Focus on Kyle Duke

After leaving Maryville College, my first job was with an IT consulting firm in Nashville. Nashville is the Healthcare Capital of the US and most of our clients were healthcare companies. I eventually moved over to one of those healthcare companies and have spent most of the past 25 years in technology and operational leadership roles in healthcare. Along the way I completed my MBA at Lipscomb University and went through the accounting program at Ole Miss and passed the CPA exam. After working for some larger healthcare companies, I helped with a startup healthcare technology company and really enjoyed the work and challenges with trying to start a grow a company. I’m currently working for my fourth healthcare tech startup company.

A typical day as CIO of EvidenceCare might start off with an executive team meeting to review the team’s priorities for the week. That meeting might be followed by several calls/meeting with partners, existing clients, and potential clients. I might be involved in a meeting to finalize a new contract with a new client or in an implementation team meeting. I would typically spend some time updating our company dashboard and reviewing the results with our executive team members. I would also probably spend some time on security and compliance activities like reviewing and approving policies and procedures or reviewing audit activities. Lastly, I would likely spend some time mentoring some younger team members one on one.

I was blessed in 2015 to be chosen as the Nashville Business Journal’s CIO of the year. It was a great honor to me personally to be recognized, but also a testament to an incredible team we built that had accomplished so much. There have been many exciting professional milestones along the way including being named CISO of the Year by the Nashville Technology Council and selling a startup company I was leading and seeing it continue to grow and be successful.

The liberal arts education I received at Maryville College helped mold me into a well-rounded person, eager and willing to take on any challenge. Maryville College helped me become a strong leader, problem solver, and communicator. Those skills ensured I was prepared to successfully complete my MBA at Lipscomb University and the accounting program at Ole Miss. Additionally, I believe my career success is a direct result on the foundation built at Maryville College.

I have always loved the outdoors, especially hunting and fishing. A few years ago, I took up fly fishing and now I spend too much time trying to figure out my next fly fishing adventure. I might have even come to Maryville for an alumni association meeting a day early just so I could sneak off to GSMP to do a little fishing!

I’m so proud of my amazing family. My wife Dr. Allison Duke is Senior Associate Dean and Professor at Lipscomb University and does an amazing job with her career and being a wife and a mother. Katherine is a sophomore accounting major at Ole Miss and is doing great in school, sorority, etc. Nick is a sophomore a Lipscomb Academy and is part of the football team that just won Back-to-Back State Championships

That I talk and from time to time I even make presentations to large groups of people. It took some time and some work for me to come out of my shell. I would guess most of my classmates remember me as the guy who never said anything.

I have so many memories of my time at Maryville College—many of which were made on the MC Fighting Scots football team. We had an incredible group of friends who always found a way to have a good time and built lasting friendships that are still going strong. There are also fond memories of tackle football during J-term with 6 inches of snow on the ground, trips to the mountains, days on the lake, road trip to Washington DC to watch the women’s basketball team play in the NCAA tournament, etc. I really enjoyed my time at Maryville College (and my grades probably reflected that!).

I’m very proud to be a Maryville College graduate and happy to have the opportunity to give back to the college. It is an incredible honor to be able to serve on the Maryville College Alumni Association Board and to have the opportunity to be President of such an committed group of MC Alumni!