Biography

Shahra Meshkaty is the Senior Director of Academic Technology Services at the University of San Diego, where she oversees the desktop, helpdesk, web, instructional support, media services, labs and academic system support. Shahra has been an adjunct faculty at USD School of Education and Business as well as an instructor at the San Diego Community College New Media Center teaching courses in business applications, web publishing and graphics design for many years. In her current role, she oversees all aspects of teaching and learning support, coordinates strategic direction, planning and implementation of the Academic Technology services, works in close collaboration with faculty and departmental liaisons on learning space projects, and serves on many campus committees and taskforces related to the academic technology resources. Her most recent objective being to explore the impact of learning spaces and technologies on student learning, she helped form and co-chaired the Innovative Learning Space Design Committee at USD — the first attempt to improve formal and informal learning spaces at the university. She works closely with technology partners, campus constituents and the facilities' management to update the learning spaces around campus. Involved with numerous IT projects and initiatives over the years, she launched the annual Technology Open House, the Student Technology Assistant program, and, most recently, the Classroom iPad project. She has given a number of talks, papers and presentations at national and international conferences such as the SIGUCCS, New Media Center, EdMedia, Educause, and E-Learn 2012--World Conference.