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Top of Mind with Tambellini Group
Making Technology Career Transitions
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When is the right time for an IT leader to move on to a new role at a new institution? How much should location matter versus potential for career growth? Aisha Jackson answers these questions and shares insights from her experience navigating the first year as a new technology leader since joining the University of California, Santa Cruz as Vice Chancellor of Information Technology in August 2022.
Hello, and welcome to the Tambellini Group's Top of Mind podcast. I'm your host, Liz Farrell . This month we are talking about two related topics, technology, career transitions, and new types of technology related roles emerging in higher education. We know that no matter how much anyone loves their job or workplace, it's inevitable that they will move onto a new role and a new institution at various points in their career. And this is especially true in higher education, where labor shortages and the widespread retirements of long-serving technology leaders have created so many opportunities in recent years for mid-career IT leaders to advance in their careers. And with so many institutions in the midst of adapting to a changing market, it's just as common to see new roles created in response to the evolving higher education landscape. Today we are lucky to be joined by the ideal guest to discuss these opportunities from firsthand experience. We have Aisha Jackson, who serves as the Vice Chancellor of Information Technology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Aisha has over 15 years of experience in management and leadership in higher education IT, including her previous roles at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of West Indies serving across three campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. So, welcome, Aisha .
Speaker 2Great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1Well, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. I know you're so busy, you're in the throes of your first year and a big new role. So , let's start off, I just want you to provide like a bit of background for our listeners. I mean, what's interesting here is I had initially approached you about being a featured guest for our Women in Technology series, and you had graciously agreed to do that. And then as I started looking a bit more into your career of progression, I became intrigued with this pattern where you've been a pioneer in either taking on new roles or adopting to more recently created roles. And I definitely want to want us to talk about that. But I want to back up a bit and let's start with how , how did you get here? What was your education career like? Can you give our listeners a sense of your background?
Speaker 2Absolutely. So I thought I wanted to be a teacher. I was very committed to the point that not only would I teach my dolls, but I would give them homework, do their homework, grade their homework, and then write notes home to their parents, which notes home to me, essentially.I don't know what initially drew me to teaching. I suspect that it was because I loved and admired my teachers, and so I wanted to emulate them. But then as I got older, my interest solidified based in part because of my brother. My younger brother, he has dyslexia, and I remember watching both he and my mom spend many frustrating hours at the dining room table , working through his homework. And so I remember being motivated to help children like him navigate learning. So , after graduating from high school, I went on to earn first degree i n a specialization to teach exceptional children. I went to a small college in St . Augustine, Florida, called Flagler College. During my internship, I had the opportunity to observe my mentor teacher go through her own professional development. She is a reading specialist, I should say, came in from the district and modeled research-based teaching methods. While my mentor teacher observed, she would also study, she'd read articles about the method and discuss the materials with the specialist. My mentor started practicing the methods with the specialist and the specialist scaffolded. And over time, the specialist worked herself out of the classroom while my teacher took back over. I taught first grade for the rest of the school year, and then I quickly realized that I didn't love it. Okay. In retrospect, I should h ave given myself more time. I was the fourth teacher in this particular classroom. And so it wasn't the best conditions for me to come into as a new teacher. Wow . But at that time, I thought to myself, okay, you don't enjoy this. How might you pivot but still leverage the knowledge that you developed? Over four years of college? My mentor, Dr. Pace, had encouraged me to go on to pursue my master's degree, remembering that I started looking for programs to go into the next school year rather than return to teaching. After reviewing my options, I was most attracted to the Master's of Curriculum and instruction in the University of Florida's College of Education, as it offered a specialization in educational technology and teacher education. In addition to my studies, I had the opportunity to teach in labs and to teach practicing teachers how to use technology as a part of some grant programs at UF. I completed my master's and started a PhD and also met my husband. While we dated and we eventually got married., I completed my first three chapters of my dissertation. And went as far to collect the data for a study that focused on how I might use reflective coaching to help pre-service teachers use technology in the classroom. While I was at UF , my husband that I mentioned, he was a Fulbright Scholar. That's how he was funded to come up and study , didn't study at UF from Trinidad and Tobago. And as a part of that Fulbright Fellowship, he had to return to his home country for a few years. And so as I was wrapping up my data collection, I started looking for a position because I knew that he would be leaving soon and I wanted to go with him. And so I found a position at the University of the West Indies, St . Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago. And I was hired on there. And so I left UF and actually didn't finish my PhD from there. I went on later on to get a doctorate, but didn't finish at UF. And moved to Trinidad where I lived for five years. And where I had a couple of different roles. The first one was as an ICT trainer. And that title makes you think that I was like, you know, in the lab training folks on how to use technology everyday. That was not all I did. It was more than just training. It involved me not only helping people use the tools, but I also had the opportunity to run those tools and work with folks that ran those tools. So it was the first time in my career that I got to supervise a small technology team. And we were r responsible for not, or not only teaching people how to use these tools, and these included our content management system, our learning management system, and small tools like our plagiarism detection software. Teaching people how to use them, but also , running them to make sure that they were accessible, that they were up that people knew where to go if something broke with it. And so , it was my first hand into the more technical components of the technology space. I did that for a while, and then I started wondering if I wanted to be a faculty member. A opportunity opened up at the School of Education at the University of the West Indies and I applied to be a faculty member there. And I was successful. I taught as a lecturer, practicing teachers and helping them how to integrate technology. At about the fifth year, my husband and I were ready to return to the United States. And so I started looking again and I found a position at the University of Colorado Boulder as an academic technology consultant. That role was one where I also helped faculty learn how to use technology. But I was assigned to a particular division. So the humanities essentially. Helped the arts and humanities department faculty use a technology that were offered by the central IT department. Over time, the IT department reorganized to form a functional group, and I was asked if I wanted to join that group to lead it. Part of why I had that offer was because I successfully led the campus through a transition from one learning management system to another. And , it went really smoothly for those large changes. And , our CIO at the time, Larry Levine , wanted to reorganize all of IT into functional areas. So coming off of that success of leading this project, he offered, would you be interested in leading the technology tools team? And I of course said yes. Because it was something new. And again, it was letting me lean on some of the opportunity I had at the University of the West Indies, which is to lead teams in the learning tool space. Over time, I started surveying the landscape and saw that to be a CIO in higher ed , having a doctorate would be an advantage. So you didn't have to have it, but having one would be an advantage. Right. And so as I started thinking about what would I want to do next, I realized that I needed to get that doctorate. And so I pursued my educational doctorate at the UC Denver , specializing in professional—how am I forgetting the title? Specializing in professional learning and technology. It's interesting how those things don't necessarily matter as , you know, you get on in your career. As I took more responsibility on at Boulder, I went from a program manager to a director of academic technology and eventually ended my time there as the assistant vice provost and assistant vice chancellor for academic technology and student success. My portfolio had expanded from just the academic technology tools, which I was familiar with, to support a couple of homegrown systems , a homegrown system that supported UC Boulder's innovative online programs, and also our student portal that was also created by UC Boulder , with a lot of input from our students there. I also started to lead the student success analytics platform team and our web and CRM team . So , my scope really did expand while I was there.
Speaker 1So what I think is really interesting when you're talking about this most recent role you had at UC Boulder, you know, there are the parts of it that are the academic technology side, the student success side. And from what you've told me recently, this was the first time that this role was created. So it seems to be sort of chicken or egg thing here. And I'm curious to hear about the genesis of this role. Like, can you explain that to our readers? Was it that Aisha would be great for this role, so we'll create it in response to that? Was it more that there was a pain point there that was the, the prompt for it? Like what was the, the beginning of that?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think it was because of my expanding portfolio. I wasn't just only working in the academic technology space, but I was also bridging more administrative type tools that weren't being used b or the audience was more than just the academic side of the house, our faculty and students. It was really both. And as part of ITS in some ways, I represent the administrative side traditionally, right? Typically , the IT organization falls under the administrative side of the academic house, right ? Or the university house, not the academic side. This role was unique because it acknowledged that because of the type of systems that I was supporting, I really needed to have some presence in both spaces, both the administrative side, but also the academic side. And so that's it wasn't necessarily that there was a gap or that there was something wrong, but it was just to acknowledge that we really, those, those lines need to get more blurred given that the type of overlap that the services I was supporting have.
Speaker 1So when it came to coming up with, say, a job description, was that something that you were instrumental in creating?
Speaker 2I was able to work on IT in partnership with our CIO and our HR head at University of Colorado Boulder in OIT. So it was something that I had a hand in, but I didn't do it all on my own.
Speaker 1Got it. And did you find that there were anything, like, were there concerns that this may be, you know, too much in the student's success realm and someone else owns that? Like how do you navigate that part of it?
Speaker 2Yeah, there were definitely conversations about roles and responsibilities, particularly, we were going through some changes at Boulder in our with our office of data analytics and some change in leadership there. And so there was some conversations, particularly in the student success analytics space , and for the tool that I mentioned, the homegrown tool that we use for our online programs, you know, who really, whose tool is this, right? And so eventually , right before I left, we decided that the student success analytics space wouldn't move forward. It wouldn't continue in this position. And we were transitioning away from the tool that we were using and our office of data analytics was taking over the technology components of the student Success analytics ervice. So that was moving out. And with respect to the tool that we used that was for our online programs, we were still in discussion about roles and responsibilities there. It was in production already, but was also still very much under development. And so it was a conversation with the registrar's office and with our head of online education for the three of us to work together closely to figure out what the future might look like. But while I was there, it was still something in my ear and we were just trying to figure out how do we help our teams work together. Well,
Speaker 1That's interesting to hear too, that it sounded like it was a very important sort of bridge role to have at that juncture as we're seeing all that analytic stuff become so central to everything an institution does.
Speaker 2Absolutely. Absolutely. And I would say, you know , as I think about other questions that you shared with me that we might get to , it's helpful to be flexible in knowing that some things may go away and, and not all things may belong in the central IT location, especially just based on the maturity of the campus that you're working at. Right? At Boulder, our office of data analytics was maturing to a point where it didn't make sense for that the student success analytics service to continue as a part of it, but there may be other organizations that aren't there yet, and it very well may need to be there. And so you have to be flexible , as a leader and really working with your peers to figure out where things , where things should be at a certain time, but be open to it not being in your space forever.
Speaker 1I like that. That's a very zen-like approach to it, and you make such a good point about the—it is about the maturity of the institution, right? And it also sounds like, you know, just because a role changes or goes away or part of it goes away, that doesn't necessarily mean that that wasn't the right role for that time. Right?
Speaker 2Right, exactly.
Speaker 1So, let's talk about your current role a bit. At University of California Santa Cruz, you are the Vice Chancellor of Information Technology. And as you had mentioned to me that's a job that sits at the cabinet level. Your predecessor was instrumental. You had said in transitioning that role from just being a purely c i o role to this other role, to, to reflect the, the additional, you know, political sway and influence that one should have in that role. And there was a story I read announcing your arrival, and it described your current position as it was created to ensure the continued advancement of campus technology and service to both faculty and students. That sounds to me like a pretty straightforward definition, but I'd love to hear in your words sort of what this role is, like, what, what you do in it.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I've been here nine months , and I think about my responsibility as supporting using technology to support the academic research , academic and research mission, but also supporting the administrative units that are also supporting that mission. There's a lot of variety in my work right now, and sometimes I feel like I'm drinking from the water hose because I am new not only new to UCSC, but also a new CIO. And so , things are evolving and changing and in some ways it's, I'm really enjoying it because I'm still learning and I don't have necessarily a clear cadence right now with what my role looks like day-to-day, because it really is evolving as I learn more. As I thought about this question , I am going to lean on an article that I've read this week. I am a new mentor for this fellowship program program called the National Leadership Fellowship. And I'm a new mentor in that program. And , that this week, the students in the program, or the learners, I should say in the program , read an article that detailed key aspects and skills of IT leaders in higher ed and it describes them. There's 10 things, and as a strategist, as a trusted advisor, as a visionary, as a relationship builder, a team builder, a coach, ambassador, change driver, promoter slash persuader , and a master communicator. Very easy. Very easy. And so when I think about my role and how it looks like day-to-day, I can really use those categories as a way to think about that question, right? I am discussing IT strategy with the chancellor. I also am serving... Sorry, I should say I'm creating IT strategy for my organization , but also for the campus. It's another level of scope than previous positions where I had, where I might have just been thinking about my area. I'm really thinking about it t s but also the campus. How, how can it be leveraged to support the campus mission, etcetera. And so that looks like meetings where we're talking about what our strategy would be for internal things, but also for external things as well that are outside of my organization. I'm a trusted advisor, and so I'm partnering with our library and our office of research and our head of undergraduate education , and other groups to figure out how we, as an example, are going to manage through new policy coming out of Washington , that require all public, all federally funded data to be publicly accessible. How are we going to navigate that space? Or how are we gonna create a governance group to provide data governance for our new common data platform? And figuring out who the right folks need to be at the table or whether or not we need to bring an external consultant in to help us navigate through that, etcetera. I'm always building relationships , and doing so i n a variety of different ways. I meet a colleague fo r w alks. Our head of HR, interim head of HR, she and I ha ppen t o work in the same building and we relationship-build over our walks where we talk about the challenges that we're having and how we might help one another navigate those challenges. I'm building up my team b o th the folks that report up through me, my direct reports, but also the whole organization an d h elping my direct reports figure out how to coach their teams and how I, what are the best ways for me to coach them i n a way that th e y will, that is most impactful for them because all of them are different. I'm an ambassador. And so what that means for me and my role right now is that t doesn't always do things well. And so sometimes I have to go and apologize and really figure out how we can extend olive branches so that we can heal some of the damage that it has done, but also look at ways to ensure that that doesn't happen in the future. And so, working to create a space where folks want to participate with us as we are looking for gathering requirements or giving us feedback on our usability of things and ensuring their voice is included as we're making decisions, right? That type of ambassador type role. I'm also engaged in that quite a bit. A change driver that is a significant component of my work. There's, it is always changing, and so I'm leaning on my change management training on ADKAR to figure out what are the best ways for me to support the individuals on this campus through change. It's quite a bit that I have on my plate, but I'm enjoying it because it really is varied and ever changing ,
Speaker 1Since you mentioned change management and it's something I feel like we see in every article, in every interview, in every best practices thing. You mentioned having change management training. I'm curious to hear like what does that look like? Was it helpful?
Speaker 2Oh, yeah. So I have to give kudos to my program at the University of Florida because I started getting developed in change management from way back then. And I think I graduated, or I started in like 2002. And so if you think about how long ago that was, I'm scared to even say it , change management was a component and we looked at educational change models , and how do we help our teachers as we're helping them adopt technology , how do we help them learn that? And so it has been so instrumental and in many ways because it's been a part of my professional development from the beginning, I lean on it all the time without even knowing that I've leaned on it. Whereas , the learnings that I've had since like ADKAR, it's the same thing. It's just a different model, right, of change management. And so it has been so instrumental in my successfully moving people through change. And , so a project that I mentioned earlier, you know, when I first moved at the University of the West Indies, we moved from one learning management system to the other. When I helped the campus through that, I leaned on those principles. And even for smaller things, you know, when we have a rollout, we recently changed the look and feel of our authentication page, leaning on those principles with my team and letting them know, here are the things that I want you to think about. It really led us to even do those minor changes well , so that they're received as smoothly as they can be from our campus. And so that the campus feels that we are also including them in the decision making around the timing on how it does look and how it does, how usable it is, right. Those principles are central to my work.
Speaker 1That's great. It's, it's great to hear that you have that experience where you were working on that, you know, so long ago in your training. And it's always interesting to hear how something that people maybe didn't see before was going to be such a big driver of their career and everything, and how that manifests itself over almost 20 years now, or I guess exactly 20 years now. Yeah . So what was it like, I want to talk a little bit about like, you're in a new role now, new, new to you, not new to UC Santa Cruz, and then in your previous role at UC Boulder, you were the first to hold that role. Let's talk about the, the pros and cons of, you know, not just taking on a new role, but taking on a newly created role in terms of expectations and other things. Becuase you've got this experience now where you've come into this role as a second person with that title, with that recognition that there needs to be this, you know, board level involvement of someone in the, the CIO Vice Chancellor of IT role. Beforehand at UC Boulder , there was a recognition like that there needs to be some things that change as well. And then you are the person put forward to make those things happen. Like, what do you like about that? What do you not like that about that? I mean, it sounds like you thrive under change and, and really enjoy that .
Speaker 2Yeah. I love the freedom of it . In that , you have more of a say and in charting a path forward because it is so new, right? No one has done it before. And so there's freedom in that as you try to figure it out with on your own, but with your colleagues and with your supervisor, etcetera. That is so exciting to me, and that the guardrails aren't there yet. That can also be a con because the guardrails aren't there in some ways a renegotiation has to happen , as you're trying to figure out what the boundaries are for that work. And so , I think that would be the, the pro and the con , there's freedom in it because you can kind of create your own path, but at the same time, you wanna make sure that you're not negatively impacting t he team, but also the folks that y ou would've worked with and, t hat you're going to be working with, etcetera.
Speaker 1Yeah. It's sort of like change management on steroids. So you've had this fantastic career progression over 12 years at CU Boulder before that. It sounds like you also wore a lot of different hats through your per , excuse me, career progression at University of West Indies. And now you're in this new role , the CIO/Vice Chancellor at UC Santa Cruz. So how do you know that you're ready for a new opportunity? And I wanna say we're asking this question because there are so many people who are in the , the position that you are now, where we've got a lot of the people in their, you know, sixties, seventies retiring, and a lot of rules are open up and there are a lot of new opportunities. So can you walk us through your, your criteria for deciding like, okay, not only do I want a new opportunity, but I'm willing to work at a different institution now. What do you look for?
Speaker 2So , as I think back on that time when I was thinking about leaving, what stood out for me is that we had a new C IO at University of Colorado Boulder, M arin S tanek, who I love. I consider her a friend and a mentor. And she was in her new role, implementing strategy a t University of Colorado that I absolutely supported, but I also at the same time, started not seeing myself being able to advance in that strategy. And so, I u nderstood the strategy, I supported it, but I couldn't ask her to adjust the strategy that I thought was sound to meet my professional needs and goals. And so, w hen I recognized that, I saw, okay, it might be time for me to go elsewhere b ecause I think I would be happy there. I would've been happy at Boulder. However, I didn't see a clear path up there anymore. And so I had not started looking yet when a consulting firm, a hiring firm, reached out to me about the position at UC Santa Cruz. I had always wanted to live in California. I'm also very comfortable with moving, you know, I moved to the Caribbean right , for five years and then to Colorado. And , my dad was army, so we moved every three years. So moving is , you know, something that I'm very open to. And so when I saw the position, I wasn't scared about the move per se, you know, it's just me and my husband as well. I think that also make things, makes things a little bit easier. But I saw the opportunity. The size of the school was a little bit smaller than Boulder. I thought that I could have change on. I felt like my skills could be used at UC Santa Cruz. The team had been through a lot of change. And one of my strengths is putting, putting structures and organization in place, and the team needed that. And so I thought about not only whether there was still opportunity for me at Boulder, but also what opportunity there would be for me at UC Santa Cruz, to really have to, to make a change here , and to support the folks here. And so those were the criteria that I looked at when I thought about, okay, it's time for me to leave. It was really this , I felt like I was ready, but, you know, not really sure. I just knew I couldn't stay there if I wanted to advance, but also recognizing that with where I am now and my skills, I thought I could do a good job here at UC Santa Cruz.
Speaker 1So , it's interesting to hear two things there, like the role aligned and also always wanting to live in California, and luckily that role was there. So it doesn't sound like for you, given, you know, your life situation, your experience moving and everything, the the notion of moving somewhere else was going to be a big deal, but like, how much would you say location versus role plays a factor? Because I see faculty just move anywhere for a role because, you know, whatever their specialty is, they can only be at certain places. And that's always amazed me. And I'm wondering, like, let's say a role like this came up in a place where like, I'm not gonna call out any states or anything , like a place where you think, oh, I'd never wanna live there. You know, how how do you balance those two things? Is that important for you to have a place that you're gonna enjoy as a person, not just as a team member or team leader?
Speaker 2Absolutely. Absolutely. I could not imagine moving to certain places. It's because I believe in work life balance, right? Right. And I'm not only going to be at work . I have to be a part of a community, and I'm also bringing a spouse with me who has in some ways sacrificed some components of his career for me. And so , given that the location also has to work for him. And so it's definitely a balance. This happened to be a really sweet spot where I thought we could do both find a great location to live, but also have a clear spot to live as well agreat position as well. And so , I think both are important, but I would weigh more on the location in some ways than I would on the position. Because the position , you can influence it in ways that you can't influence the location, if that makes .
Speaker 1No, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, I've always wanted to live in California too. Pretty, yeah. Santa Cruz is a really nice place. Not a hard transition to make.
Speaker 2No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1So you've had this firsthand experience of not just like adjusting to new institutions, but in the US and different time zones, regions, but also being in a different country. And I'm curious to hear a little bit about, do you see overall similarities and differences between all institutions? Are there any glaring differences? What are the commonalities and what are the contrasts?
Speaker 2Yeah. That's a great question. So , culture is consistent across all of them . And by that I mean the need to understand the various cultures. So the culture themselves might be different, but they're important at each one. Okay . And so trying to figure out what the culture is, has been consistent even though those cultures are different. One other thing that has been consistent is the pace of higher ed. Okay . Um, we move slowly, and that has been , um, my experience in all three locations. Okay. That it's not a fast-paced culture. It is a culture, and I think it's important, so I'm not knocking it necessarily. We need to build consensus. We need to be very thoughtful and given the impact that the decisions we are making are having on our students and our faculty and the staff we support, I get that. And so that is one thing that's consistent, this being very careful about the timing of things and moving more slowly , and being okay with that. The faculty voice and the need for faculty voice and presence is also, I would say, consistent across all of the organizations that I've worked with. I don't remember there being a huge academic senate or faculty senate-type construct at the University of the West Indies, but I also was in a different type of position. And so I don't know that I would've necessarily had the opportunity to engage with them, even though it's a smaller institution. But that, that has been consistent at Boulder and at University of California Santa Cruz, that there's a strong academic senate and faculty , senate presence on our campus and an interest in shared governance, and how does that look, you know, and how do we ensure that faculty have a voice? And at the same time that we are not stepping on academic freedom as we navigate privacy and data, etcetera. So that has been consistent, consistent as well, I would say. The politics are also, it's consistent, but different on each campus too, right? It's kind of related to the culture, you know, you never know what the local politics will be, but it's everywhere.
Speaker 1They will be there, yeah.
Speaker 2It'll be there. Yeah.
Speaker 1So we've talked a little bit about your leadership style, and just to close us out, I wanted to hear some advice that you've received. You've talked about having some mentors and some colleagues that you bounce ideas off of everything. What is something that you would want to share with our listeners about that's really helped you in your career?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think that I'm going to share something that Jenn Stringer, the CIO at UC Berkeley shared with me that really has helped me in this role. And that is to just focus on one thing. There are plates as a CIO. Our plates are really full and there are demands pulling us from all over the place. And so it can be really challenging to feel as though you can get all of the things done. And so, while I might spend small attention on the various things, I really have set for myself a goal, and that is the goal that I'm going to hold myself accountable for moving forward and paying attention to. So don't get me wrong, I'm not dropping the ball on all the, you know, all the little balls, but I'm focusing on the big rocks, right? That go into my bucket per se. And for me, that is right now our customer service and our help desk and service management. So all those things that you might call under the customer service umbrella, that is my number one responsibility. And , that has helped me to not feel overwhelmed and to give myself grace when those other things that I also need to pay attention to. I can't because I'm recognizing the importance of that one thing I'm working on and how it will impact everything else and make everything else easier over time. And so that's the advice. I would say, pick the one thing that would be most impactful and spend a lot of your time on that thing. It will make your life easier. I haven't seen that yet, but I believe it.
Speaker 1Well, that is a great note for us to close on. Aisha , thank you so much for taking the time today to talk with me, and I wish you the best of luck as you finish out your first year at UC Santa Cruz.
Speaker 2Thank you, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1That concludes this month's Tambellini Group podcast. Don't forget to check out our other resources at thetambellinigroup.com.