Menlo College

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.
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