40 Years: Sandy Wittie

Sandy Wittie
Sandy Wittie

People who have worked at UT Southwestern Medical Center as long as Sandy Wittie have a lot to share, in part because they can recall how it used to be.

Ms. Wittie, celebrating a career that spans 40 years, is a walking witness to the people, the expansion, and the history of UT Southwestern. She effortlessly can detail things most employees never knew occurred, and provide glimpses of the campus before it grew to nearly 400 acres on both sides of Harry Hines Boulevard.

A Computer Programmer-Analyst III, she began her UT Southwestern career as a programmer trainee with the Children & Youth Project in Pediatrics. The involved clinics were in West Dallas, where the patients resided, and, due to a shortage of floor space, administrative offices were off campus in the Stemmons Towers. The medical center bought computer time from a company whose computers were in Kansas City.

How different was the campus back in those days? “Definitely fewer buildings and people, and doctors saw private patients in a clinic in the Stemmons Flats. There has been an amazing growth at the university. We now have better parking and even a cafeteria,” she says.

One of Ms. Wittie’s unusual memories is from when she worked at the Medical Computing Resources Center. When two floors were added to the Fred F. Florence Bioinformation Center (E Building), there was a glitch.

“Wet laboratories had been built above the computer room with continuous flooring that wrapped up the walls to contain liquids,” she recalls. “Before the final plumbing connections were made, we shut down the mainframes and covered everything with plastic. Unfortunately, when the first rain hit after the building was complete, a clogged drain on the roof sent water into the computer room. That slowed things down for a while.”

But the computer team made it work, and still does.

“The people I work with, the work itself, and the work environment are the reasons I’ve stayed here,” says Ms. Wittie, who now provides programming support of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Her husband, Bill, is now retired from the aviation division of the Texas Department of Transportation, Ms. Wittie says that retirement for her will come “someday.”

In the meantime, she proudly talks about son, Matt, an analyst with the City of Austin, and daughter, Meredith, a medical student at Texas Tech University Health Science Center at El Paso. 

Employee Recognition 2015

Long-term employees play an invaluable role in the life of UT Southwestern Medical Center. Their faithful, dedicated service has helped the institution become what it is today. In this special edition of Center Times, we showcase some of these employees and their varied interests.