Am I an IT Professional?

This question is a bit challenging for me and let me even stop for a while and think….
Let us define first the words IT and Professional.
What is a professional?
According to Wikipedia definition of professional. A professional is a person in a profession which requires certain types of skilled work requiring formal training or education.
Professionals usually have autonomy in the workplace—they are expected to utilize their independent judgment and professional ethics in carrying out their responsibilities.
What is Information Technology?
As define by ITAA (Information Technology Association of America) Information Technology the study, design, development, implementation support and/or management of any computer based information systems. This relates particularly to software applications and computer hardware. Information technology deals with using electronic computers and software to convert, store, protect, process, retrieve with security or transmit any information.
IT professionals possess the right combination of knowledge and practical, hands-on expertise to take care of both an organization’s information technology infrastructure and the people who use it. They assume responsibility for selecting hardware and software products appropriate for an organization. They integrate those products with organizational needs and infrastructure, and install, customize and maintain those applications, thereby providing a secure and effective environment that supports the activities of the organization’s computer users.

Am I an IT Professional? Yes I consider myself as an IT Professional even though I belong to academe. Yes I am an IT Professional because I am skilled in my field of profession, for what would I teach if I don’t have enough knowledge about Information Technology. Teaching is part of the process of producing. How can we produce professional IT if nobody had even taught them about IT. For me an IT Professional is a person who has enough knowledge and can able to apply his knowledge into to practice. An IT professional never stop learning, he continue to update his knowledge on his field through formal studies and attending seminars.