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Forums set for chief information officer finalists

February 5, 2014

Photo of information technology hardwareAll members of the campus community are invited to meet finalists for the position of vice president of Information Technology and chief information officer at open forums beginning this week.

The first candidate, Brett Coryell, will appear from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, in the Illinois Room at the Holmes Student Center.

Coryell is currently deputy chief information officer at Emory University, a position he has held since 2007. He previously was executive director and deputy chief information officer at Purdue University and a senior manager at Sprint Corporation in Houston, Texas.

The second candidate, R. David Crain, will appear from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.

Crain is currently assistant provost and chief information officer at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Previously he was assistant vice president for operations and infrastructure at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and worked as chief information officer for the Missouri House of Representatives in Jefferson City.

Photo of hands using a smart phoneThe third candidate, Sharon P. Pitt, will appear from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, in the Sky Room.

Pitt is currently interim deputy CIO at George Mason University. Pitt has worked at GMU since 2006, and has served as executive director of an IT consortium comprised of four Virginia universities. Previous positions include associate vice provost of learning technologies at North Carolina State University and director of instructional technology and distance learning at James Madison University.

In addition to the general campus forums, each candidate will spend two days meeting with a variety of campus constituencies, including student leaders, commissions and councils, deans, ITS staff, President Doug Baker and his cabinet as well as the CIO search committee.

People planning to attend the open forums are invited to provide feedback using these forms. Hard copies can be turned in at the end of the forum, or sent within three days of the forum through campus mail to Cathy Cradduck, Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development, Lowden Hall 307, or by email to ccradduc@niu.edu.

NIU’s new CIO position was created by and will report directly to President Baker. The successful candidate will direct the planning and implementation of enterprise IT systems in support of the university’s learning mission and business operations with an emphasis on cost effectiveness and service quality, as well as education, research, outreach and business development.

For more information, call (815) 753-5008 or email ccradduc@niu.edu.