Meet Joe Mielke
Meet Joe Mielke
Technology Support
joe@groundworkcenter.org | (231) 499-9630
“Basically I think of my job as being responsible for anything that has an I.P. address—the computers and the network. I keep the technology running,” says Groundworks Technology Support Specialist Joe Mielke.
The bulk of that work centers on reading weekly cyber security updates from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and incorporating the fixes recommended into the Groundwork system. “Every week it can be hundreds of items long, including small bits of code that need fixing, even something as obscure as a piece of code in the router,” Joe says. The CISA list makes a good starting point for Joe’s to-do list for the week.
Joe also recently added website server maintenance to his job duties, which has it’s own set of weekly checks for security and performance updates. And naturally, whenever a new computer joins the Groundwork tech array, Joe is deployed to load all necessary software and dial in the machine for our staff.
Looking ahead, Joe aims to bring more technology into the Groundwork world, including assessing effective ways to incorporate AI into the work flow. “I try to find tools that are a joy to use, as opposed to emphasizing processes and tech advances that can be frustrating and overly complicated,” he says.
What’s the most rewarding part of work for Joe? "The people at Groundwork. Everyone at Groundwork never ceases to amaze me about how passionate and knowledgeable they are about the work they do,” he says.