At the Office, Rink and Playing Field, Collaboration is Key for Jamie DePastino

In her day job at Carnegie Mellon University, Jamie DePastino helps orchestrate a complex network of information, ensuring the data is accurate, secure and accessible. On nights and weekends, she plays ice hockey and camogie, an Irish stick-and-ball sport that traces its origins back centuries.

The principles of collaboration, focus and competitive spirit that drive DePastino’s success as a data governance manager also fuel her as an athlete.

“There's a lot of correlation with my job and my sports,” she said. “To get anything done with data governance, you have to work together as a team with your colleagues across the university, just as you would on the ice or on the pitch.”

DePastino is in her 18th year at CMU. Five years ago, she moved into her current role as a data governance manager in Computing Services. 

A data governance manager? What’s that? DePastino smiled. She gets that question a lot.

“It's really just about thinking about the rules and responsibilities for how we handle our operational data,” she said. “I'm one of many who makes sure the right people are getting access to the right data at the right time and that it’s accurate, protected and used properly.”

Working with data stewards across campus, DePastino helps set policies for all sorts of data — including student information and financial figures, Workday data for the Office of Human Resources, and Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance System data for the Research Systems team. 

It's a cross-collaborative and cross-functional job. Although the role requires handling a lot of facts and figures, being a “numbers person” isn’t a requirement.

“It’s more about working with people,” DePastino said. “It's more about the collaboration, because I'm not the one setting the guidelines and procedures. I can make recommendations, but it's really all of us working together as a team here at the university to make those things happen.”

Her professional reputation has grown beyond CMU. A Certified Data Management Professional, DePastino is one of 11 people worldwide selected for the editorial board for the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK), the industry’s authoritative source, and is helping to produce the DMBOK’s third edition. 

Generating ideas is one of DePastino’s strengths, and she said being physically active stokes her creativity. Like several members of the CMU faculty, she achieves a work-life balance in part through sports.

Earlier in her 17-plus-year CMU career, when DePastino worked in the University Registrar's Office, she often spent her lunch break in the pool at the Cohon University Center. 

“If there was a problem that I was trying to solve, I would swim laps and think it over,” she said. “Nine times out of 10, I'd come out of the water with a solution.”

A former competitive swimmer for the Wilmerding YMCA, DePastino had to discover a new physical outlet when the Y closed. “My son told me, ‘Mom, play hockey. You’re gonna love it,’” she recalled. DePastino was initially skeptical, but was swayed after talking with a former CMU colleague who’d played for a women’s team called the Pittsburgh Puffins. 

DePastino started out playing forward for the Puffins and recently joined the Delmont G.I. Janes in the East Coast Women’s Hockey League. DePastino also skates for a coed team with her son (a goaltender and defenseman) and her partner (a center). “All three of us play together, so it’s a joy for me,” she said. 

DePastino brings a sense of humor to the rink. "You can't always take the games too seriously," she said. “After all, we all have to go to work on Monday."

Photo credit: Danielle Walukas Photography

If hockey is DePastino’s family passion, camogie is her unique obsession. Camogie is the women’s version of Irish hurling — sort of a cross between field hockey, soccer and a little bit of magic. 

The ball is called a sliotar and the stick, which has a beveled edge, is a hurl. Players, whose only protective gear is a helmet, use the hurl to roll up the sliotar or jab it into the air. To advance the ball, they can hit it, balance it on their hurl or kick it on the ground. A goal is three points; hitting the ball through the uprights is one.

“When you Google it, you'll see these amazing highlight videos of players in Ireland just running with the ball on the stick,” she said. “It’s physical, but it’s a lot of fun.”

DePastino, a defender, has been playing for four years with a Pittsburgh team, Na Laochra, which is Gaelic for warriors. Founded in 2021, the club competes in the Midwest Division of the United States Gaelic Athletic Association. In 2023, Na Laochra won the Junior B National Championship in Denver. 

“In hockey, I have a reputation for being friendly — we’re mostly all middle-aged folks out there having a good time,” DePastino said with a laugh. “In camogie, maybe not so much because I’m playing defense. At nationals, I was locked in, like, ‘I’m not talking to you, sorry.’”

Beyond her two sports and day job, DePastino is an author. She is writing a book titled “Shattering Ceilings,” which focuses on the barriers women face in data management. The idea came to her after attending a conference where she heard women panelists talk about their challenges.

“It really inspired me to capture these stories so that women felt their solidarity, that they're not alone in some of the barriers and challenges that we uniquely face,” she said. “It's really interesting hearing from these women, some of the challenges that they faced and how they overcame them. Such amazing resilience and strong women.”