Meet the IT Issues Panel

About the IT Issues Panel

The EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel includes individuals from EDUCAUSE member institutions to provide quick feedback to EDUCAUSE on current issues, problems, and proposals across higher education IT. Susan Grajek, EDUCAUSE Vice President, Partnerships, Communities and Research, coordinates the group's activities and reports. Panel members serve for one year with staggered terms.

Panel members are selected by EDUCAUSE to reflect the composition of its membership, and include CIOs, other senior IT and library leaders, and faculty. The group may occasionally include others with useful perspectives, such as leaders from other associations or non-IT higher education leaders. Membership is by invitation only; discussions are private except for the reports mentioned below, and individual members' contributions are kept confidential.

Panel Responsibilities and Process

Members of the Issues Panel have two principal responsibilities:

Once each quarter, the  EDUCAUSE Vice President, Partnerships, Communities and Research, convenes the Issues Panel for approximately two hours. In advance of each quarterly session, EDUCAUSE asks Issues Panel members to identify the issues they believe are most important in higher-education IT practice at that point, emergent or otherwise significant. During the meeting, Issues Panel members and participating EDUCAUSE leaders discuss the issues members have listed, and agree on which seem most important. The resulting list then becomes the basis for developing the yearly Top IT Issues list. Based on the quarterly discussions, EDUCAUSE may also commission papers or reports, organize online webinars, conduct case studies, undertake research, or solicit relevant sessions for EDUCAUSE conferences and events.

From time to time—no more frequently than monthly—EDUCAUSE asks Issues Panel members to respond to specific questions. Sometimes these questions are about topics that have arisen during events or in online discussions; the goal is a quick read on how widespread or important those topics are. Sometimes the questions are about actions EDUCAUSE might take or changes it might make to existing programs. Issues Panel members agree to respond to such questions quickly, generally within 48 hours.

Meet The IT Issues Panel

Vipin Ahlawat

Director of IT Services
Loughborough, UNITED KINGDOM
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Midhat Asghar

Interim Chief Information Officer, Deputy Chief Information Officer
Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Param Bedi

Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Lewisburg, PA, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Eric Behrens

Vice President for Library and Information Services
Chester, PA, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Tracey Birdwell

Program Director - Mosaic Initiative
Bloomington, IN, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Susan Bowen

Vice President, Chief Campus Operations Officer
Durham, NC, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

George Claffey

VP & Chief Information Officer
New Britain, CT, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Sarah Cockrill

Director of Digital Strategy & IT
Coventry, UNITED KINGDOM
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Mike Dieckmann

Vice President for IT & CIO
Lakeland, FL, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

John Fritz

Assoc. VP, Instructional Technology
Baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Liv Gjestvang

Vice President & CIO
Granville, OH, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Susan Grajek

Ex Officio
Vice President, Partnerships, Communities and Research
Washington, DC, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2011-Present

Brian Henderson

CIO, Director of Digital & Information Services
Aberdeen, UNITED KINGDOM
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Jodi Ito

CISO
Honolulu, HI, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Kelli Jackson

Director, IT Projects & Products
Baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Vince Kellen

Chief Information Officer (CIO)
La Jolla, CA, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Carolyn Lightfoot

Chief Information Officer
Baytown, TX, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Dale Pike

Associate Vice Provost
Blacksburg, VA, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Jamie Reeves

Staff Liaison
Director of Community, Product, and Portfolio Management
Washington, DC, UNITED STATES

Mike Richichi

Assistant Vice President of Information Technology
New York, NY, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Jim Russell

CIO and VP for Digital Strategy and Planning
Purchase, NY, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Carol Smith

Chief Information Officer
Greencastle, IN, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Standish Stewart

Vice President and CIO, ITS
Cleveland, OH, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Jenn Stringer

Vice President and Chief Digital Officer
Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

Catherine Zabriskie

Senior Director Digital Learning & Design
Providence, RI, UNITED STATES
Committee Member: 2023-2024

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