Campus News

UAlbany CIO Honored as Best of New York for IT Leadership

Albany, N.Y. (July 6, 2004) -- University at Albany Chief Information Officer Christine E. Haile received the "Best of New York" award on June 29, 2004 for Demonstrated Leadership in Management of Information Technology. The award was presented at the Marriott Hotel on Wolf Road by James Dillon, New York State's CIO and last year's recipient.

"She was the unanimous choice," said Paul Taylor, chief strategy officer of the Center for Digital Government, the national research and advisory institute that sponsors the awards program.

Haile joined the University in September 2001 as its first chief information officer, and has campus responsibility for information technology policies, programs and services. Under her leadership the campus has increased the number of technology-equipped classrooms and implemented a new student information system. This past spring, the University acquired new high-performance computing capacity from IBM to support the University's burgeoning research enterprise.

"Chris is a real asset to the University," said Jeryl Mumpower, UAlbany's interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. "We're very proud to have her recognized this way."

A seasoned veteran in higher education administration, Haile has worked for the State University of New York for more than 25 years. Prior to joining UAlbany, Haile served in SUNY's System Administration office, most recently as associate vice chancellor and provost for technology services. Her many accomplishments with System Administration include the development and growth of the SUNY Learning Network which received the 2001 Educause Award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning.

Haile was also recognized for her state and national efforts. She has been involved in a number of state technology initiatives. She is currently vice chair of the SUNY Council of CIOs and serves on the board of NYSERNet. Nationally, she is a member of the awards committee for Educause, and a proposal reviewer for the National Science Foundation's IT grant programs.

"The work that Chris has done to improve and extend the information technology services on campus has been impressive," said Sue Faerman, dean of undergraduate studies. "She has shown great leadership in moving forward on a number of initiatives that improve services for both faculty and students. It has been great to work with her on developing ideas to enhance instructional technologies on this campus."