Janice Thomas

After nearly 15 years as a project manager on information technology and organizational change projects, holding both a BSC in Econometrics and an MBA, I returned to university to figure out what we knew in those ivory towers about managing projects that could be useful in practice.

In 2000, I joined Athabasca University's online MBA program to make sure that this knowledge could get to the managers who needed it most, wherever they were located. Almost 25 years into my academic career, involving research, teaching and service activities all around the world, I can tell you that we both know more about project management than most people think AND less than we need to.

Part of my journey has involved deep dives into how best we educate professionals and how online education supports that mission. Today, one of my research streams explores what we need to do better from an educational perspective to make sure that managers and project managers understand how to deal with uncertainty and complexity to get things done in organizations.