The School of IT is proud to recognize our alumni who were honored for their professional achievements and community contributions during 2021.
CAST Academy of Achievement
Induction into the College of Applied Science and Technology (CAST) Academy of Achievement is an honor bestowed on graduates of the College of Applied Science and Technology who, through their life work, serve as an inspiration to others to pursue similar career paths.
Jolanta Pomiotlo (IS ’01) helps organizations manage their strategic business and technology initiatives toward successful completion. Pomiotlo has successfully directed enterprise system implementations and the development of custom applications throughout various project life cycle stages. She has focused her professional career on assisting companies to leverage technology to meet their ever-changing business demands.
Throughout her career in technology, Pomiotlo has had the opportunity to work at many exciting companies including Cardinal Health, Kaplan Inc., Groupon, and Abbott. She received her Bachelor of Science with Honors in applied computer science from Illinois State University and her MBA from Northern Illinois University (NIU). Pomiotlo continues to embrace professional development opportunities by being an active member of the NIU Executive Club and by attending training seminars on leadership, business process improvement, and project management. Pomiotlo keeps abreast of the latest innovations in the technology field and closely follows recent market trends in the business community.
CAST Hall of Fame
Induction into the Hall of Fame is an honor bestowed on graduates and friends of the College of Applied Science and Technology. The CAST Hall of Fame profiles the achievements of prominent graduates and friends to provide a source of inspiration for students, alumni, faculty, and staff of the college and the academic community of Illinois State University.
Jason Potts (ACS ’99) received his undergraduate degree in applied computer science with a focus on telecommunications management. He leveraged his degree to serve as an IT consultant for the Illinois State Police and several corporate accounts. He joined State Farm Insurance Companies in 2000 as a project manager in the Systems Department and has led projects across many business areas.
He has served in a variety of leadership positions at State Farm across multiple departments including Systems, Research and Development, Underwriting, and Agency. His experience has resulted in extensive enterprise perspective and cross-departmental understanding.
Potts was promoted to director in 2004 and became an executive in Enterprise Technology in 2013. He has had oversight of Digital, Agency, Marketing, and Customer Care Center technologies. In his current State Farm assignment, he is responsible for enterprise data enablement. He earned the Chartered Financial Consultant designation in 2017.
He serves on numerous committees at his local church and enjoys volunteering within the Morton School District. He has been a member of the Occupational Development Center Board of Directors in Bloomington-Normal, and has a passion for helping the underserved.
Potts and his wife, Nicole, have three children: Caroline, 17; Charlotte, 14; and Henry 12. The family loves traveling and has almost reached the goal of visiting all 50 states. Potts also enjoys woodworking, hiking, mountain biking, and spending time with friends and family.
Homecoming Alumni Day Honoree
The annual Alumni Day tradition recognizes selected alumni and their accomplishments and celebrates the Redbird pride in each college, unit, and the overall campus community.
Karen Duckett is currently the director of personal and home loans application development at Discover Financial Services. She started as a technical project manager and rapidly assumed responsibility for leading enterprise-wide projects and programs such as Discover Miles, identity theft protection products, multiple platform refreshes, cloud native analytical models, and PayPal’s P2P functionality. Duckett has always been interested in improving development lifecycle and brings Agile and Lean concepts into her work every day. She lives in Lake Forest with her husband, Andrew ’06, daughter, two dogs and a cat. She enjoys home improvement projects and biking in her free time.
