San Diego State U. CIO Flies Relief Missions to Haiti
By Marc Parry
The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 8, 2010, 03:01 PM ET
Rich Pickett (right) is using his mandatory furlough days to fly people and supplies back and forth to Haiti.
Higher-ed IT folks like Mr. Pickett have been using an Educause listserv to discuss how they can help Haiti. But Mr. Pickett, who manages technology at San Diego State, has one technical skill you don’t often find in the CIO’s office: He has been a licensed pilot for 32 years. So he joined a grassroots group of pilots shepherding supplies to the earthquake-ravaged country. Flying a friend’s stripped-down, $4 million executive plane, he brings soap. Tents. X-ray machines. He returns with people: Doctors. A soldier. An orphan.