Dr. Jan Sturdevant

Biography

Jan Sturdevant is a senior lecturer emerita at Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, with an extensive background in industry and academia. Over a thirty-year career at IBM, she primarily focused on manufacturing, statistical modeling research, and 3-D graphics within corporate environments. As an SAP educational corporate consultant, she developed and deployed SAP education logistics for IBM's Production Procurement Division on a global scale. Sturdevant also consulted on various project management initiatives, providing training and education for e-business applications and optimizing workflows for bid contracts. She served as the Assistant Director of Business Career Solutions at Penn State, where she provided strategic leadership and enhanced student placement processes, achieving the highest placement rates within the university. Additionally, Sturdevant has been active in developing partnerships between business, government, and educational institutions to broker expertise and optimize career placements for students. She has served on the Advisory Board for the I-Tech 99 Corridor Alliance, promoting corporate relocation to Pennsylvania, and has been awarded significant grants for initiatives aimed at fostering connections between IST students and local tech companies. Currently, she is managing multi-million-dollar projects for the Department of Defense, focusing on creating research partnerships across universities nationwide.

Research Interests