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Faculty

John Wetsch
Dr. John Wetsch
Program Director/Instructor

~ Contact Info ~

[email protected]

RTP Campus
Building 1 - 306G

919-335-1237 (office)

View Full Bio
John Wetsch
Dr. John Wetsch
Program Director/Instructor

~ Campus Info ~

[email protected]

RTP Campus
Building 1 - 306G

919-335-1237 (office)

John Wetsch, Ph.D., PMP, has more than 30 years of experience working in industry, government and higher education. He is a recognized industry leader in large-scale information systems development and deployment, software engineering, systems analysis and design, cybersecurity, cloud migration, risk management and related technologies.

Dr. Wetsch has served in various technical capacities and senior IT roles as a program manager, project director, principal engineer, systems engineer and senior systems programmer. He has worked with Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Air Force Space Command (now U.S. Space Force), the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Courts and the State of North Carolina before joining Wake Tech. He has also been providing master classes in Cloud Computing at Caltech through its Center for Technology and Management Education.

Dr. Wetsch has received numerous awards and recognitions, including appointment as a Northrop Grumman Technical Fellow, recipient of Computerworld Magazine's 100 Premier IT Leaders and trustee emeritus with Excelsior University.

Education

  • Ph.D., Information Systems, Nova Southeastern University
  • Higher Education Teaching Certificate, Harvard University
  • Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme, University of Oxford
  • MS, Astronomy, University of Western Sydney
  • MA, Historical Astronomy, Antioch University
  • BS, Liberal Arts and Physics, Excelsior University
  • BS, Interdisciplinary Studies (Physics and Philosophy), University of North Dakota

Certifications / Training

  • Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute
  • Certified in Cybersecurity (CC), ISC2
  • Applied AI Specialization, IBM
  • ITIL Foundation and Service Transition
  • Cloud Computing, Art of Service
Jeff Banham
Jeff Banham
Assistant Professor

~ Contact Info ~

[email protected]

RTP Campus
Building 1 - 306E

919-335-1297 (office)

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Jeff Banham
Jeff Banham
Assistant Professor

~ Campus Info ~

[email protected]

RTP Campus
Building 1 - 306E

919-335-1297 (office)

Jeff Banham has been teaching in the Cloud Infrastructure program at Wake Tech since 2020.  He brings more than 30 years of industry experience in the telecom and high-tech sectors to his role, having worked in both technical and management roles throughout his career.

He holds a bachelor's degree in Information Science from Drexel University and is a 2023 recipient of the Wake Tech Excellence in Teaching award.

Joan Copperthwaite
Joan Copperthwaite
Instructor

~ Contact Info ~

[email protected]

Southern Wake Campus
Building E - 321O

919-866-5354 (office)

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Joan Copperthwaite
Joan Copperthwaite
Instructor

~ Campus Info ~

[email protected]

Southern Wake Campus
Building E - 321O

919-866-5354 (office)

Joan Copperthwaite teaches computer information systems, network operations, systems integration and system security courses at Wake Tech. She previously taught math courses at the college.

Before joining Wake Tech, she was a member of the scientific staff at Nortel Networks in Research Triangle Park, where she was responsible for architectural improvements and software implementations for network switches. She also served as a staff Programmer at IBM in RTP, where she designed and developed networking software for routers and network controllers.

Copperthwaite also was an associate engineer in the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, where she developed real-time software for Defense Department radar systems.

She enjoys running and walking with her dog, Luke, playing tennis and riding horses. She supports Corral Riding Academy, a Cary nonprofit that strives to better the lives of at-risk teenage girls and rescue horses by forming a partnership between them.

Other hobbies include reading – her favorite book is "Unbroken" – watching a good TV series and appreciating nature and animals.

Education

  • MS, Electrical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
  • BS, Electrical Engineering (Math minor), Utah State University
  • Graduate Certificate, Mathematics, Indiana University East
Ali Darvish
Ali Darvish
Instructor

~ Contact Info ~

[email protected]

Scott Northern Wake Campus
Building B - 344

919-866-6779 (office)

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Ali Darvish
Ali Darvish
Instructor

~ Campus Info ~

[email protected]

Scott Northern Wake Campus
Building B - 344

919-866-6779 (office)

Ali Darvish has been teaching operating system and Linux classes for more than 10 years at Wake Tech.

Darvish previously worked for the federal government and in the private sector analyzing and testing networking protocols, hardware and software. He was a teacher assistant and tutor for calculus and engineering math at the University of Massachusetts.

Education

  • MSE, Computer Engineering (Embedded Systems concentration), University of Massachusetts Lowell
Sarah Leckman
Sarah Leckman
Instructor

~ Contact Info ~

[email protected]

Scott Northern Wake Campus
Building B - 344

919-866-5343 (office)

View Full Bio
Sarah Leckman
Sarah Leckman
Instructor

~ Campus Info ~

[email protected]

Scott Northern Wake Campus
Building B - 344

919-866-5343 (office)

Sarah Leckman has been teaching at Wake Tech since 2022. She previously worked in various IT roles, including Tier 1 and Tier 2 support, Windows systems administration, project management and team leadership.

With years of experience in industry and certifications from Microsoft and CompTIA, Leckman brings practical knowledge and technical skills to the classroom to support student learning and career readiness.

Education

  • M.Ed., Learning and Technology, Western Governors University
  • BS, Business (IT Management concentration), Western Governors University
Julia Martinez Hayes
Julia Martinez Hayes
Associate Professor

~ Contact Info ~

[email protected]

Southern Wake Campus
Building E - 321O

919-866-5811 (office)

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Julia Martinez Hayes
Julia Martinez Hayes
Associate Professor

~ Campus Info ~

[email protected]

Southern Wake Campus
Building E - 321O

919-866-5811 (office)

Associate Professor Julie Martinez Hayes has been teaching network security and operating systems at Wake Tech since 2014. Before that, she worked as a network engineer and system administrator for nonprofits, municipalities, colleges and at the Pentagon.

Her favorite topics are network and domain architecture and network security and teaching technicians safe computing practices. She gears her classes for problems encountered on the job and problem solving.

Martinez Hayes spends her free time biking, kayaking, breeding tropical fish and gardening.

Education

  • MPIA, University of Pittsburgh
  • BA, Bucknell University

Certifications / Training

  • Microsoft Certified Professional
  • MTA for Windows Server, Networking, Operating Systems and Security Fundamentals
  • MOS in Word and Excel
Leon Squire
Leon Squire
Assistant Professor

~ Contact Info ~

[email protected]

RTP Campus
Building 1 - 306C

919-335-1239 (office)

View Full Bio
Leon Squire
Leon Squire
Assistant Professor

~ Campus Info ~

[email protected]

RTP Campus
Building 1 - 306C

919-335-1239 (office)

Education

  • MS, Computer Science, Stevens Institute of Technology
  • BS, Electronics Engineering Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology
  • AAS, Electronics Engineering Technology, County College of Morris
  • AAS, Storage and Virtualization, Wake Technical Community College
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