by Lauren Heaton

    Dr. David Pumphrey has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas, a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State (second only to MIT in information systems degree programs) and a Ph.D. from Ole Miss. Pumphrey has more than 20 years of industry experience.

    In class, he doesn’t just teach business theory, he wants his students to learn business reality. He wants them to learn from someone who has worked with several of the top tech companies from across the U.S..

    With Pumphrey’s recent return to academia after years at the top of industry, he is up-to-date with all things tech, computer and data science. He is striving to enhance CMU’s offerings related to those fields. He has implemented two new classes within the last year and this is only his third year as a professor at CMU.

    There is more to Pumphrey than what students will learn in the classroom. When he is not teaching class or taking in the colorful views of the Monument, the Mesa or the Book Cliffs on the third floor balcony of Dominguez Hall, you can find him riding his motorcycle across the country.

    When people ask Pumphrey about how he found CMU, he smiles and tells them that of all the schools he was applying to, the school was the only one still requiring paper applications instead of digital. CMU also responded faster than any of the other schools he had applied to.

It’s all in the details:

Cups of coffee per day:

“I try to limit it to no more than two 20 ounce cups”

Preferences in peaches. Georgia peach or Palisade peach:

“You know, I like the Palisade peaches because they are the free stone peaches meaning you can just twist them and pull them off the pit.”

Coolest Motorcycle ride:

Tulsa to Denver then up (in the snow) to Silverthorne, Steamboat, Estes Park and Leadville. “For a southern guy from Oklahoma that was a great story to tell my Oklahoman friends, riding my motorcycle through the Rockies,” Pumphrey said.

Longest Motorcycle trip:

Memphis to Grand Junction

Favorite food:

Thai food or watermelon, never together.