On a spring weekend not long ago, Mary Ellen Kennel ‘84, her parents-in-law and her daughters, ages 4 and 8, huddled in the playroom at her home, putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It was a picture of a bucolic farm scene – horses, cows, a gravel lane and an old red barn – more reminiscent of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she grew up in a conservative and TV-free home, than New York City, where she works in digital forensics for a large bank.
It’s been, as Kennel recently wrote on her personal blog, “quite a journey” from the one place to the other. And yet, she continued: “I haven’t changed much, really.”
As an incident response specialist and digital forensic analyst, Kennel is a sort of digital age detective, responsible for getting to the bottom of things when someone causes mischief to a computer network. There are clues to track down, patterns to look for, and pieces to assemble into a coherent whole. Kennel has always loved puzzles, whether at home with her family or at work, hunting for evil over the wire.
Read about more New York City-based alumni in the current issue of Crossroads magazine.
She came to the field by way of the television industry. A two-week temp-job stint filling in for a receptionist at The Joan Rivers Show ended up lasting five years, followed by six more working on Ricki Lake. During those years, she had time to explore a burgeoning interest in the computers that were fast becoming an important tool in the home and workplace.
“In TV, you basically worked four hours a day and got paid for full-time,” Kennel wrote in an email to Crossroads. “I started putting signs up in laundromats all over the city, offering my services as a freelance computer technician.”
After taking a number of courses at the SANS Institute (a big information security outfit) and a Columbia University certificate program, Kennel jumped full-time into the world of digital forensics. Through it all, from talk shows to tech, one constant has been the values that she grew up with.
“Being raised Mennonite, one of the core philosophies I was taught was a life of service,” Kennel wrote.
While many classmates and friends took that idea abroad with them as missionaries, Kennel began putting it to work in New York’s soup kitchens and homeless shelters soon after she arrived.
“I’ve always felt that the city was my mission,” she continued. “I didn’t need to travel very far to find my calling.”
How wonderful to read this delightful article about my dear friend from Northwood days! I’m so sorry we lost touch, and I hope we will be able to re-establish contact.
Very fond memories of dancing in the parking lot at the Harrisonburg Waffle House, with Greg’s boombox on the top of the car, blaring Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at midnight and of hurling pot pies out the [open] fourth floor windows of Northlawn. Whew! Were we NUTS or what!
M.E. girl you look great!!