2011 Award Recipient

Keith W. McIntosh
For advancing operational performance and demonstrating exceptional early-career leadership in higher education IT

Acting Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Technology
Pima Community College

This year, EDUCAUSE has granted the first Rising Star Award to Keith W. “Mac” McIntosh, acting assistant vice chancellor for information technology at Pima Community College (PCC). Although in higher education for only three years, he has been the driving force behind significant IT advances at PCC.

Under Mac’s leadership the college has updated and streamlined technologies by replacing legacy infrastructure supporting the ERP system with hardware using clustering capability that improved operational and reporting performance sevenfold. He planned, organized, and led an LMS replacement project. Mac not only led the first server virtualization installation and service level agreements within IT at PCC but also trained campus IT personnel to use and support their virtual servers. Beyond his other achievements, Mac saved the college $2.5 million by negotiating contracts. Mac demonstrates relationship skills as well as technical know-how, for example, he has strengthened the connection between IT and academic services across the six Pima campuses.

Mac was also a long-time military personnel, where he performed many integral IT-related activities for the Air Force. Translating leadership skills within a hierarchical culture to a civilian environment requires extreme dedication of the individual to make it work. Essentially, the leader must serve as a change agent who can balance demands with a personal support structure that enables his co-workers to be able to respond effectively to operational needs of the organization. Mac was very successful in this regard.

In addition to his service at Pima and to our country, Mac has volunteered his time to EDUCAUSE, serving on conference program committees, as a speaker for annual and regional conferences, and as a co-leader for the IT Metrics Constituent Group. At the EDUCAUSE Institute Leadership Program in 2009, he emerged as a clear leader among the attendees.

“I’m extremely grateful for this honor bestowed by the EDUCAUSE 2011 Recognition Committee,” McIntosh said. “I’m humbled to be the first to receive this recognition and honored that my former boss, Kirk Kelly, nominated me. While Kirk’s guidance and support are invaluable to me, this recognition would not have been possible without the collaboration of my colleagues and the staff at PCC.”

Diana Oblinger, president of EDUCAUSE, commended Mac as the first Rising Star awardee. “We look to people like Mac as the future of our profession. He brings his expertise to a large community college system. Thousands of students and faculty rely on the IT services Mac provides. We anticipate great things from Mac.”