies grounded in active client work.

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AI is here. I see it as a tool, nothing more. I use it for targeted development, testing, and troubleshooting. I don't use it where the work is the thinking, and I ask my students to draw the same line. I've developed a new course, Confidently Uncertain, that gives students space to test where AI works, where it doesn't, and how to tell. Prompt development is part of the work.

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My teaching includes:

• Database: SQL and NoSQL
• Python
• C++
• Systems Analysis and Design*
• Business Information Systems*
• Managing Information in Complex Organizations*
• Cybersecurity Best Practices
• Outdoor Leadership Education*

*While I enjoy teaching all of my courses, these are my favorites.

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I'm a second-generation tree farmer. The business is a labor of love centered on stewardship and sustainable forestry. The same stewardship ethic shapes my Outdoor Leadership Education teaching and my role as faculty advisor for the Outdoors Club. When I'm not working, I'm cycling, hiking, or paddling. The Berkshires are equal parts a place to work and a place to play, and I expect students to take advantage of both.

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