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, and operational capabilities, in support of McMaster’s research, teaching, and learning initiatives.
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, its new Higher Ed IT Security Leadership Professional Development program, Chair of the CUCCIO Cybersecurity Standing Committee, and as a member of the CUCCIO Board. Gayleen also serves on the CANARIE’s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee.
Gayleen has been equally active in her service to EDUCAUSE, where she was a recent member of the EDUCAUSE Board (2021 - 2023). Gayleen has been 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's previous Board positions include the CANARIE Board of Directors, the ORION (Ontario) Board, a founding member of CanSSOC (now part of CANARIE), the Hospice-Wellington Board, a past elected member of the University of Guelph Board of Governors and the University of Guelph Senate.
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.
The author recaps her stimulating experience at the week-long Leading Change Institute 2016, focusing on the concept of entrepreneurial leadership and the promise it holds to address the challenges facing higher education IT and library leaders.
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