Meet Corey Chevraux

Corey Chevraux works as an IT supervisor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport and Recreation. Having worked at the university for over twenty years, he’s seen and been involved in a gamut of IT change, from the initial adoption of firewalls, to running Zoom meetings for faculty.

  • 21 August 2020

Earlier this year, the Office of the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Information Services & Technology) received a record-breaking number of nominations for the 2020 IT Awards. We are excited to recognize the individuals who were nominated and the important contributions they make everyday at the University of Alberta.

Corey Chevraux works as an IT supervisor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport and Recreation. Having worked at the university for over twenty years, he’s seen and been involved in a gamut of IT change, from the initial adoption of firewalls, to running Zoom meetings for faculty.

We spoke with Corey to learn more about his role and what motivates him.

What does a day-in-the-life look like in your position? 

My day-to-day has changed immensely over time but surprisingly enough it’s all over the map. Some days I’ll be working on a server, another day I’ll be working on a network or developing an app for someone, another day I’ll be meeting with my staff, another day I’ll be looking at my budgets, and another day I’ll be writing policy. It all depends on what is needed at the moment. 

What’s one thing you’re working on now, and why is it important?

We’re in the trenches right now making sure Windows is up-to-date. We’re pretty much 95% of the way done; our servers and workstations are all done. It’s more of the labs now that we’re working on and I’m glad it’s almost done.

Another project I’ve been working on is e-meetings and that work is finally complete. I’m very proud of that. At the beginning of the pandemic our workday was focused on changing everyone to remote work and then I’d go home and work on the e-meetings project in the evenings. Being able to juggle all of that was significant and it was a lot of long hours.

What have you worked on since joining the university that you are most proud of?

When I was in Medicine I helped them develop their first online annual report and back in the day it was a huge accomplishment. We moved everybody from using an app to an online system. We had to meet with stakeholders and set up whole groups for testing to help build and bring it to life. When I moved to Kinesiology, Sport and Recreation they asked for the same thing. The project evolved from having a team managing it to me managing it by myself, but I had learned from what we had done in Medicine to inform that work.

I implemented firewalls fairly earlier on in my career. No one wanted firewalls at first because they were worried it would interfere with their work on a daily basis. When we were able to put them into place we were able to show people firewalls were there to protect them and not prevent them from doing work. It’s interesting to see over the twenty years how campus has evolved. It’s just the same as at one time we didn’t have an exchange server, but we evolved to having them and it gave us all these capabilities.

Why did you pursue a career in IT?

I was taking a year off of school, working at my parents farm, riding on a swather around and around in a circle in a field thinking there was something more interesting I could do with my life. 

I’m a NAIT grad in Computer Engineering Technology with a speciality in network technology. My background is mostly in networking technologies but I’ve always loved programming because I like logic puzzles. I’ve enjoyed them forever and enjoy figuring things out — I think that’s a farmers' trait.

If you could snap your fingers and become an expert in something, what would it be? 

Every year I try my best to find something new and that’s my thing for the year. I have my diving license and I have my motorcycle license. I’ve done triathlons and half marathons. Whenever I see something that I want to learn, I try to learn it. The goal this year was to do my first half Ironman but that will be pushed back a year.

If you could only have three apps on your smartphone, which would you pick? 

  • My music app
  • Foreflight - so I don’t get lost while flying! The app uses your GPS while you’re flying and puts you on a map so you can see where you are.
  • Instagram @cchevraux

Anything else you'd like to share?

There’s always more to learn. There’s so much knowledge out there — I’ll never know it all, but I’ll pursue it!

My biggest accomplishment outside of the university is my pilot’s license. My family is a family of pilots. My brother and father have their licenses and we share two planes as a family.

 

Corey Chevraux was nominated for an IT Award earlier this year for support provided to University Governance in developing and implementing the eMeetClicker system. Working within significant time constraints, and at the height of the transition to working remotely, Corey developed the eMeetClicker system with the goals to support and streamline workflows, meet accessibility requirements, and support confidential voting.