Speaker: Debra Dexter

I plan, organize, and develop support processes, documentation, and training initiatives to meet strategic and organization-wide goals and priorities. In addition to coordinating the training and development efforts of the WPI Community in the use of supported and specialized business software, I supervise professional and student staff in the management of IT content on our web pages, in our ticketing system, as well as communications via e-mail to the campus. I partner with the Enterprise Solutions team and business units throughout the college to provide leadership in the development and delivery of processes, training and documentation for the successful transition of UDC initiative projects to production.

Speaker: Tina Finneran

Tina Finneran is the Director of Academic Technology & Consulting at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Her responsibilities include high performance computing, educational technology, classroom technology, faculty development, campus-wide training, audio-visual support for events, and equipment loaning. As a member of the IT leadership team, Tina provides vision for enhancing teaching and learning via technology and strategies for change management throughout the college. She manages the IT Division's budget. Tina holds a Ph.D. in Information Science & Technology and a M.S.L.I.S. from Syracuse University, a M.A. in Geography (GIS) from University at Buffalo and a B.S. from Cornell University.

Speaker: Frank Furnari

Frank Furnari is the Service Desk Manager at Boston University Medical Campus Information Technology. Frank started working at BU in 1999 as a student employee and has had a variety of responsibilities over the years. His team supports the 3500 faculty and staff of the BU Medical Campus, providing first and second tier technical support. During his tenure at BU, he’s helped manage two Exchange migrations and three Service Desk ticketing software implementations. He holds a BA and MBA from BU and is a trained facilitator, Six Sigma Green Belt, and recently received ITIL Foundations certifications. Frank serves on the board of The Wellesley Players, a community theatre based in Wellesley, MA, working on marketing and box office, in addition to lighting and other technical aspects of productions.

Speaker: Mimi Royston

Mimi Royston is the Chief Information Officer at American International College. Ms. Royston is an experienced leader with a strong technical background, developed over the past 20 years as an information technology professional. She has both depth and breadth in IT management and operational experience in the following areas: networking, server management, security, helpdesk, desktop support, training, grant writing, web support and instructional technology. Mimi holds an M.B.A. from Assumption College in 2005 and maintains her CISSP certification.

Mimi is responsible for leading the AIC Information Technology staff and the wide range of services IT delivers to the college community in the areas of instructional and administrative information systems, infrastructure, technology support, and IT-related innovation. She is leading the development of a shared vision for technology that supports American International College's mission and will establish and execute strategies to achieve that vision in a collaborative, transparent, and cost-effective way.

Speaker: Janet Simons

Janet Thomas Simons is Associate Director of Instructional Technology at Hamilton College and Co-Director, Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi). Her role includes faculty outreach, faculty development, course design, identification and research of technologies appropriate to research projects and learning goals, and coordination of academic support services to meet teaching and research needs. Janet specializes in assignment design, digital literacy, and video production. Janet Co-Directs the Mellon Funded Digital Humanities Initiative (http://dhinitiative.org) at Hamilton College with Angel David Nieves, Associate Professor of Africana Studies. Recent work includes research and development of digital scholarship infrastructure for Humanities projects in the Liberal Arts and collaboration with Colgate and St. Lawrence Universities on the NITLE funded Media Scholarship in the Liberal Arts project (http://academics.hamilton.edu/mediascholarship).

Speaker: Andrew White

Andrew W. White is Director of User Services at Bates College, where he has worked since 1999. His portfolio of responsibilities include curricular and research computing, desktop support, help desk services, media development, classroom technology, student computing facilities, technology instruction, and campus-wide event support. Andrew has served as Board Chair of NERCOMP, an Educause partner, and currently serves as a faculty member for the Educause/NERCOMP Managers Workshop Series. Andrew completed an MA in literature and an MLS, both from Indiana University, along with a BA in English from SUNY Buffalo. Prior to Bates, he held positions in libraries and computing at Connecticut College and Indiana University. A resident of Portland, Maine, he can often be found, along with partner John and dogs, wandering the woods of northern New England.