30 Higher Ed IT Influencers to Follow in 2024
As enrollment and retention remain top concerns for higher education leaders, IT professionals and other technology experts are integral members of these institutions’ teams. They know that to stay competitive, colleges and universities must employ the latest technologies and give students access to the technology they will see in the workforce. Whether they’re keeping campus secure or deploying the latest artificial intelligence applications, influential college and university technology professionals work to move their institutions forward.
For our 2024 list of higher ed IT influencers to follow, EdTech: Focus on Higher Education has spotlighted 30 individuals who are lending their voices to promote the continued adoption and integration of technology.
Take a look at this year’s list of forward-thinking IT leaders, teaching and learning specialists, podcasters, authors, and more, and give them a follow to stay on top of what’s next in higher ed.
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Anna Mills is an English instructor at Cañada College and the College of Marin in California, and she’s also an advocate for artificial intelligence literacy in teaching and learning. She frequently compiles and shares AI resources for instructors.
Anne Keough Keehn is the CEO and founder of Quantum Thinking, a higher education advisory firm. Keehn has also worked as the global education lead for Zoom, where she helped design the Zoom Summer Academy. In her current role, she frequently leads discussions among higher education leaders on topics ranging from leadership in higher ed to edtech. This year, Keehn co-led the National Survey for Leading Academic Change 2.0, offering valuable insights into the evolving landscape of academic innovation leadership.
Bridget Burns is CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, a national laboratory for student success innovation helping universities collaborate to improve student outcomes. She also hosts a web series, broadcast live on her social media channels, called Innovating Together, in which she interviews influential experts in higher education.
Dan Greenstein is chancellor of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. In 2018, PSSHE began a redesign of its educational and business models. On his website, Greenstein posts a series of blogs outlining how the system used data and technology to orchestrate the redesign. Greenstein was named a Higher Education IT Executive of the Year by EdScoop in 2022 for his work on this project.
In addition to serving as director of esports for Maryville University, Daniel Clerke is also on the board of directors for the Voice of Intercollegiate Esports and NACE Starleague.
Ed Aractingi is the CIO at William & Mary and serves on the Net+ advisory board for Internet2. Aractingi also serves on EDUCAUSE’s IT Governance, Risk and Compliance Advisory Committee.
Enilda Romero-Hall is an associate professor, and coordinator of the Learning, Design and Technology Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She teaches courses on instructional design, and her areas of research include the design and development of interactive multimedia, faculty and learners’ digital literacy, and networked learning in online social communities.
Erin Maher-Moran is the classroom technology IT manager at Johns Hopkins University and was recently named Higher Ed AV Professional of the Year by the Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance. She also hosts the EDTech podcast for AV Nation.
Ethan Mollick is the co-director of the Generative AI Lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the author of a weekly newsletter called One Useful Thing. He has written a book on living and working with artificial intelligence and posts frequently about AI and its impact on education.
Gary Ackerman is director of teaching and learning innovation at Greenfield Community College. He also hosts a podcast called Appropriate Proper Reasonable, which examines technology in schools with topics ranging from classroom technology and cloud computing to cybersecurity and IT leadership.
George Veletsianos is a professor in the Learning Technologies program at the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. There, he holds the Bonnie Westby Huebner Chair in Education and Technology. His focus is on artificial intelligence and online and flexible learning modalities, and he has been designing, developing and evaluating digital learning environments for nearly 20 years.
Jesse Stommel is a faculty member in the Writing Program at the University of Denver. He is also co-founder of Hybrid Pedagogy, the journal of critical digital pedagogy, and the Digital Pedagogy Lab event.
Joshua Kim is assistant provost for online learning at Dartmouth College and is co-author of the books Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education and The Low-Density University. He is a regular contributor to Inside Higher Ed, where he writes for the Learning Innovation blog.
Julie Schell is the assistant vice provost of academic technology and the director of the Office of Academic Technology at The University of Texas at Austin. She oversees the university’s technology-enhanced learning ecosystem and works to advance teaching and learning through the strategic use of academic technology.
Katie Conrad is an English professor at the University of Kansas with an interest in artificial intelligence and AI ethics. She recently led a summer institute on AI and digital literacy for Kansas City educators across grade levels to help them thoughtfully consider AI in the classroom.
Lance Eaton is director of faculty development and innovation at College Unbound, an organization dedicated to helping adult learners complete their college educations. He also has a newsletter on artificial intelligence with more than 2,000 subscribers and is a consultant, speaker and writer who focuses on educational technology, digital learning, instructional design, AI and more.
Madeline Pumariega is the first female president of Miami Dade College. In 2022, she was named one of LinkedIn's Top Voices in Education in recognition of the content she shares on that platform. She is vocal about the need for education in technology fields to support local workforces.
Marc Watkins, assistant director of academic innovation at the University of Mississippi, trains faculty on artificial intelligence literacy. He also publishes a weekly newsletter with more than 2,000 subscribers on the topic of AI and ethics.
Mike Pedersen is the audiovisual experience manager at Iowa State University of Science and Technology. He is a board member of the Higher Education Technology Manager’s Alliance and co-chairs the membership committee for the Educational Technology Collaborative.
Mike Richichi is the assistant vice president of IT at the City University of New York’s Baruch College. He often speaks at EDUCAUSE conferences, contributing insights on topics ranging from cybersecurity to data analytics.
Nick Baker is the director of the University of Windsor's Office of Open Learning, which champions online, open and hybrid teaching and learning modalities at the university. The office provides faculty support, resources and training on creating materials for digital learning.
Peggy Semingson is an associate professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Texas at Arlington and posts about the future of learning, online learning and more. She is also the host of the Pedagogy NEXT podcast and has a YouTube channel with more than 6,000 subscribers.
Randy Marchany is CISO at Virginia Tech and director of the Virginia Tech IT Security Lab. He is also a founding member of the U.S. Cyber Challenge, which aims to identify, attract, recruit and place the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Rob Moore is an assistant professor of educational technology and director of the IDEATE Lab in the Institute for Advanced Learning Technologies at the University of Florida. His research focuses on how digital ecologies shape learner experiences, with an emphasis on digital microcredentials and MOOCs as transformative educational and career pathways.
Saby Waraich is a keynote speaker who specializes in leadership and serves as the CIO of Clackamas Community College. This combination of expertise means he’s not only an expert in all things higher ed IT but also in knowing what it takes to motivate and lead a team.
Scott Pulsipher is president of Western Governors University, a fully online university. He publishes a monthly LinkedIn newsletter with more than 6,000 subscribers where he writes about topics related to higher education.
Stella Lee is the chief learning strategist for Paradox Learning, where she focuses on enterprisewide learning strategy and governance, digital ethics, artificial intelligence, evaluation and learning analytics, and more.
Tim Van Woeart is a senior audiovisual project supervisor at Rutgers University and host of The AV Life Podcast.
Torrey Trust is a professor of learning technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she focuses on how educators interact with artificial intelligence and other technologies.
Viji Sathy is associate dean for evaluation and assessment in the Office of Undergraduate Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also the co-founder of inclusifiED, has co-authored a book on inclusive teaching, and has worked with campus partners to create online tools and apps to support student success.
