Brett Morrill
BENDER OF TWIGS INDUCTEE 2019
I’ve known and worked with Brett Morrill for nearly all my 26 years at WSU which has
given me theopportunity to know him as a person, a colleague and a leader, it’s been
both fun and inspiring. Brett started working at WSU in 1994 focusing on programming
for financial related reports and billing systems, his Bachelor of Science in computing
science, with an accounting focus, certainly helped him be productive from the start.
In 1995 he was reassigned to focus on human resources and payroll, an area where he
became an essential employee in his scope of knowledge in both business practices
and coding compliance. In fact, it was the work he did in this area that first brought
him to my attention and even though we never met formally in those early years, I
knew of him through his work. Over the years his titles changed, from application
developer, system analyst, to senior system analyst.
Brett has always valued research, wanting to know and do more to better himself and provide value to others. Not surprising that during these early years he pursued and completed an MBA at WSU, a journey he took to complement the value WSU could receive from his efforts. In addition to enriching his own education, he also worked on providing others the opportunity to learn, best exemplified by his teaching of WSU classes in Management Information Systems including teaching the department’s capstone course.
But the true essence of what defines Brett is his leadership. In 2014 he became Director
of Systems
Development, it was during this time that I worked closely with him and his team.
And ‘team’ is what best defines Brett, from early on he wanted and instilled in others
the need to collaborate, to be transparent, to foster and reward innovation even when
it failed, to instill in his direct reports the desire to conduct research and bring
insights back to the group. It was these qualities that brought both trust and respect
within and across his team. His team also knew he would be their advocate and have
their backs in both good times and bad. This is the Brett I know, a person I could
rely on, trust, and partner with, a person who brought more than themselves to the
table but instead an entire team. I truly believe that those who report to him see
themselves as his colleague, not their boss. And because of his leadership style,
a true reflection of his personality, not a role he uses to manage employees, he helped
to transform his area into an innovationbased cluster of IT empowerment that has allowed
the university to excel.
For those who know and work with Brett, they all would testify that he has a strong work ethic. He puts in countless hours, both in managing the team and in meetings but perhaps more importantly, specially to his team, he continues to program and design, an important effort that lets his team know that he feels their pain and joys in what they do. I would be remiss if I didn’t remark on Brett’s other life, a life where he is a loving partner, parent, serving the larger university as past president of the unclassified senate, community member outside of WSU and the best soccer coach ever. It’s all these things that make it possible for me to say, it’s been fun and inspiring working and watching Brett!
David Wright
Chief Data Officer
Office of Academic Affairs
SME: SP/SRAP
Updated: 11/26/2019 SRAP