Title: Manager, AV/IT Operations
Company: UCLA
Location: Los Angeles
Overtime: Vardar doesn’t just work in education, she's engulfed by it. She’s passionate about learning and is currently going for her master's degree.
Why You Need to Know Her: Basically, Vardar is what you get when you mix a bookworm who loves to learn with a whole bunch of Pro AV gadgets and solutions.
Melis Vardar credits her love for learning to her soon-to-be 97-year-old grandmother, who to this day, as Vardar laughed, “works her iPhone better than I do." Her grandmother was a doctor in Turkey and is still the smartest woman she has ever known. It was her passion to learn that drives Vardar still today.
As a member of Joe Way’s AV/IT team at UCLA, Vardar oversees operations in digital signage, finance, and security/safety. While she has always been Pro AV adjacent working with technology companies like TikTok and in the cloud at Oracle, this is her first go at managing an AV/IT team.
Though she admits she kind of stumbled into AV, she’s always seemed destined to be in the education space. “[Education] was perfect for me because I get to keep that passion of learning new technologies while also being in the education space where I'm able to directly see the impact,” she said.
While she may have “stumbled” into her current position at UCLA, it was only a matter of time that she would find herself there. After all, she attended Loyola Marymount University, took classes at UCLA, graduated from USC, and is currently working toward her master’s at Pepperdine University. “I've gone to every school in the L.A. area,” she said. “It was only fitting that I go work at UCLA.”
The classroom isn't the only place Vardar is learning. “I'm someone who always wants to learn about the next thing,” she explained. “When I was at Oracle, I was in the cloud technology space in sales, but the other side of the business is this enterprise application space. So, I pivoted from the database cloud software over to the cloud application software because I wanted to get a better understanding of that side of the business. I think what's so magical about AV—to someone who isn't familiar with it, coming on this side and seeing everything that goes into making this seamless environment—I just find very impressive and very cool that I get to be part of it.”
It certainly doesn’t hurt having someone like Joe Way—executive director, Digital Spaces, UCLA and a Pro AV icon in the educational space—be your mentor in a field that is foreign to you. “The way he puts out a plan, it's not within the box—he realizes there is no box,” Vardar said. “That's the way he approaches AV, and I love that. He has this remarkable ability of explaining things that make sense to whoever is listening to him, and I just think that's a sign of a great leader.”
"Melis is a rare asset to the AV industry—she thinks strategically like a business leader while forging genuine, personal connections with her colleagues," Way said. "Her ability to balance manager acumen with strategic collaboration makes her an invaluable asset to UCLA. With her unique blend of vision and heart, she not only drives progress but also inspires those around her to do the same."
Now, close to nine months into her aspiring Pro AV career (with her first ISE officially under her belt), that childlike awe of learning still shines through. A self-proclaimed learner by doing, Vardar is already doing great things on campus—with more to come.
“What's so amazing about being in AV in education—you get to see your direct impact every day,” Vardar added. “You see the students in the classrooms, you see them learning. The fact that I can see that all the work that I'm putting into something directly improves their experience it's just such a good feeling. I feel so honored to be in this specific space.”
