Sherri Braxton

Dr. Sherri Braxton joined Bowdoin College as the first Senior Director of Digital Innovation in January 2021. In her role Dr. Braxton leads efforts to build on the successes of Bowdoin’s recent digital learning efforts, partners with faculty to identify areas to retain beyond this unusual academic year, and serves as a focal point for efforts to support innovation with digital tools and resources. Reporting to the CIO and serving as a member of the IT division’s senior leadership team, Dr. Braxton’s role also works closely with the Dean for Academic Affairs. 

Dr. Braxton previously served as the Senior Director of Instructional Technology at UMBC where she was responsible for leading the Division of Information Technology’s (DoIT) strategy for end-user support of instructional technologies including online, hybrid, and traditional “face-to-face” technologies. She collaborated with her staff to devise learning opportunities delivered in multiple modes that meet the varied and shifting needs of both UMBC faculty and students. 

With over 20 years of experience in traditional classroom instruction and adult education strategies grounded in instructional design models, Dr. Braxton also possesses over 18 years of experience using learning technologies in higher education settings, including the design and facilitation of online and hybrid courses. 

Dr. Braxton is a dynamic presenter known for her ability to engage audiences and capture their attention, even for highly complex topics.  She has crafted a national presence through her participation in educational technology associations like EDUCAUSE, the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), and the IMS Global Learning Consortium; in addition to presenting at national, regional, and local conferences, she serves as a proposal reviewer, constituent group leader, leadership institute faculty, and both task force leader and working group participant.

Dr. Braxton 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.

Cindy Mitchell (Moderator)

Cindy Mitchell is the Chief Information Officer at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. She leads a high performing team of dedicated professionals providing academic technology, information security , infrastructure, administrative, and support services. In her four and a half years at Colby, she has led a significant change effort to modernize the administrative systems including an enterprise integration platform and the implementation of Workday HCM, Payroll, and Finance, along with the replacement of many other homegrown solutions fondly called “the things that eat our lunch.” 

Prior to Colby, Cindy was the University of Maine System for thirty years coming up through the ranks from Client Services to Associate Chief Information Officer. University of Maine System as Associate Chief Information Officer, providing IT leadership for the University of Maine, University of Maine at Machias, and University of Maine at Fort Kent, and led the delivery of direct services to all campuses through the UMS Information Technology Campus Services unified team, including the UMS-wide help desk. Serving the largest, as well as the two smallest campuses, provided a unique opportunity to adjust IT services to meet the varied needs. In addition to her campus based responsibilities, she supported University System wide IT budget management and development, was a member of IT Strategic Round table, Women in IT lunch group, and was an advisor to the IT Communications Team. Prior to her role serving the campuses, Cindy oversaw the implementation of the Project Management Office as well as provided leadership in the transformation of the University of Maine System’s eight separate IT organizations into a single organization unit serving all seven campuses. She led the implementation of the PeopleSoft ERP (Campus Solutions, HR, and Finance) for the seven campuses, a student data warehouse, and many other administrative systems. 

She was a member of the  Educause LTL faculty in 2018, served on the Enterprise IT Advisory Group, served on the Core Data Service Advisory Group, enjoyed participating in ECAR Working Groups and was a member of the NERCOMP Board. She is currently a member of the NERCOMP Leadership Ecosystem and an Educause Mentor.  Cindy is a 2012 graduate of the Frye/Leading Change Institute, an experience which continues to enrich her through the deep and lasting relationships sparked there.

Pennie Turgeon

Pennie Turgeon, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, assumed her role at the New York Institute of Technology in October 2019. She is responsible for ensuring that the university’s information technology (IT) resources are aligned with the strategic priorities of the institution, and that IT services are secure, reliable, easy to use, and cost efficient. To accomplish this task, she works with students, faculty, staff, and trustees to provide leadership, direction, and overall coordination of all aspects of IT. This includes administrative and academic information systems, academic technology support, high-performance computing, media services, technology-enhanced classrooms, videoconferencing and web streaming, web applications development, computing labs, help desk services, networks, systems, telecommunications, data management/analytics, and security/privacy policies. She also coordinates requests for the procurement of enterprise IT services and resources and is responsible for the management of vendor and partner relationships.

From 2006–2019, Pennie was the Vice President for IT and CIO at Clark University as well as the University’s Chief Information Security/Privacy Officer. Prior to that, she was at Worcester Polytechnic Institute for 15 years where she built and cultivated technology-mediated learning environments as the Director of Academic Technology and Distance Learning. She also held positions at Texas Instruments as a systems developer and at IBM as a marketing sales assistant. Pennie served on the NERCOMP Board of Trustees from 2005–2013, serving as the Treasurer from 2007–2009. She continues to be involved with NERCOMP by serving on the Board’s finance committee. Pennie holds a B.S. from Worcester State University and an M.B.A. with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
 

Karen Warren

Karen is in her ninth year at Wesleyan University where she assumed the role of Deputy CIO in Nov 2016. Karen has oversight for the user services, technical services, and academic technology teams. Combined, they provide the foundational support for all other IT operations in the University, develops strategic input regarding systems and infrastructure, and provide support for teaching and learning through the use of technology.

Karen is currently chair of NERCOMP's Board (2016-2017) and served as NERCOMP Annual Conference chair in 2016. She has presented on numerous topics at the NERCOMP Annual Conference and other professional workshops. Karen is active in campus life and committed to crossing functional and departmental lines to bring solutions to the Wesleyan community. She served on the University's re-accreditation team in 2012. Karen also participates in events from the National Center for Women in Technology and the local Society for Information Management.

Selected projects include core network refresh, enterprise WLAN upgrade, ServiceNow implementation, and migration to Office 365.

Prior to coming to Wesleyan, Karen spent 15 years at the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, CT where she was IT Director for 10 of those years. Karen focused much time on the importance of broadband access in K-12 education, forging a strong and lasting relationship with Connecticut Education Network. Having spoken at numerous conferences on the topic, Karen was invited to participate on a panel at the FCC on the importance of ERate to broadband in schools.