EDUCAUSE Announces Leadership Transition for National Learning Infrastructure Initiative

For Release: Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Contact: Peter DeBlois Director of Communication Services EDUCAUSE pdeblois@educause.edu (303) 544-5665

EDUCAUSE President Brian Hawkins today announced that Diana G. Oblinger will become vice president of EDUCAUSE in early April 2004, assuming responsibility for the association's teaching and learning activities and direction of the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII). The leadership of Carole A. Barone, current vice president and head of NLII since 1998, will overlap with Oblinger's for a period of time, after which Barone will become an EDUCAUSE senior fellow, honoring her desire to work on a reduced time basis.

Hawkins and Barone have been working on a transition plan for some time. "This is the ideal time to identify the ongoing leadership of NLII and to allow Diana to benefit from Carole's experience, providing a seamless transition for this important EDUCAUSE program," Hawkins indicated. "EDUCAUSE is fortunate," said Barone, "to be able to gain the services of someone of Diana's caliber at just the right time; I am looking forward to working with her."

Oblinger has had a distinguished career in teaching, learning, and information technology. Most recently she has been executive director of higher education for Microsoft Corporation, An EDUCAUSE Gold Partner, providing strategic direction for higher education programs. In this role, she spoke and wrote on a wide range of higher education topics, while working closely with colleges and universities on instructional technology issues. She also serves as an adjunct professor of Adult and Community College Education at North Carolina State University.

From 2000-2002, Oblinger was a consultant and senior fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR), where she directed the development of bi-monthly research bulletins that synthesize current issues for college and university executives.

Oblinger has also served as vice president for information resources and CIO for the 16-campus University of North Carolina system, where she was responsible for strategic planning and policy development for information technology as well as for collaborative programs in teaching and learning with technology, student services, and IT procurement. In addition, she has held a variety of management positions within IBM, focused on strategy and academic consulting. Before joining IBM, she was on the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at Michigan State University. At Missouri, she served as an academic dean and was recognized for her work in student recruitment, retention, faculty development, and student computing.

Known for her leadership in teaching and learning with technology and distributed learning, Oblinger serves on such bodies as the advisory board for the University of Texas TeleCampus, Western Governors University, and the Editorial Board of Open Learning. She chairs the National Visiting Committee for the National Science Digital Library project of the National Science Foundation, and has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Technology. Oblinger was on the original committee that established the NLII and served on the NLII planning committee for eight of the past ten years.

She is a frequent keynote speaker as well as co-author of What Business Wants from Higher Education, which received the 1999 Frandson Award for best literature in continuing education. She is co-editor of five other books, The Learning Revolution, The Future Compatible Campus, Renewing Administration, E is for Everything, and Best Practices in Student Services and the author of dozens of monographs and articles on higher education and technology.

Oblinger has received outstanding teaching and research awards and was named Young Alumnus of the Year at Iowa State University. She holds a B.S. in Botany, an M.S. in Plant Breeding, and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics from Iowa State.

In announcing the appointment, Hawkins said, "Diana Oblinger brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and leadership to EDUCAUSE and NLII, and we are fortunate to be able to include her in the EDUCAUSE team."

Barone has a reputation as a leader who engages the practical and humanistic challenges of applying technology to teaching and learning. She is noted for thinking and acting creatively and for inspiring others to do the same, on their own campuses and in national partnerships. According to Hawkins, "Carole Barone has provided extraordinary leadership in the first five-and-one-half years of EDUCAUSE. She has brought focus to the broad initiatives of the NLII and has given this program a legacy of innovation that has advanced teaching and learning in higher education. I look forward to her continuing contributions to EDUCAUSE as a senior fellow."

Before coming to EDUCAUSE to lead NLII, Barone was associate vice chancellor for information technology at the University of California-Davis, where she was responsible for information technology planning and strategy, as well as advanced networking, information resources management, and scientific applications. Prior to joining UC-Davis, Barone served as vice president for information systems and computing at Syracuse University.

For more than five years, she has helped the NLII emerge as a leading-edge contributor to thought and action in the realm of instructional technology. "Since [its founding in 1994], the agenda of the NLII has shifted from demonstrating the power of technology to designing and building enabling infrastructure and business models, and now to exploring the key issues at the nexus of technology and pedagogy," Barone said in characterizing the program's evolution.

In summing up her feelings about this latest transition, Barone said, "My years of leading the NLII have been intellectually challenging and personally satisfying. I have had the pleasure of working with some of the most innovative and visionary thinkers in the profession, and now look forward to a new role within EDUCAUSE."

About EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 2,200 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 250 corporations, with 17,000 active members. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at www.educause.edu.

About The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII)

The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) is a community that works together to stay on the leading edge of teaching and learning with technology through perspectives on learners, learning principles and practices, and learning technologies. The NLII is designed to be strategic, engaged, and synergistic and is distinctive in that members are actively engaged in the work of the organization. Learn more about NLII at www.educause.edu/nlii/ .