Sherri Braxton Castanzo

With over 20 years of higher education experience and prior experience as a defense contracting program manager, Dr. Sherri Braxton Castanzo currently serves as the Deputy CIO for Digital Innovation at Bowdoin College.  She is also active in the 1EdTech Consortium, EDUCAUSE, and the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC), all of which focus on effective practices in technology for higher education.  Dr. Braxton Castanzo is also one of the inaugural mentors of the Next Leaders Fellowship, an initiative providing a framework to identify, develop, and advocate for talented Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) information and technology professionals in higher education. She is a national thought leader on digital credentials, microcredentials, and comprehensive learner records and has both presented and authored several articles and book chapters on these topics.

Dr. Braxton Castanzo earned a Doctor of Science in Computer Science with Minors in Educational Leadership and Management Science from the George Washington University. She also holds a Master of Science in Computer Science with a Math Minor from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science from Wake Forest University. She is also a graduate of both the MOR Associates Information Technology Leadership Program and the EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Leaders Institute where she also served as a faculty member and co-director.

In her spare time, she enjoys exercising, watching football, riding her horse, Indigo, and spending time visiting local wineries with her husband, Ron.
 

Erin DeSilva
Erin DeSilva is the Associate Provost, Digital and Online Learning at Dartmouth College. She works with a team of talented learning designers and educational technologists to support faculty in their course design as well as to manage the technology that helps facilitate student learning. Prior to joining Dartmouth in 2015, Erin worked as an Instructional Designer at Brown University and an Educational Technologist at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where her responsibilities included training and supporting faculty, designing and building courses, and other front-end infrastructure support. Erin has been involved in NERCOMP since 2009, facilitating SIG/Professional Development Opportunities and serving on the conference Program Committee, where she is currently vice-chair of the 2021 Annual Conference. She has led NERCOMP sessions on learning management systems, collaborative writing, assessment technologies, library/IT collaboration, and accessibility, among other topics. Erin is also a beneficiary of NERCOMP’s member services, and a strong believer in NERCOMP’s inspirational ability to lift up individuals while excelling in the innovation and important maintenance of the consortium.

Erin earned her Bachelor’s degree at Simmons College and her Master’s degree in Educational Media at Boston University. She lives in Norwich, VT, with her husband Jerry and children Ben and Josie. She owes so much to NERCOMP that she is thrilled to chair the 2022 Annual Conference and to serve on the Board.

Fred Kass
Fred Kass is Associate CIO for IT Operations at Amherst College. He is responsible for strategy, communications, budgeting, planning, and operations, including Enterprise Technology and Systems and Networking teams oversight.

He has been a strong proponent of inter-institutional collaboration throughout his higher education information technology career. He has been a member of the Connecticut Education Network Technical Advisory Council, Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology Infrastructure Advisory Council, and a Board Member and Treasurer of NERCOMP. Fred was Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation grant CC*DNI Campus Design: Trinity College Next Generation Science Network and DMZ. 

Fred has an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management and is an alum of the EDUCAUSE Leadership Institute and CLIR/EDUCAUE Leading Change Institute.
 

Karen Warren

Karen serves as Chief Information Officer at Mount Holyoke College. She previously served as Deputy CIO at Wesleyan University, where she oversaw the user services, technical services, and academic technology teams. Combined, they provide the foundational support for all other IT operations in the College, develop strategic input regarding systems and infrastructure, and provide support for teaching and learning through the use of technology. Karen developed and implemented ITSM for IT and has scaled the support model to other functional areas at Wesleyan. 

Karen is currently a member of the EDUCAUSE Board and was a member of EDUCAUSE's Senior Director Institute faculty..  She has served as Chair of NERCOMP, the Northeast Regional Computing Program, a consortium of Universities throughout the Northeast, and co-chair of the CT Education Network Advisory Committee. She is an experienced presenter, having spoken at the NERCOMP Annual Conference, ServiceNow Knowledge, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, and other professional workshops. Active in campus life, Karen is committed to crossing functional and departmental lines to bring integrated and scalable solutions to the Wesleyan community.