Biography

Gayleen is the Associate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at McMaster University. She is accountable for the institution's information technology strategy, IT Governance, Information Security, operational IT systems and services responsibilities, innovation and new IT initiatives, sits on the AI Advisory Committee for campus, and plays a leadership role across various cross institution initiatives, all in support of McMaster’s research, teaching, and learning mission. 

With over two decades of higher education IT experience, Gayleen has been an active leader in Canada through her involvement in CUCCIO (Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers), including being a founder and ongoing leader for the organization’s Canadian Higher Ed IT Leadership Professional Development program and IT Security Leadership Professional Development program, Chair of the CUCCIO Cybersecurity Standing Committee, and as a past Chair and member of the CUCCIO Board.  Gayleen has also served on as a past CANARIE Board member, the national research and education network provider, and continues to participate in many of its committees, and is a past Board member of ORION, the Ontario research and education network provider. 

Gayleen has been equally active in her service to EDUCAUSE, where she served as a member of the EDUCAUSE Board (2021 - 2023), and contributed as Faculty for the EDUCAUSE Senior Director Institute (2022), Management Institute (2020), and New IT Managers Institute (2018, 2019). In addition, she is a Fellow of the 2016 Leading Change Institute, and a graduate of the EDUCAUSE Institute Management Program.

Gayleen has been a frequent presenter at national and regional professional conferences in both Canada and the United States, including the Canadian Higher Education IT Conference (CanHEIT), the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO), the Ontario Higher Education Information Technology Conference (OHEIT), multiple EDUCAUSE conferences, NERCOMP, the Atlantic Regional EDUCAUSE conference, and multiple SIGUCCS symposiums. She also is a past Steering Committee member and Program Chair with the ResNet Symposium (now Student Technology Conference); a Program Chair and Logistics Committee Chair for the 2006 Ontario University Computing Conference (OUCC), and past co-leader of the EDUCAUSE Strategic Planning Constituency Group.

Gayleen was a Recipient of the 2013 Guelph Women of Distinction Award for Information Technology, and the 2019 CUCCIO Community Award.