Graduate Commencement Speaker Beth Tinsman '12 MSITM

It's not lip service when Beth Tinsman says she values the skills St. Ambrose University graduates bring to the work place.

She hires a lot of them. Nearly half of the engineers and programmers working at the award-winning Twin State Technical Services (TSTS) support firm Tinsman founded in Davenport are St. Ambrose University graduates. So, of course, is the company's CEO.

Tinsman is a proud 2012 graduate of the St. Ambrose Master of Science in Information Technology Management (MSITM) program, and an adjunct instructor in the SAU Computer Information Sciences Department.

She will address the graduating class at the 2022 St. Ambrose University Graduate Hooding and Commencement Ceremonies at 9 a.m., May 21 at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline. The ceremony will honor 130 master's recipients and 39 doctoral recipients who persevered through circumstances that would test any lifelong learner's commitment, Tinsman noted.

"These people have already demonstrated purposefulness," she said, noting her address will build on an underlying message that comparison is "the thief of joy." That is to say, "At a time when comparison with others seems endemic, how do we set personal goals that have meaning and then have the grit to reach them."

Students who continued to learn in the face of unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic won't be accused of lacking grit, she said. This Ambrosian group's next challenge, she said, will be setting themselves apart from others who earned degrees in the midst of the pandemic by setting out on their own unique path.

"At a time where it seems like nothing is enough, how do we set our own internal compass?" she wondered. "What does it look like to have a 25-year framework when your peer group may be going in a different direction?"

After earning her undergraduate degree in computer sciences from Northwestern University in 1983 and working for IBM for nearly a decade, Tinsman found her own bold direction when she launched TSTS in 1992.

The business was awarded the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce 2020 Business of the Year Award and in 2017 won the Chamber's Quad Cities Innovation in Talent Development Award. Also in 2017, the Technology Association of Iowa named Tinsman one of the Top 10 Women in Technology in Iowa.

"Beth is passionate about breaking down barriers to accessing technology and enabling technology to be easily adaptable," the statewide association's website said.

Tinsman also is passionate about St. Ambrose.

"My affinity for SAU is strong and deep," she said. "The University community walks its talk and lives its beliefs."