Leading through change: McMaster CTO Gayleen Gray reflects on technology’s role in higher education
McMaster’s assistant vice-president and chief technology officer Gayleen Gray
Information technology (IT) has taken on a new significance in the last two years. From remote, to now hybrid and in-person learning, teaching, working and researching, the McMaster community has been navigating the ebbs and flows of change — and McMaster’s IT professionals have been a key factor supporting and enabling the campus to continue its mission. And through it all, national and international organizations have continued to engage with members of the McMaster IT community for their leadership in higher education.
Gayleen Gray, McMaster’s assistant vice-president and chief technology officer, has been appointed to the board of directors for EDUCAUSE, a leading international association and community of IT leaders, tech practitioners and professionals advancing higher education.
Gray reflects on how technology connects us in a remote environment, the communities and leaders transforming higher education and how the IT landscape at McMaster has changed.
Q: How does EDUCAUSE connect higher ed IT thinkers?
EDUCAUSE is a significant community behind transformational change across the higher education IT landscape and I’m thrilled to join the board and continue championing technology in this new capacity. With over 100,000 members and 2,100 member organizations, EDUCAUSE represents the largest community of technology, academic, industry and campus leaders.
As part of EDUCAUSE’s board, I will help provide governance, set strategic directions and help the association anticipate emerging issues. I’m pleased to begin my term as a member of the board and continue through December 2023.
Q: How does technology connect us throughout the pandemic?
What’s really special is McMaster IT is a big tent. We invite all we can, even people who don’t traditionally see themselves as delivering IT. If you’re working with technology, then you’re a member of the McMaster IT community, too.
And the brilliance of that openness and inclusion is we get so much more engagement and perspective on shared challenges and ideas for future solutions, as demonstrated in our digital moments exercises during our IT strategic planning activities.
The McMaster IT community’s focus on future innovation and advancing higher education has resulted in several national awards and collaboration opportunities as well, including the recent Cisco Canada’s Fast Future Innovation Award in 2022, the Oracle Innovation Award in Data Management in 2019 and a CUCCIO Community Award in 2018.
McMaster was also one of the founding institutions in the Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre (CanSSOC). This focus makes McMaster IT well positioned to thrive in the new future.
Gray, who helms the McMaster IT Strategic Plan, is reflective of the work over previous years that has enabled leadership to be recognized by the broader higher ed IT community in North America. Learn more about McMaster IT here.
Q: How has the technology landscape at McMaster changed?
The McMaster IT community has been able to lead the campus through the changing demands on technology and systems related to the pandemic and our current return to campus. Whether working from campus or in their homes, McMaster’s IT professionals maintained operational and project related activities while also enhancing and expanding the use of numerous technologies including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, VPNs and other software solutions to allow the broader community to continue working off campus.
A swath of campus practitioners who may not identify as traditional IT professionals but have deep knowledge and expertise in technology also kicked into gear. Library staff quickly digitized collections and provided remote access to resources, digital media specialists assisted faculty members to ensure remote teaching and learning was more accessible, business systems analysts found solutions to common barriers and countless others. New solutions like MacCheck were also developed by multidisciplinary teams to meet new challenges and needs.
Q: What does the future of McMaster IT look like?
Now, as hybrid and in-person operations ramp up, McMaster IT is there to support a safe and healthy return to campus. Many remote working processes that were developed in the thralls of the pandemic have stayed, bringing with it a new ease of work, such as digitized forms and workflows, enhanced, campus-wide Wi-Fi and improved cyber security.
The collective efforts of the McMaster IT community and its supporters have enabled many successful advances in our adoption and use of systems and products, allowing us to return to campus stronger and more resilient on the technology front.
Technology advances will continue at a rapid speed, and I am confident that McMaster will continue to be a leader in its approach, which will not only support our own institution but will also benefit the higher education sector.
