Guest Speaker: Diana G. Oblinger

May 18, 2004, 8:00am - 3:30pm, Desert Botanical Garden

Diana G. Oblinger, Ph.D. is Vice President for EDUCAUSE, responsible for the association's teaching and learning activities and the direction of the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII). EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises nearly 1,900 colleges, universities and education organizations, including 180 corporations. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Adult and Community College Education at North Carolina State University.

From 2000-2002, Dr. Oblinger was a consultant and Senior Fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. She also has served as the Vice President for Information Resources and the Chief Information Officer for the 16-campus University of North Carolina system where she was responsible for strategic planning and policy development for information technology as well as for collaborative programs in teaching and learning with technology, student services and IT procurement.

Oblinger has held positions as the Executive Director of Higher Education for Microsoft and various management positions within IBM. She was the IBM Director of the Institute for Academic Technology, a joint effort with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining IBM, Dr. Oblinger was on the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at Michigan State University. At the University of Missouri, she served as an academic dean and was recognized for her work in student recruitment, retention, faculty development and student computing.

Known for her leadership in teaching and learning with technology as well as distributed learning, she serves on a variety of boards including the National Science Foundation's Directorate of Education and Human Resources, the National Academies Forum on Information Technology and Research Universities and the University of Texas TeleCampus. She chairs the National Visiting Committee for the National Science Digital Library project for National Science Foundation. Dr. Oblinger has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Employment, Safety and Training and the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Technology.

She is a frequent keynote speaker as well as the co-author of the book What Business Wants from Higher Education which received the 1999 Frandson Award for best literature in continuing education. She is co-editor of five other books, The Learning Revolution, The Future Compatible Campus, Renewing Administration, E is for Everything and Best Practices in Student Services. She is the author or co-author of dozens of monographs and articles on higher education and technology.

Dr. Oblinger has received outstanding teaching and research awards and was named Young Alumnus of the Year by Iowa State University. She holds three degrees from Iowa State University: a B.S. in Botany, an M.S. in Plant Breeding and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi.

Diana has been a previous visitor at Maricopa. In February 2002, she presented an Ocotillo technology Visioning Forum in "Into the Future: What is IT?". See also the list of readings provided for this retreat.