Educated Here, Employed Here: Michael Callahan ’17EdD ’09MBA ’05
There probably aren’t too many UCF employees who can say they’ve spent more than half their lives at UCF. It certainly applies to Michael Callahan ’17EdD ’09MBA ’05, the director of knowledge management for the College of Medicine. Callahan, with his love of data (and so much more!), could also probably give you more information about our great employees. [As of Fall 2023, Callahan was just one of 13,004 faculty and staff – other nifty data points can be found here]
Never a Doubt About UCF
Callahan fell in love with UCF when he came down to visit from Massachusetts between his junior and senior years in high school.
“I decided it was the only place I was going to apply,” he says. “I was one of the first in our high school to know where I was going because of the rolling admissions cycle. And when I found out that I was going to receive a 95% out- of-state tuition waiver, it was really a no-brainer.”
What also impressed Callahan was that all the technology that UCF had in 2001 was “state-of-the-art.” His father, who retired from the Navy, had taught his son how to use computers early on. Callahan quickly recognized their potential, and taught himself how to code, build, repair and troubleshoot the machines.
“He was out to sea six months out of the year, and email was the only way to communicate with him,” Callahan says. “I caught on to the power of the Internet pretty quickly, and it was always something that fascinated me.”
Callahan found a major that combined his love of computers with his natural curiosity for data: management information systems.
Educated Here, Employed Here
In his current role, Callahan manages the educational data for the College of Medicine, including tracking students’ grades, their feedback on surveys, course information, etc.
Each year, 120 students are admitted into COM’s competitive program. Callahan and his team work collaboratively with faculty and administration to ensure that the data generated by student grades and other factors provide instructors with a “map” that helps the student graduate, Remediate, and report for accreditation.
All that information can be parsed into analytical reports that can show where students may be struggling, and which content is being taught effectively or not; reports generated by the data can help inform how best an advisor can lead the student into improving their performance.
Callahan’s team also oversees application development to help make it easier to pull that data, making reports easier to obtain and assists the college in the workflow process. The accuracy of the data allows the decision-makers to quickly access the information they need to make an informed decision.
The data is also vital for COM’s accrediting body, Callahan says. They want reports on how many class sessions are lectures, how many are team-based, and how many hours the students spend in a teaching environment.
Before the miracle of data collection and analysis, a student might fail a course and must retake it.
“We are now using data to intervene while the student is still in the course and allow them the opportunity to take corrective action before it’s too late,” Callahan says.
The field has evolved quite a bit. When Michael Callahan ’17EdD ’09MBA ’05 was an undergraduate student, some data was collected, but it was more about database management.
“In my current role,” Callahan says, “If I am involved early enough in the process, we can finetune the parameters of the data collection by filtering out the ‘garbage,’ and therefore have cleaner data overall as a result.”
Since Callahan does not work directly with students, his success is reflected in COM’s successful efforts to maintain accreditation and graduate students on time.
“Accreditation is a huge testament to the work of a lot of people; there are multiple reports and data that everyone is responsible for, and it’s definitely a college-wide effort to get everything ready for the accreditation process.”
Callahan has been familiar with teamwork since his days in his high school marching band.
Callahan’s Other UCF Gig
“When I came to UCF, I figured I’d join the Marching Knights. I was the top dog in high school, but when I tried out, they told me they didn’t want me to play snares. They wanted me to play the rack or the bass drum, and at the time, I thought that was beneath me. Looking back, I probably should have handled it differently.”
Still, Callahan loved his time at UCF, and went to the football games, perhaps scrutinizing the Marching Knights. But what drew his eye was Knightro running around the field and exhorting the crowd to get fired up.
Callahan was intrigued. He thought that although he would have loved being in the band, Knightro’s job “looked kind of cool.” He asked around, and someone in admissions pointed him in the right direction to try out for the coveted position; he was Knightro for his sophomore and junior years.
It’s probably as close to being a rock star as he will ever come, he laughs.
“You put on that suit and you become famous,” Callahan says. “Nobody knows who’s in the suit. We try and keep that hidden because we don’t want people walking up and saying, ‘hey, is that Mike?’”
It’s exhilarating to be Knightro, Callahan says. But he knows that Knightro is getting the thunderous applause and the sheer adulation that the mascot always receives, not the individual inside the costume.
“When I was on Team Knightro, we had about three or four of us who worked all the sporting events, children’s hospital appearances, and other times when Knightro is requested,” Callahan says.
He and the other Knightros are not only bound to keep their GPAs at 2.0 (But strive for a 3.0), they are also required to attend all of the events and meetings that the position demands.
In his senior year, Callahan had to choose between being Knightro, or working in Burnett Honors College fulltime. He chose the latter, because he knew that the position would likely lead into a fulltime IT position with BHC.
A short time after starting his new job, Callahan got an email from Linda Gooch ’85, UCF’s cheer head coach, recipient of the 2020 UCF Shining Knights Distinguished Alumni Award, and 2022 inductee into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame. Gooch asked him if would mind welcoming the new class of Knightros and tell them about his own experience on the team.
“So I get to the team meeting,” Callahan says, “And I’m going over my notes and Linda says, “’Hey everybody, I want to introduce you to Michael Callahan, your new coach!’”
Managing Knightro(s) | Michael Callahan: Mascot Head Coach
This fall, Callahan will mark his 20th year as Knightro’s head coach. He gets a small stipend for the gig, but he says that with the time commitment involved, it feels like pennies per hour, not dollars.
“I absolutely do it for the love of Knightro and for the opportunity to make our fans smile,” Callahan says.
Everything that happens on game day is scripted. Knightro knows when the first “meet” will be, and he comes out at each media timeout, which varies depending on many circumstances. In other words, Knightro has to be ready at all times. There are also check presentations, a game ball presentation, and other ceremonies at which Knightro must be present.
“These photo opportunities are things that people are going to remember for a very long time, and we want that image of the mascot with the people to be special,” Callahan says.
Callahan’s role is making sure that Knightro is moved around the field in an efficient and timely manner, and making sure that Knightro always has high energy.
Knightro’s costume is very hot and wearing it can be exhausting. The costume has changed somewhat since Callahan wore it; back then it was made of fiberglass and weighed about 50 pounds. Now, the suit is made of foam, and it’s a lot lighter, but it is still cumbersome. There is no portable cooler inside the costume, so sometimes, Knightro must change in the locker room.
“My main role on game day is to make sure that Knightro and the team are ready to do everything they need to do before it’s time for them to do it,” Callahan says.
Timing is crucial to so many aspects of Knightro’s life, he adds.
“Knightro is bigger than any one person, and you have to respect the position and the entity. The last thing anyone on my team or I want to see happen is a heartbroken kid on their birthday because Knightro is late. We’ve gone into hospitals and have dealt with people who are critically ill and don’t know how many days they have left, but the smile on their face when Knightro walks in is touching.”
As the popularity of UCF – and, of course, Knightro – has grown, so has the Knightro team. There are now 12 individuals on the team who help make sure that Knightro can appear across town, when he just finished an appearance at an athletic event out of state.
It’s part of the magic of Knightro, Callahan says. That magic also includes training to ensure the consistency of Knightro’s mannerisms, ebullience, gestures – and even his handwriting.
Knightro’s “job description” has evolved over the years to include special events like a photo op with an alumni who has just had a baby, or perhaps “inviting” him to a wedding where he has been asked to lead the “chicken dance.”
“I had Knightro at my wedding and he walked down the aisle with a ‘turn your cell phone off’ sign right before the ceremony started,” Callahan says. “He walked in with all the groomsmen, and then he did a little schtick like, wait a minute. I’m not supposed to be here. Then, he busted out the sign and walked down the aisle with a sign on his way out.”
For students who are interested in auditioning for an open Knightro position, an open call is held every April, Callahan says.
“We have all different types of people try out. Some people come from a dance gymnastic background. Some used to play football in high school. Some people have never played a sport before and just thought it would be fun to come and try out.”
The auditions last over the course of a weekend, where Callahan and others evaluate everything from their dance ability and nonverbal communication to how well they work together as a team.
This year, Callahan is hoping to invite every Knightro alum – approximately 100 – to an event Homecoming weekend celebrating 30 years of the popular mascot.
Callahan’s Third Gig
And even though Callahan is deeply proud of the way the Knightro program has resonated with the UCF community, there is another aspect to his UCF life that is not so well known, but holds an equal place in his heart.
In 2013, Callahan volunteered with the Burnett Honors College for a study-abroad program to Africa for undergraduate students. There, they worked with a local township and a game reserve to do service-oriented projects.
His involvement began when Dean Alvin Wang invited him to view a presentation by senior design student in BHC who were working in solar, wind and inverting power. The goal was to implement the projects on the study-abroad trip.
After viewing the presentation, Callahan told the dean that although the students had great projects, they were not going to work, because each project utilized different voltages, some knowledge he had obtained through his years of building his own computers and doing minor electrical work around the house. When the dean asked Callahan if he was interested in helping, of course he said yes. And then, in 2020, when BHC stopped the program, Callahan took it to LEAD Scholars, and they said yes.
“I’ve been fortunate that every year but one I have been able to go participate, teach the course, work with the students, and to date I have worked with students to raise over $100,000 to be put into the game reserve to help animals, anti-poaching efforts, and to help the school and the orphanage.”
Past projects have also included medical supply and clothing drives, the development of a solar power stations, leopard research, elephant tracking, cheetah and lion relocation and creating a playground for an orphanage.
That orphanage was renamed the “Callahan Family School for Children” by the school’s pastor because of the Callahan family’s generosity. They gave $500 to help build the school when it was being relocated 2019, and also helped build a combination office space and kitchen in 2022. Behind the buildings, the Callahans also provided a 5,000-liter water tank that collects water that ensures that in the event of the loss of water pressure, the school still has a source of water in 2023.
It wasn’t until Callahan saw how life-changing it was for the township for them to have a simple building, he says.
“I started doing my own research on what it means to not have power or running water growing up,” Callahan says. “Even though apartheid ended in the 90s, there are still huge political and social factors. Even though the government said that ‘you are free,’ these people owned nothing – no land, so they couldn’t farm; you could work, but you weren’t paid a fair wage, and other systemic injustices.”
He tells his students that the situation is similar to what freed slaves must have faced at the end of the Civil War. He tells them that even now, more that 150 years later, this country is still having civil rights issues and equity conversations. It’s even worse in South Africa.
Callahan also introduces the idea of animal conservation to the students, because “you can’t go to Africa and not work with the animals.”
One of the students, Erica Castenada, wrote her honors thesis on A Case-Study of the African Leopard (Panthera Pardus Pardus) Population on the Nambiti Private Game Reserve.
The students have also worked with the anti-poaching unit to dehorn a rhinoceros. That is necessary for conservation efforts, Callahan says, because the rhino’s horn is prized in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a wide variety of illnesses ranging from reducing fevers to stopping nosebleeds and preventing strokes. When the horn is removed – a process that does not harm the animal – the need to kill it is also removed.
Time Management
With a demanding job and extracurricular activities that may seem like two other demanding jobs, Callahan says that it’s not really that bad.
“For me, it’s about getting the job done,” Callahan says. “There are many times that I put the kids to bed, and then I go back to the computer and try to get that query to pull the right data or polish that report so that we’re ready to show it.”
He has offered to Coach Gooch, at times, that if she ever felt like his performance was not beneficial to the Knightro program because of demands from his work or family life, that she has simply said, “Not an option. We’re going to find a way to make it work.”
When he went back to school for his doctorate, it was not because he didn’t have enough to do, he says. After scrolling through a faculty roster, Callahan says he knew that his career ambitions would have to include picking up another degree along the way.
While he was in the midst of earning that degree, he and his wife, Lauren ’05, learned they were expecting twins.
“We talked about putting my education on pause, but Lauren suggested that I continue, with the caveat being I could only work on schoolwork twice a week.”
He did find a small work-around, he says.
“On the nights that I was home for dinner, I would put the kids to bed reading one of my textbooks,” Callahan says. “There is nothing faster that will put a kid to sleep than the history of higher education.”
As he reflects on the past 20 or so years at UCF, Callahan says he is so grateful for all the incredible opportunities that he’s received through UCF. He is determined to do his best to keep giving back any way he can, whether through bringing smiles and memories to UCF faces through his involvement in the Knightro program; or by teaching our students about the struggles going on in a small South African township, or by using his expertise in knowledge management to provide the best possible experience for students in the College of Medicine.
“I want our students to leave and do incredible things,” Callahan says. “Just think – one of our doctors might be the one to cure cancer or to make some other major discovery. Who knows what’s in their future, and I am grateful for being even a small part of their lives to make sure they are successful.”
