Menlo College is a small, private, non-profit Silicon Valley school that focuses on business education with a strong liberal arts emphasis. Located in Atherton, California, the serves approximately 750 undergraduate students.
Chief Information Officer
2009-2012
Responsible for strategy, budget, and staffing for—and direct, day-to-day management of—the Office of Information Technology (OIT). OIT services and support include: user support, classroom and academic technology, Web, enterprise applications, databases, servers, storage, telephony, and network.
Institutional service includes:
- Chair, Jenzabar Module Manager’s Group. 2010-2012.
- Member, Strategic Planning Committee. 2009-2012.
- Member, Student Success Committee. 2009-2012.
- Member, Campus Safety Committee. 2009-2012.
Major accomplishments in this role include:
Strategic Vision and Leadership
- Authored the institution’s first IT strategic plan—in consultation with faculty, students, and staff—leading to its inclusion in the college-wide strategic plan as an eighth institutional goal.
- Built a service-oriented IT culture and team (including professional staff, student workers, and interns) that recognizes the importance of diversity, empowerment, achievement, professional development, and career growth.
- Re-focused IT services and budget on technology solutions that support the core mission of the institution, including: new collaborative learning spaces, a Learning Commons, upgraded classrooms, technology training for faculty, expanded support hours, and virtual computing lab environments.
- Developed and implemented an alternative sourcing strategy for IT, utilizing a combination of cloud computing, software-as-a-service (SaaS), outsourcing, and internal resources to maximize IT services, support, and budget capacity.
- Actively engaged in the broader IT community—through participation in EDUCAUSE, local consortiums, and other industry organizations; authoring articles; and presenting at conferences—to benchmark the institution, create IT thought leadership in support of its Silicon Valley positioning, and foster cross-institution collaborations.
- Provided input into and leadership for college-wide initiatives unrelated to technology, including: capital campaign development, facilities upgrade projects, academic conferences, grant proposal for a summer “women in business” institute for high school girls; and institutional Web and social media marketing.
Technical and Project Management
- Oversaw all information technology services, staff, and budget for the college and residence halls, including: user support, classroom and academic technology, Web, enterprise applications, databases, servers, storage, telephony, and network.
- Led the implementation of a new student information, finance, and HR system (Jenzabar) and online student portal (MyMenlo).
- Oversaw the evaluation, selection, and implementation of the college’s first learning management system, Moodle.
- Instituted a public-facing Service Desk, significantly expanded support hours to meet the needs of students and faculty, and developed processes for proactive maintenance and support of learning spaces.
- Planned and managed the migration from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps for Education for students, faculty, and staff email.
- Launched a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) initiative to expand access to college software, improve desktop maintenance and support, reduce PC refresh costs, and enable “green” computing.
- Introduced an iPad pilot project and collaborated with faculty to assess the impact of iPads on learning and student engagement.
- Upgraded and expanded wireless network from 7 to 90% coverage, and increased campus bandwidth five-fold while reducing costs by 25%.
- Created an IT student worker and post-graduation internship program to mentor and develop students as technology professionals.
- Developed and implemented refresh standards for classroom technology, desktop hardware, and infrastructure systems, all previously refreshed on an ad-hoc basis.
Communication and Collaboration
- Created and annually conducted an IT satisfaction survey, and reported results out to the Faculty Senate, Student Government Association, and college leadership. Increased satisfaction with IT from below 40% to nearly 90% in the first six months.
- Implemented a weekly Monday Memo email and IT@Menlo Twitter feed to update students, faculty, and staff on technology projects, available resources and training, and maintenance schedules.
- Developed and delivered technology training sessions during student and faculty orientations, to increase awareness of technology services and support.
- Collaborated with individual faculty members to author articles, assess technology use, develop faculty-centric technology training, and champion new academic technologies.
- Partnered with the Student Government Association to raise cyber security awareness among students and host a “Get Cyber Savvy” event.
- Prepared and delivered reports on IT services and support for the Board of Trustees, Faculty Senate, Student Government Association, and President’s Council.
- Created “module manager” role within departments to empower functional ownership over the college’s ERP, and implemented monthly module manager’s meetings for inter-departmental collaboration and communication.
- Met regularly with Student Government, resident assistants, and other student leaders to understand and address students’ technology needs.
- Asked to build and lead the institution’s Web Marketing team, with responsibility for the menlo.edu website, social media, online advertising, and email marketing.
- Participated in Late Night Breakfast (late evening event during finals week where staff and faculty serve students breakfast), art exhibits, Homecoming, academic success celebrations, Commencement, and other campus events.