Alan Burns, PhD

Professional Summary

Alan Burns is a clinical professor and a technology-empowered, transformational executive with more than 35 years of technical and leadership experience in a variety of industries including insurance, higher education, and manufacturing. His most recent corporate position was as the chief information officer at NSS Life, an insurance carrier in Pennsylvania. Throughout his academic career he has served in several positions including full-time faculty, department chair, associate dean and dean. 

Burns has a unique combination of educational degrees including a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, an MBA and PhD from Kent State University and a Juris Doctor (JD) from DePaul University’s College of Law. He recently earned his CISSP certificate in October 2023. Alan stays current with IT trends around digital transformation, cybersecurity, governance, workflow automation, customer experience (CX), fraud detection, hybrid workplaces, business analytics and data visualization. He has a particular passion for spreadsheets and dashboard tools such as Microsoft’s Power BI. 

Burns has a breadth and depth of education complemented by practical work experience at all organizational levels. This enables him to see digital transformation through several different lenses.

Education

• 2010 – JD, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
• 2004 – PhD, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
• 1996 – MBA, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
• 1987 – BS in Mechanical Engineering, General Motors Institute, Flint, Michigan

Courses

• ISEC 5305 – Fundamentals of Information Security
• ISEC 5310 – Cybersecurity Human Factors
• MIS 3320 – Systems Analysis and Design  
• MIS 5335 – Information Systems Analysis and Design

Research Interests

• IT Governance and Strategy
• Data Visualization
• Digital Transformation
• Knowledge Management

Selected Publications

• Julia Underwood, Robert H. Roller and Alan T. Burns (2022).  Fury and Honor in the Palace: Faith Integration in Organizational Behavior Using the Book of Esther, Christian Business Academy Review, vol. 17.
• William Acar, Alan T. Burns and Pratim Datta (2014).  Explicit Knowledge Transfers in New Product Development, International Journal of Strategic Decision Sciences, vol. 5, no. 4, 16-50.
• Alan T. Burns, William Acar, and Pratim Datta (2011).  A Qualitative Exploration of Entrepreneurial Knowledge Transfer, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 15, no. 2.
• Alan T. Burns & Theresa A. Steinbach (2010).  Best Practices: A Cure for the New Prep Headache? Information Systems Education Journal, 8 (17). http://isedj.org/8/17/.