Member Name: Danny A. Hurd
LinkedIn Profile Address: www.linkedin.com/pub/danny-hurd/34/198/244/
Member State/Country of Residence: Arizona/USA
NCU Degree: Achieved (earned) a Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) with Specialization in Management Information Systems
Why did you choose NCU? I chose NCU because it offered the flexibility I needed to continue working, which involved extensive traveling at the time. NCU also received Higher Learning Commission accreditation around the same time, which was essential. Basically with NCU I had flexibility, national accreditation, and convenient class schedules. I remember being on a trip to Rome, Italy, and actually doing an assignment for Phenomenological Qualitative Research. In today’s world, students must be self-motivated to achieve their goals, and NCU helps with that process.
When did you join DMD? I believe I joined in April 2010.
What motivated you to join DMD? The standards for joining DMD were/are quite high at NCU. I know I worked very hard on my job, in my education, and for my family. With my wife Jan’s help, things are even better than when I first graduated. Joining DMD seemed like a nice way to top off almost five years of hard work in the doctoral program. In fact, I think I needed a 3.9 GPA and in the top 20% of my class. Not sure how they figured the top 20% out, but maybe it is typically those with 3.9 GPAs or higher that are in the top 20%. The bottom line is I am proud of what I achieved, and DMD recognizes professionals who strive for excellence. Joining DMD was my honor, and I give thanks to God!
What has been the biggest benefit to you through the membership? In June 2013 I received a Presenting Author Excellence award from DMD. This was quite an honor for me personally and professionally. Right before I took a deferred retirement from civil service, I prepared a proposal and methodology for operationally testing Satellite Communications (SATCOM) systems using a multi-pronged approach. Anyway, I thought we could use experimental design, nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis (KW), and qualitative open-ended questions to answer critical operational issues, measures of effectiveness and suitability, etc. Certainly this is not the only way to test SATCOM (or other) systems, but since we had received training on experimental design at the time, I wanted to try to incorporate that design with KW to see if this type of approach would lead to objective truth (what testers strive for) to make correct fielding decisions. Anyway, I briefed the idea at the Operations Analyst (OA) forum a few months before leaving civil service. The OA forum has outstanding professionals, many of which are “statistical geniuses.” Needless to say I was intimidated, but they were very encouraging and gave me some nice comments. Subsequently, the DMD folks asked for members who presented in the past year, as I had, and I decided to apply using the briefing that I presented. They must have liked it because they gave me an award! Recently, I was encouraged to write a letter of interest for one of the director positions at the Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE). My experience with DMD helped me to answer at least one of the questions.
Have you ever had an active role in DMD? Not formally. I did provide commentary recently to our local DMD chapter to help clarify future processes.
If you were talking to someone about joining DMD, what would you tell them? I would ask them why they were thinking of joining. If joining an organization where hard work, academic honor, helping others, friendly collaboration/engagement, mentoring, and staying up on the latest business issues/developments are important, and they qualify in a business program, I would encourage them to join.
Bio: I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and joined the US Army when I was 18. My military career took to me to Georgia, Korea, Turkey, Kuwait, England, Italy, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, and other places. After an interesting career where I served in various roles for communications, electronics, and maintenance, I retired early as a Chief Warrant Officer in 1994 at the age of 35. Afterward, I served in various roles, mainly as a defense contractor and finished my Master of Counseling (MC) with the University of Phoenix in 1997. In 2001 I was hired to test SATCOM and IT systems for the Department of Defense at the Joint Interoperability Test Command. After three (plus) years I completed my Master of Science in Information Systems Engineering (MSISE) with Western International University, while working full time. With the exception of the last course, all classes were taken in the classroom. In 2005 I still had a desire to continue my education. NCU received national accreditation and they offered the program I was interested in, so I signed up. Again, working full-time, traveling, and pursuing the doctorate was difficult, but this would have been IMPOSSIBLE in a traditional brick and mortar situation. NCU made it possible for me to get my doctorate. Currently I work for Cochise Community College at Douglas Prison as a Computer Information Systems Instructor. As I pursued my education in various fields, I sometimes wondered how I could best use my degrees and experiences. Well, it turns out that this is a good place to put all this education to use, since a day hardly goes by where I am not helping inmates learn in this unique environment. Now I can spend more time with family, walking, hiking, playing Wii, and snorkeling (when I get the chance). To anyone who asks me for advice, I would say see Proverbs 3: 5, 6 and 11:24. Want to know what this means? You have to look it up! J