CIO Open Forum

CIO Forum second Thursday of the Month from 2-3 p.m. written on blue background

This monthly event aims to bring the One IT community together regularly to share information, hear an informal update from our CIO, participate in Q&A, learn about the progress on priorities outlined in our strategic plan, and have some fun while learning from each other. These meetings will be held on the second Thursday of the month. We will collect questions beforehand and through the chat during the meeting. If you wish to be invited to these events, email us at one-it@berkeley.edu.


Thursday, March 14, 2024 | 2 - 3 p.m.

Our March Forum will begin with CIO Updates from Gabriel Gonzalez and move into updates on the FY25 One IT Strategic Plan process and One IT Program highlights. We will get an overview of the UCLA AI Congress from IT Policy Manager Jennifer Bombasaro Brady and hear from Executive Director for Campus IT Infrastructure Dave Browne and Chief Research Technology Officer (CRTO) Ken Lutz about the developing NASA Ames Moffitt Field project. Lastly, we'll put a "One IT Spotlight" on the Digital Accessibility Program and learn more about the evolution of this Top Priority Initiative. Hope to see you there!

Slide Deck 3.14.24Recording 3.14.24


Thursday, February 8, 2024 | 2 - 3 p.m.

EVENT CANCELLED - See you in March!


Thursday, January 11, 2024 | 2 - 3 p.m.

Join us for our first CIO Open Forum of 2024! After a warm welcome and CIO Updates from Gabriel Gonzalez, we'll cover upcoming events and opportunities for staff from the One IT Program. Next, we'll get some updates on IT Policy from Jennifer Bombasaro Brady.  Lastly, Dave Browne, Executive Director of Campus IT Infrastructure, will present a "One IT Spotlight" on the IT Recovery (IS-12) Top Priority Initiative.

Slide Deck 1.11.24 | Recording 1.11.24


2023 Forums

Thursday, December 14, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

Our last CIO Open Forum of 2023! After a welcome and CIO Updates from Gabriel Gonzalez, we'll look back at a few highlights from the One IT Program this past year. We'll welcome Chara Bui to tell us about an upcoming Berkeley IT Experience Survey (a survey from Campus IT Experience to explore how customer IT needs are being met). Next, Danny Grieb will tell us about some updates to the Data Solutions group. And lastly, we'll hear a One IT Spotlight on the Berkeley Desktop Improvements Top Priority Initiative. 

Slide Deck 12.14.23 Recording 12.14.23


Thursday, November 9, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

November is here, and hopefully, we'll survive daylight savings! We'll start off with some CIO Updates from Gabriel Gonzalez and cover a few highlights from the One IT Program. Next, we'll hear from Jon Hays on the Communications & Collaborations Team about sunsetting the Berkeley Mobile App. Lastly, we'll end with a One IT Strategic Plan Spotlight on "Next Generation Classroom Technology" presented by Kevin Chan and Ezra Daly from Classroom Technology Services. They'll share how they are working to enrich the student experience and enhance future classroom instruction with improved technology.

Slide Deck 11.9.23 | Recording 11.9.23


Thursday, October 5, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

Our October CIO Open Forum will begin with CIO updates from Gabriel Gonzalez and One IT highlights from program manager Casey Hennig. Then, we will hear from Lia Grant in our Information Security Office about preparations for Cybersecurity Awareness Month and new resources for staff education and security reinforcement. We will conclude the meeting with two One IT Spotlights: 

Cristobal Olivares, Director of Student Technologies, Student Affairs IT, will talk about - Enhance Printing Support for Students, a Top Priority Initiative to provide students with expanded access to printing by implementing self-service print kiosks across campus and maintaining services for student printing in the Library and the Law School.

Dave Browne, Executive Director, Campus IT Infrastructure, will talk about - Network User Experience Improvement, a Top Priority Initiative to support access to information, online learning, collaboration, administrative efficiency, innovation, research, and student engagement by continuing to modernize and improve the stability, usability, capability, and capacity of various network services, including Core and Building networking, Wi-Fi Infrastructure, Wi-Fi Device Connectivity, Campus Firewall, and Campus VPN. 

Slide Deck 10.5.23 | Recording 10.5.23


Thursday, September 14, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

As we kick off another academic year, we want to give a big shoutout to all your efforts to help students, faculty, and staff to ensure everything is running smoothly. Due to this busy semester start, we are canceling the September CIO Open Forum and will pick back up on Oct. 12, 2 - 3 p.m.


Thursday, August 17, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

Join us for updates from our Interim CIO, Gabriel Gonzalez, and hear about upcoming One IT Program events. Allison Henry and Julie Goldstein from the Information Security Office will give us a high-level overview of changes to the Minimum Security Standards for Electronic Information (MSSEI). Lastly, we’ll hear from Jeff Parks and the SIS GRLN Team about the progress on the Gender Recognition and Lived Name Project, one of our One IT FY24 Top Priority Initiatives, and any impacts these system changes may bring to your Units.

Slide Deck 8.17.23 | Recording 8.17.23


Thursday, July 13, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

It's July, the first start of the new Fiscal Year, and we've got a lot of interesting items for this CIO Open Forum. After the welcome and updates from our Interim CIO, Gabriel Gonzalez, we'll take a quick trip down memory lane to revisit the June 22 One IT Celebration Picnic and then hand it off to our IT Governance Manager, Robin Pappas, to hear about the "greatest hits" in IT governance for FY23 and plans for FY24. Then we'll learn more about the Achieve Scholars Program and One IT Student Learship Program from Amanda Bent, our One IT Student Learship Specialist. Hope to see you there!

Slide Deck 7.13.23 | Recording 7.13.23


Thursday, June 15, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

June is here, which means summer vacations, retirements, and hopefully some better weather! In this month’s CIO Open Forum, we will welcome our Interim CIO and hear about their vision for the next few months. We will also debut our FY24 One IT Strategic Plan and highlight our Top Priority Initiatives. Finally, we will dive deep into the work to Expand Digital Accessibility from Suzanne Harrison, our Digital Accessibility Manager, Campus IT Experience, Berkeley IT. Please send in your questions via the Google Form

Slide Deck 6.15.23 | Recording 6.15.23


Thursday, May 11, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

This month we will hear from Erfan Mojaddam on our One IT Spotlight, Instructional Resilience. In coordination with the Research, Teaching, and Learning (RTL) Executive Advisory Group and campus stakeholders (Berkeley Law, Engineering, Haas, and iSchool), Erfan is helping to develop a design-based plan to identify the next iteration of instructional resilience for remote, in-class, and hybrid instruction. We’ll also be joined by Sameer Srivastava, the Ewald T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at Berkeley Haas, who will present on an upcoming large-scale field experiment entitled, “Building Inclusive Workplace Cultures: Learning What Works at Scale through a University Culture “Megastudy.”

Slide Deck 5.11.23 | Recording 5.11.23 


Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

April showers bring ... more CIO Open Forums! Join us to hear updates from our CIO, Jenn Stringer, and a presentation from Kim Huynh, Business Analyst/Developer at the Haas School of Business, on their work converting the internal Haas Student Information System (SIS) to a new version of the Slate CRM. We'll also get an overview and update on the Gender Recognition and Lived Name Policy work from Jeff Parks, Project Manager. Be there to learn more about campus efforts to implement new policies for gender recognition and lived names that affect nearlyall campus applications and data services!

Slide Deck 4.13.23 | Recording 4.13.23 


Thursday, March 9, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

Join us for some important updates from our CIO, Jenn Stringer, along with an update from Casey Hennig (One IT Program Manager) on the One IT Strategic Plan. We'll touch on the progress made on the FY24 planning process and summarize why the Strategic Plan is such a vital tool to align IT strategy across campus and communicate with campus leadership. Also on the docket will be our fantastic One IT colleague, Shane Knapp, who will share his insights on deploying DataHub to achieve reliability and uptime for Data Science courses.

Slide Deck 3.9.23 | Recording 3.9.23


Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023 | 2 - 3 p.m.

Join us for our first CIO Open Forum of 2023! In this meeting, we have a lot to offer you: After some CIO Updates from Jenn Stringer, we’ll talk about the One IT Strategic Plan Goal: Reinvigorating the One IT Community - including some giveaways!

The One IT Student Leadership Program will showcase several staff that started here as student workers and how investments in their professional learning ultimately led to their path as One IT professionals.

We’ll then turn the show over to some fantastic One IT colleagues running Communities of Practice on campus. Learn what types of communities we offer and how you can get more involved.

Slide Deck 2.9.23 | Recording 2.9.23


2022 Forums

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

This month's open forum will feature presentations on several key projects and initiatives. CIO Jenn Stringer will provide an update on the campus IT spend; Cristóbal Olivares, Director of Student Technologies, will discuss the One IT Student Leadership Program that SAIT is launching; and we’ll have a spotlight on the Network User Experience and hear from Isaac Orr, Senior Manager, Network Services on some new Wi-Fi options coming to campus in January. 

Slide Deck 12.8.22 | Recording 12.8.22

Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

In the November CIO Open Forum, we will hear from Executive Director of Campus IT Experience Wes Johnson to give us a look back on the start of the 2022 Fall Semester from ITCS and SAIT. We'll also hear from Erfan Mojaddam about how the semester looked for Research, Teaching, and Learning.

Slide Deck 11.10.22 | Zoom Recording 11.10.22

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we heard from Allison Henry, Berkeley’s Chief Information Security Officer, who gave a quick overview of the IS-3 Implementation Project, along with a spotlight on roles and responsibilities focused on IT worker-specific requirements. Because Security Is Everyone’s Responsibility! We also heard from Josh Kwan about the super cool Web Application Security Testing Program - a joint initiative between the Information Security Office and the UC Berkeley School of Information. The program offers web application security testing of UC Berkeley web applications by MICS students.

Slide Deck 10.13.22 | Zoom Recording 10.13.22

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

Jenn Stringer gave several CIO Updates, including a huge shout-out to the folks working hard to make the start of the Fall semester a success. Next, we were joined by Laurina Ashby, bIT Senior IT Buyer, who explained the processes for procurement needs that require Requests for Information/Purchase/Quote and the differences of each. We closed the purchasing story loop (and the meeting) with Rana Silver, Director of Student Information Services, Campus Applications & Data's presentation on the experience of going through the process with the Comprehensive Curriculum Management System.

Slide Deck 9.8.22 | Zoom recording 9.8.22

Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

Over 230 of you joined us at the CIO Open Forum, where we heard from Wes Johnson, Executive Director of CITE, on the Game-of-Thrones-like battle ITCS and our Student Helpdesks have been preparing for as we welcome our students, faculty, and staff to the start of the year! Shawna Dark presented on the EDUCAUSE Ambassador Program and all the great resources EDUCAUSE has to offer. Then she switched hats to tell us about the numerous preparations and start-of-semester activities RTL has to offer the community. Lots of great stuff here, so if you missed the meeting, check out the following:

Slide Deck 8.11.22| Zoom recording 8.11.22

Thursday, June 23, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

CIO Jenn Stringer discussed our FY23 One IT Top Priority Initiatives for the Strategic Plan. Erfan Mojaddam discussed Instructional Resilience and the exploration of a design-based plan to identify the next iteration of instructional resilience for remote, in-class, and hybrid instruction. 

View FY23 Strategic Plan | slide deck 6.23.22

Thursday, May 12, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

Casey Hennig provided an update on the strategic planning timeline for FY23. We had great spotlights on two projects. Shane Knapp from EECS Research Engineering shared their (MIS)Adventures with Salesforce. Luis Hernández Muñiz and Sarah Bailey joined us from our bIT Campus IT Experience team in Productivity and Collaboration Services to provide an update on the Cost Containment for Box and Google priority. 

Slide deck 5.12.22 | Zoom recording 5.12.22

Thursday, April 14, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

CISO Allison Henry provided updates on several things happening on campus including Kudos to the COSA Recipients, and the start of the Web Application Testing Program. She also announced several upcoming conferences: NOW Conference, Cyber Security Summit, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, UC Tech 2022, and the Pride Summit. Carolyn Knight discussed workgroups, data organization and the Design of the GIS Enterprise Schema. Bill Allison presented his Data Center & Cloud Services Strategy Roadmap Project.

Slide deck 4.14.22 | zoom recording 4.14.22

Thursday, March 10, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

CIO Jenn Stringer provided updates on several things happening on campus including Big Give, the People's Park Project, and the Supreme Court of California decision on enrollment caps for the next academic year. She also announced some upcoming service changes for Box and CalNet browser is getting a new look. This month's forum was cut short by uninvited attendees joining the Zoom meeting. Isaac Orr presented his Wi-Fi update at the bIT All Staff on March 24 and Carolyn Knight will join us at the April 14 forum.

slide deck 3.10.22 | watch the zoom recording 3.10.22

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

This week we heard from several of our One IT colleagues, spotlighting all the amazing work they are doing in their home departments. Mark Stuhr is the Director of Information Technology in the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and he talked about the revamping of their employee database. Gabe Gonzalez, Chief Technical Officer, Berkeley Law discussed ways that they adapted their Educational Resilience at Berkeley Law. Erin Foster, Service Lead for the UC Berkeley Research Data Management Program, promoted Love Data Week events (Feb. 14 - 18) and Amy Neeser, Consulting + Outreach Lead for Research IT invited everyone to attend the Women in Data Science Conference, Mar. 7 - 9.

Slide deck 2.10.22 | Zoom recording 2.10.22

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022 | 2 - 2:50 p.m.

Lots of Spring semester updates including booster and mask information, along with links to the bIT all-staff Q&A slide deck. CIO Jenn Stringer gave a high-level introduction to the new Berkeley IT name and branding guidance. Jenn and Terence Phuong, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, gave an update on the One IT Strategic Priority: CampusIT Governance from the context of the Campus' IT budget and future spending and investment assumptions.

Slide deck 1.13.22 | Zoom recording 1.13.22