Professional Business Experience:

Dr. Kleist has been involved with numerous research grants while at West Virginia University, one an earmark from the Department of Justice to study the economic payback from digitizing the evidentiary process, and another from the Center for Identification Technologies to evaluate a business case for biometric devices in terms of cost and benefits. Work on the future role of biometrics in the electronic commerce channel grew out of this research effort. A Faculty Senate grant was obtained to study possible increasing returns for information goods producers, and a College of Business and Economics grant was awarded for research work related to individual differences in women and their relationship to information technology. Dr. Kleist has an active research program inspired by topics arising at the intersection of economics and technology, as well as enjoys her faculty service and teaching responsibilities. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband, and has two college age sons.

Prior to her career in academia, Dr. Kleist spent ten years working in the corporate telecommunications networking environment. She worked for Allegheny, Health Education and Research Foundation (AHERF, parent to Allegheny General Hospital) as Director of Telecommunications, with a staff of 22. Her direct budgetary responsibilities at AGH were $1.2 million in annual operating expenses, with indirect responsibility for a $6.2 million capital fund. She was an Officer of the bank and Manager at Pittsburgh National Corporation, with responsibility for voice telecommunications facilities for 120 offices, as well as a $700K telecom equipment upgrade project. While a Telecommunications Consultant for Joy Technologies, she designed and implemented a large corporate network redesign. In the mid to late ‘80s, Dr. Kleist worked for GTE as a Senior Network Planner, designing long distance telecommunications facilities and routes for the southeastern part of the US. She has had specialized training in fiber optic communications engineering, telecommunications traffic engineering, central office facilities, telecommunications network management software, PBX's and telecommunications electronics. In ten years of telecommunications operations management experience, Dr. Kleist has interacted on project work with Northern Telecom, Sprint, Comdial, Rolm, AT & T, Bell Atlanticom (now Verizon), GTE, NEC, Westinghouse, Telco Research and numerous other vendors, suppliers and network providers. Ms. Kleist participated in executive level strategic information systems network planning for GTE, Joy Technologies and AHERF, has extended experience in vendor contract negotiations, and obtained over five years of experience with the management of 24/7 network operations.