Charting the Future: Kevin Gallo
We do a lot of things at Northwest! We certainly value our historic programs highly, but we are placing special new emphasis on four areas, which you have seen in the videos I’ve sent you. One of our four focuses is technology. You’ve probably heard me talk about my sense that God has called us to become a great Christian university at the intersection of Technology Street, Liberal Arts Avenue, and Spiritual Way. Only a “college with the soul of a church” can inhabit such a space.
Technology Street, I often say, runs right alongside our campus. Kirkland calls it 108th Avenue, but Google calls it home. Our location gives us incredible advantages, and one of them is the proximity of amazing Christians who are currently working at the highest levels of the technology business. They are currently serving as professors in our computer science and other technology programs, and you’ve heard from a few of them in these notes from me. But one of them I have known ever since I came to Kirkland in 2007. We went to church together for many years, and our daughters were close friends back in their youth group days. From such close association, I can tell you that Kevin Gallo and his wife, Jessie, are two of the finest and most church-engaged Christians I have met.
Kevin is also a top technologist. After graduating from Pittsburg’s prestigious Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in computer science, he spent 30 years at Microsoft as a software developer changing the world by creating many of the technologies and products that shape all of our lives on an hourly basis. Recently, he stepped out from his position as corporate vice president for the Microsoft development platform to devote himself more to his lifelong calling to work with young adults and teens. As he went out the door, he announced that he might “even consider getting directly involved in education and teaching.” Knowing he was making a change, I made sure he got a call from ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ.
I invite you to watch this video and hear his testimony. Ask yourself who you want to see teaching and discipling the next generation of technology leaders. And based on the answer you come to, send every budding technologist you know to the privileged intersection that ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ uniquely inhabits.