Terry Everhart, Data Center Operations Supervisor for Campus Partners, is a man on a mission—a mission to protect your data from intruders and criminals, while ensuring our customers and borrowers have convenient access to their records. Terry may not be a super hero, but he is putting his heart and soul into these efforts.

All of us are concerned with data security today, especially because security breaches on 29 college campuses have been reported to the FBI since January. Terry, however, is extremely passionate about the subject. “I recently received a letter from the VA telling me that I was one of the 26 million veterans whose personal records and social security numbers were on the laptop that was stolen from the home of a VA employee. What were they thinking to allow anyone to take that information out of the office? I never want Campus Partners to have to send a letter like that to our customers and their borrowers,” Terry stated emphatically.

Terry stressed that our policies are much more stringent than what is required by federal law and that we meet stricter standard mandated by the states. “The nature of our business requires that we have higher standards than what is required by law. Customers may not realize this, but data is generally safer on a system like ours with an external server behind a firewall than on a web site or software application on a desktop or laptop computer,” Terry continued. He also pointed out that data on our mainframe cannot be accessed from the internet and that our Web sites do not store data, but rather pull data from System III.
You can tell how passionate Terry is by the way he takes his responsibilities seriously, which is exactly what you want from a person in that position. He works closely with his manager, John Elliott, Director of IT Infrastructure to implement the policies our company has established.

Protecting data is just one part of Terry’s job. He is also responsible for the local and wide-area network infrastructure that supports our network, the servers that house our data, our FTP server and file exchange functions, desktop support for our employees, monthly report printing, and some mainframe jobs. He has a staff of three to help in carrying out these responsibilities, and they all share Terry’s dedication.

Terry has been with our company for four years, and was promoted to supervisor two years ago. Before his promotion, Terry proved himself by being on call 24/7 for 14 months without complaint. Terry previously worked almost 20 years at a major apparel manufacturer, where he held similar positions. Before that, Terry served in the Air Force. He holds an Associate’s degree and has attended Winston-Salem State University.

Terry likes working for a company that is our size because he knows he can make a difference every day. “ In my previous job, I couldn’t see if I was making an impact, but I know I am here,” Terry remarked. More importantly, we can tell that he is making an impact.

Away from the office, Terry is married and has two sons, ages 5 and 26. He stays busy with both his sons and recently was in the unique position of being the father of the groom and the father of the ring bearer at the same time. As this article goes to press, Terry is in the process of getting ready for the big event. He rented a tuxedo for himself and his younger son, making sure that he “bought the insurance” since a five-year old wearing a tuxedo and wedding cake don’t really mix. Just like at the office, Terry is not going to take any chances. He does not want to have to buy a size six tuxedo any more than he is willing to risk a security breach at work.