Chris Duffy

Chris Duffy

Class Year

’04

Current home

Verona, Wis.

Major(s)

Mathematics, Physics

Current Position

Interface Analyst at Epic

Chris Duffy is an Interface Analyst at Epic in Verona, Wis. As an Interface Analyst, Mr. Duffy helps architect the collection of interfaces that a healthcare organization uses to exchange patient data between their disparate medical records systems so everyone interacting with the patient or chart sees all the same information. Mr. Duffy loves that he has the opportunity to learn from his coworkers, who all have very different backgrounds and majors, so as to gain new perspectives and approaches that can be applied to his job. 

While at Carthage, Mr. Duffy was involved in many student organizations including Delta Upsilon, ScienceWorks, The Current, pep band, and more. He was awarded the Clausen Scholarship, SPS Distinguished Service Award, and was a member of the Pi Mu Epsilon math honor society and Alpha Lambda Delta academic honor society. 

“Recognizing everyone is on the same team and generally headed in the same direction is important.”

Chris Duffy, ’04

What have you enjoyed most about your career?

“I love the combination of responsibility and autonomy. I get to customize my interactions with my community members to make the best partnerships while also being able to freely access any other coworker expert for advice, feedback, and education. I love the long-term relationships I’ve built with my customers, two of which I’ve supported for over ten years. I’ve enjoyed watching the Verona campus grow from a hole in the ground to 21 office buildings with two cafeterias, a training center, two auditoriums, five underground parking garages, and a treehouse. There’s so much more…”

How did Carthage prepare you?

“Every experience is a learning opportunity. I was lucky to have the Entrepreneurial Studies in Natural Sciences (ESNS) symposium, which taught us STEM students how to survive in the business world, including experiences presenting in front of executives we had never met. Physics teaches the spectrum of specificity and generality of ideas, processes, and problem-solving. Mathematics teaches a core language by which one communicates ideas. Music teaches ways to add emotion to communication. Being a resident assistant, brother of Delta Upsilon, writing for The Current, living at the [then] Holiday Inn, playing pep band…these are all things that expose other personality types and reasons to be dynamic in communicating.”

How has your liberal arts education benefitted you?

“Epic hires all majors with the idea ‘first prove you can learn and we will teach you.’ That means every coworker has a different experience, different background, different focus, different method, and different view. I feel confident that I was not ‘stamped out’ in the production line of a high-volume undergraduate factory, which means I have the expectation and ability to think differently often.”

 

What's your favorite Carthage memory?

“Some of my favorite memories include playing pool in Woh’s with my roomie; parfaits at the library with my bestie; the SURE program one summer; being an orientation leader; the whole experience of living at the Holiday Inn as an R.A.; bowling league with the Walden Floor friends; Merely Players improv comedy shows; watching the Hedberg Library and TARC construction; playing favorites ‘You Can Call Me Al’ and ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ in pep band. The list is nearly endless. At the time, Carthage’s focus was ‘identity.’ It became important to understand and define identity and being a unique individual. Every experience added something to make me even more unique, and I absolutely love that.”

Tips for current Carthage students?

“Do everything. If you get invited to a group, honorary, team, job, etc., take the experience. Meet people and learn about them. Carthage is phenomenal at putting you in places and in the company of others that all have a real value to you.”


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