2024 Leadership Award Recipient

David Weil

Vice President and Chief Information and Analytics Officer, Ithaca College

For his decades of dedicated service and visionary leadership in the technology community; for guiding and inspiring others through partnerships, innovative thinking, and professional development; for his profound impact on higher education through his work at Ithaca College and beyond.

The 2024 EDUCAUSE Leadership Award recognizes David Weil for his many years of service to the technology community, providing guidance and inspiration through partnerships, innovative thinking, and professional development across a wide range of topics and developments that influence all of higher education.

David Weil serves as the Vice President and Chief Information and Analytics Officer at Ithaca College, where he began almost 40 years ago as an IT student employee before rising through the ranks. A respected thought leader on the national stage, David contributes to discussions across higher education IT on leadership, digital transformation, analytics, and artificial intelligence, focusing on their roles in advancing the mission of higher education.

He is a frequent author and speaker at conferences, institutes, and webinars, and his work has been profiled in EDUCAUSE publications, as well as Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Campus Technology, Ed Tech Magazine, eCampus News, and others. David has been invited to serve on numerous expert panels and focus groups, where he helped develop frameworks for digital transformation (Dx), analytics, AI readiness, and similar subjects impacting higher education IT. David is passionate about the importance of effective leadership and played an instrumental role in developing the EDUCAUSE Executive Leaders Academy, as well as the EDUCAUSE Senior Director Leadership Institute. He also regularly serves as a faculty member in these and other professional development programs.

In addition to his work with EDUCAUSE, in 1991 David established Ithaca College’s Educational Technology Day, a regional technology event focusing on technology in education that welcomes more than 1,000 people annually and has hosted more than 30,000 attendees from hundreds of educational institutions and organizations.

At Ithaca College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s degree in communications, David fosters a people-first philosophy that builds partnerships across campus communities, engaging colleagues to use technology and analytics to improve the student experience and innovate educational opportunities. His teams manage four divisions: Applications & Infrastructure, Center for Instructional Design & Educational Technology, Engagement & Client Technologies, and Information Security & Access Management. Those divisions also provide experiential learning opportunities for between 75 and 100 students each semester in more than a dozen roles. In 2023, David merged Ithaca College’s analytics and information technology functions to further align efforts of the division with the strategic goals of the institution.

David is known for his insightful philosophical phrases and modeling behavior about leadership and how to approach work, including the importance of “leading with intention,” “one must lead from and speak to both the head and the heart,” and “never forget that students are our why.” David’s vision, passion, and strategic and intentional approach provide inspiration for colleagues whose work serves thousands of students each year and energizes higher education across the national landscape.

This EDUCAUSE Award is sponsored by Moran Technology Consulting, Mission Partner.