Most people at Loyola Marymount University will never meet Michelle Yeung. But nearly everyone on campus interacts with her work.
When students log into Brightspace, when faculty members test new software for their classes, or when the university evaluates a new artificial intelligence tool, Yeung is often somewhere behind the scenes.
For the past 25 years, she has helped shape the digital systems that quietly run the university. As LMU’s research and educational applications analyst in the Information Technology Services department, Yeung works at the intersection of technology, accessibility and institutional change. She has also developed a deep love of teaching and a strong sense of inclusivity, all of which inform her work.
Her job is not just to ensure technology works: It is to make sure it works for everyone.
Yeung began at LMU straight out of undergrad with a degree in computer information systems with an emphasis in environmental resources engineering. At the time, ITS services were contracted out, and she worked in a faculty help desk role. “I’m a techie,” she said. “I started in support and just kept moving where the work was.”
Over time she moved through several roles as the university’s systems evolved. She worked as a Blackboard administrator before LMU transitioned to Brightspace, supported websites, ran training workshops for faculty and helped integrate instructional technology into classrooms.
Alongside her IT career, Yeung discovered an interest in teaching and learning. As an undergraduate she had already caught what she calls “the teaching bug,” which eventually led her to pursue graduate school while working full time.
She earned a master’s degree in education from California State University, Northridge and later a doctorate in education from the University of Southern California.
Her research originally focused on educational psychology and video games as learning tools. But her academic path shifted when the professor she planned to work with at USC left, forcing her to reconsider her dissertation topic and advisor.
Around the same time, an LMU vice president was looking for someone to study the university’s faculty hiring program. Yeung had written an early graduate paper examining inequities in how faculty were hired and treated.
“I said, ‘No, that’s a leadership paper. I’m in educational psychology,’” she recalled. “But a few years later, that exact topic came up.”
She took it as a sign and turned the paper into her dissertation.
Her research examined faculty hiring, diversity and retention at LMU, asking a central question: did the demographics of the university’s faculty reflect the increasingly diverse student body they were teaching?
The answer, she found, was largely no.
“If you go back and look at the demographics of faculty, do they reflect the student population that they’re teaching?” Yeung said. “We were finding that it didn’t. It was the same demographic as the 1950s.” For Yeung, the issue was not just statistical. Representation in the classroom shapes whether students feel seen and understood by the people teaching them.
Although her dissertation research was separate from her IT work at the time, it influenced how she began thinking about institutional systems and who they serve.
After completing her doctorate, Yeung expanded her research involvement by serving as a grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation. When LMU achieved R2 research status, the university created a small IT group focused on supporting faculty research technology. Yeung joined the team before eventually moving into her current role focused on research and educational applications.
Today, much of her work involves evaluating technology tools before they are introduced across campus. When a department requests new software, Yeung reviews it for accessibility, security and long-term usability.
A key part of that process is the VPAT, or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, which documents how well a product meets accessibility standards for users with disabilities. “The VPAT and our data security are bare minimums,” she said. “We want to make sure that our students, faculty and staff can access it.”
Testing often involves collaboration across campus. Yeung works with LMU’s Disability Support Services Advisory Committee to evaluate tools, particularly those designed for visually impaired users. “I have the privilege of being sighted,” she said. “If I say, ‘I really need help testing this,’ they’ll pair me with someone who can.”
Accessibility is also personal for Yeung. Earlier in her career she struggled with ADHD and felt pressure to hide it in the workplace. Long meetings were especially difficult, and she would excuse herself repeatedly just to move, worried colleagues might assume she was disengaged. Eventually she spoke with her supervisor and coworkers about what she was experiencing. Their response was supportive. Meetings began including stretch breaks, and she no longer felt the need to mask her disability.
“That little piece of respect and inclusivity kind of changed that for me,” she said.
The experience deepened her interest in building more inclusive workplace systems. She was the inaugural chair of LMU ITS’s Core Values Committee, an employee-led group focused on communication, inclusivity, innovation, integrity, service and teamwork.
Through the committee, Yeung helped reform hiring and onboarding practices in the department. Drawing from her dissertation research, she advocated for standardized interview questions and stronger training for hiring managers.
Even outside of work, Yeung advocates for inclusivity programs – she is currently raising Hoku, a puppy who will go on to lead for Guide Dogs of America.
As higher education navigates rapid changes driven by AI, Yeung again finds herself evaluating new technology and its impact on campus systems. LMU now offers tools such as Microsoft Copilot and Zoom AI Companion, but each adoption requires careful consideration of data privacy, opt-in features and long-term costs.
“These AI tools are honestly just tools,” she said. “How do we choose what benefits our campus? How do we keep our data secure, but meanwhile benefiting all people?”
This spring, Yeung co-presented at a disability-focused conference on AI in academia, focusing on how technology leaders collaborate across departments when selecting and implementing new systems.
In her 25 years at LMU, Yeung has worked across nearly every corner of the university’s technology landscape. She has implemented learning systems, reviewed research tools and pushed departments to think more carefully about accessibility and equity.
Through it all, the focus has never been the technology itself.
Whether she is reviewing accessibility standards, evaluating a new AI tool or advising colleagues on hiring practices, Yeung sees the work the same way: small decisions that shape how a university functions.
And often, the most important changes happen quietly, long before anyone notices.
“It’s the people,” she said. “Any skill you learn is never lost. It’s just a matter of when you can use it.”