Currently teaching and developing methodology to enhance the online user experiences in courses such as Project Management and Information and Organizations at Portland State University. Additionally Mahar Sturdevant taught project management at the Rady School of Business, University of California, San Diego as well as at Penn State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology. In addition to her fifteen years of academic work at Penn State, Mahar Sturdevant developed and deployed Project Management Seminars for their Executive Education Division to lead corporations. Mahar Sturdevant worked thirty years for IBM in their laboratory, manufacturing, statistical modeling research and 3-D graphic corporate office. As an SAP Educational Corporate Consultant, she developed and
deployed SAP education in Logistics to IBM’s Production Procurement Division worldwide. Mahar Sturdevant also consulted for IBM in the area of project management, designing and educating their management in this area. One of her last assignments with IBM was consulting for the e-business applications, such as web-requisitioning for catalog
buying to feed SAP, e-Business training, and optimizing contractors’ bids and contracts.
Mahar Sturdevant was the Penn State IST’s recipient of the George J. McMurtry 2015 Award in recognition of her Excellence in Teaching and Learning Faculty that recognizes faculty who provide an exceptional learning environment for undergraduates through their innovation teaching commitment to student learning and creative interface with students.
Previously, as the Assistant Director of Business & Career Solutions, Mahar Sturdevant was responsible for providing strategic leadership and business planning, as well as representing IST during client visits. She re-engineered many processes to improve student placement resulting in IST having one of the highest placement rates at the University.
Currently she continues to develop partnerships with business, government, and other related educational institutions. These partnerships involve brokering faculty expertise and developing sponsored student internships which optimize career placements with corporations.
Mahar Sturdevant served on the Advisory Board for the I-Tech 99 Corridor Alliance, encouraging corporations to move into this location. She was awarded over $330,000 in grants from Ben Franklin, Team PA, and various chambers to develop PA FutureConnect, which matched IST students with tech companies in local research parks throughout Pennsylvania. Currently she was the project manager for Department of Defense DTRA multi-million-dollar projects: Student Research Associate Program and the Post PhD Program which create research partnerships among various universities through the nation. Related News Releases Penn State’s IST, Business Groups Team to Launch New ‘PA FutureConnect’ Program In Pennsylvania, Lockheed Martin Funds Project by IST Faculty Verizon Foundation Grant Backs Education, Leadership Initiatives by Penn State’s IST Police Use Technology to Boost Efficiency and Safety.
Research and Teaching
Mahar Sturdevant was a Professor of Practice at the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). Previously she delivered computer courses for IBM in the areas of project management, programming languages and SAP Logistics. While at IBM, she focused in the technology areas of their laboratory developing statistical models to forecast logic and mechanical problems and in the corporate headquarters as a design engineer of graphic programs such as CADAM, CATIA, CAEDS. Additionally, she was responsible for
designing tutorials and deploying SAP Logistics worldwide throughout IBM’s Production Procurement Division.
At Penn State University, Mahar Sturdevant was responsible for designing and implementing the first IST project management course with Lockheed Martin entailing student research projects in Criminal Justice Information Systems. She taughty IST 302: Project Management in Information Systems involving companies such as IBM, PwC, KPMG, BAE, JnJ. Deloitte. Additionally, she developed IST 390: Professional
Development - Theory and Practice, which helps students jump-start their professional careers. Under the Executive Education for Penn State University, Mahar Sturdevant developed and deployed customized Project Management training for various corporations such as Saint Gobain (Research division in Boston), Italcementi (Italy & West Virginia), Capital One (Maryland).