Mercyhurst University’s Intelligence Studies department become one of the 10 departments on campus to introduce new faculty this year, as they welcome Mercyhurst alumna Kathleen Moore, Ph.D.

Moore, originally from Detroit, Michigan, attended Wayne State University before earning her bachelor’s degree at Mercyhurst in 2010.

Moore went on to attend Pennsylvania State University where she received her doctorate in Information Sciences and Technology in 2014.

She originally majored in criminology, but then switched to Intelligence Studies and later to Information Sciences.

When asked about the switching of her major, Moore said she “didn’t have a lot of guidance.”

She left college after two years and went to work for the United States Department of Defense before deciding to go back to school.

Moore was not initially looking to begin a career in intelligence studies, but was convinced to give it a try by James Breckenridge, Ph.D., the current dean of the Tom Ridge School for Intelligence Studies and Information Science.

“I was interested in economics and history and I met him [Breckenridge] at a function and he somehow talked me into taking an Intel class, and it kind of went off from there,” she said.

According to Moore she “actually wasn’t planning on teaching” either, originally planning to go back into government work, but Professor Breckenridge once again stepped in.

“We had met up about three years into my doctoral program and I was telling him about my research and that kind of started a conversation that took about a year. Next thing I know, I was being invited to come back and teach.”

Moore said she “really liked the department, loved the program, and thought [she] would give” teaching a shot.

Regarding her teaching methods, Moore said she prefers the Socratic method, where she will “corner them with questions.”

She uses this tactic to “get at the core” of whatever topic is being discussed, believing it will allow the class to “peel the layers of an onion until you get to its center.” She says the method is “the most compatible” with how she thinks and that, add in that “it has probably been the most successful approach other professors have had when they have taught me.”

Moore decided to teach Intel because it is “such a big playground.” She thinks there are some “misconceptions about what goes on in Intel, but we need political scientists, we need geographers, we need scientists and computer scientists and information scientists and sociologists.

“It is a really big sandbox for a lot of people to play in and it’s where the really big questions can be asked. There’s room for everybody.”