Kevin Joyce
Graduate student in supply chain management, Kevin Joyce has had plenty of opportunities to apply classroom learning to challenges he faces at work.
Kevin Joyce was already a star on the job before he enrolled at Towson University.
Working as a logistics management specialist at Aberdeen Proving Ground, the New Jersey native gained recognition in 2012 for saving the U.S. Army millions of dollars by designing new procedures for resetting and cleaning laptops upon their return from overseas deployments. Shifting accountability from external contractors to the soldiers using the equipment resulted in a process that is more efficient and cost effective.
But that success didn’t stop Joyce from diving straight into Towson’s graduate program in supply-chain management.
“I believe it’s important to expand your current horizons to continue to grow professionally,” says Joyce, who has completed his master’s program.
Actually, Joyce wishes he had started coursework at Towson before he took on the Army’s laptop troubles.
“If I had to do that project over again, it would probably have taken me a lot less time using the tools I learned in my business process management class,” he says.
Since graduating, though, Joyce (now a systems acquisitions manager) has had plenty of opportunities to apply classroom learning to challenges he faces at work. Like when he uses analytic tools from his logistics and distributions course to develop cost estimates.
“It really makes you look at problems in a different way and think about them more critically.”
In the final analysis, concludes the logistician, who can’t help turning that critical lens back on his own life and choices, “Towson provided a tremendous actual value.”