Biography

Primarily a listener and a builder, Renee understands that to deliver value, it is critical to identify stakeholder needs.  A collaborator at heart, she has been very successful in team building designed to bridge gaps.  Responsible for learning technologies for UW System campuses, Renee recently led a systemwide project that identified and synthesized emerging trends in technology with the needs of teaching and learning to transform the UW System's Digital Learning Environment (DLE) (see: https://www.wisconsin.edu/dle/). She now turns her attention to developing partnerships and collaborations with other areas that support teaching and learning such as libraries and faculty development, leveraging data to improve student learning outcomes, and has a keen interest in forwarding access to Open Educational Resources.

Prior to joining UWSA, Renee was with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for 11 years, first as a full-time Lecturer in Marketing teaching face-to-face, hybrid, and online/blended course formats beginning in 2003. In 2010, she joined the institution’s Central IT group as Director, and was responsible for campus learning and classroom technologies, as well as IT training. She has presented extensively at national and international conferences including EDUCAUSE, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), Online Learning Consortium, and the IMS Global Learning Consortium on the topics of instructional technologies and teaching best practices.  Renee was recognized in 2009 with the UW-Whitewater Academic Staff Excellence Award for Instructional Staff for her contributions to students and to the community, in 2012 with an EDUCAUSE Jane N. Ryland Fellowship, and in 2018 with the University of Wisconsin System Administration Eugene Craven award for her leadership and innovation in her work.  She currently serves on the IMS Global Institutional Leadership Board Steering Committee, the MHEC Academic Technology Advisory Group, and the 2023 IT Issues Panel. Prior to her career in higher education, Renee enjoyed more than 15 years of corporate sector experience working for both public and private companies including Heidrick & Struggles, Arthur Andersen, and Arrow Companies. She earned an MBA with dual emphasis in marketing and technology & training, and a BA in French.