Joseph S. Mertz Jr, Ph.D. has a background and interests that bridge technology, technology for development, and policy. He is a Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, with a split appointment with the H. John Heinz III College and Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He is currently the Interim Director of the undergraduate Information Systems Program. He teaches strictly technical courses to technology students, and technical-professional leadership courses and technology for development courses to mixed classes of technology and policy students.

Since 1998 he has developed and taught a service-learning course entitled “Technology Consulting in the Community” that engages highly talented students as technology consultants helping close to 300 nonprofit organizations, schools, and businesses in the Pittsburgh region. Using the same capacity-building IT consulting model, he directs the international Technology Consulting in the Global Community program that sends students to developing countries to help businesses, government ministries, and NGOs to improve their strategic use of technology.

Joe has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science (from Penn State and the University of Southern California), and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon. Between degrees, he worked as a systems software developer for Bell Laboratories for 5 years.