Evan Wilson Staff Spotlight
After years of working remotely from home as an information technology project manager, Mercer Law School Systems Manager Evan Wilson was beginning to feel a bit locked down and isolated in his long-hour, high-intensity job. In 2021, he felt that returning to an office environment would be a breath of fresh air. Today he is sure he made the right decision to join the Mercer Law IT team.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a job until now where I can honestly say I enjoy being around everybody I work with,” Wilson said. “I’m not exactly a social butterfly, but I’m comfortable with everyone here. It’s easy to talk to them and find a way to assist. Everyone is super appreciative of the work IT does, and that’s a bit of a rarity in this industry. It makes a world of difference when you want to help someone and make their day better or easier, rather when you have to.”
As systems manager, Wilson maintains the Law School’s servers and email environments, assists faculty, staff, and students with issues on their laptops, uploads exams into EBB (electronic blue book – a program designed to allow students the use of their personal laptop computer when taking exams), live streams events, and handles door access.
Emerging from what is arguably the busiest time of the year for the IT office – spring semester – Wilson is proud to have another successful set of final exams and commencement exercises in the books. According to Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Jeannie Zipperer, the IT team is present for dozens of on-campus exams in any given semester. “Evan is always here to support our exams, even on the weekends, holidays, and after hours. Evan is an especially good sport about after hours exams if pizza is involved! Evan’s dedication to our students is commendable. He’s always willing to help, and he makes sure that we provide the best possible testing environment for the students.”
Of all his responsibilities at the Law School, Evan enjoys livestreaming and production the most.
Mercer Law’s IT department has been livestreaming commencement ceremonies since before Wilson joined the staff. “They were mostly running a camera pointed at the stage. It was serviceable but not the vision Director Chris Osier had in mind. Luckily, I had about four years of experience running my own live stream and told him I could up our production quality quite a bit with minimal equipment and investment.”
Wilson says there is room for improvement, but he does take pride in every stream they produce. “I put a lot of effort into cutting to different camera angles at the right time and making sure audio levels sound good. It’s important to have a decently high-quality production of commencement, which arguably is one of the most important events in our students’ lives. Not only is it important for them, it’s also important for their family members who can’t be there to see the event live. An added bonus is that the recording of the event is uploaded directly after the stream, so students can always go back to relive the moment. We are always trying to figure out ways to improve the stream so hopefully it’ll only get better as time goes on.”
Upon request, the Law IT team livestreams events such as symposiums and mock trial competitions. Last year, they began livestreaming Mercer’s School of Medicine commencement ceremony. Wilson says he enjoys doing their live stream, not only because he just likes doing it, but also because helping another school reflects positively on the Law School.
Wilson is working to start a new student organization for people interested in gaming. Regular meetings will allow members to play games, socialize, discuss current law-related happenings in the gaming world (of which there are many), and connect with others who share the same interests.
“There are a lot of gamers at the Law School. I hope the organization will bring these people together. Making friends in law school is important and this is one way to network and find other people to destress with when you’re not studying.”
Amid his hectic role as systems manager, Wilson is working to complete his software engineering degree at Mercer in December 2025. So, what does he do in his spare time?
He plays a lot of video games and recently has started working on creating his own game. He has played drums for around five years, has done vocals for 15+ years, and he plays the guitar. He recently got into pickleball. Mostly, he enjoys hanging out with his wife Margaret and their two dogs and two cats. Happily, Wilson says, “It’s a pretty busy life.”
