Apereo Board Candidates 2017

2017 Apereo Board Candidates

Three board positions are open. The duties and responsibilities of board members, together with rules governing their election are set out in the Apereo by-laws at - http://www.apereo.org/content/bylaws#article-5 . If you have any questions regarding these duties and responsibilities, please contact the Apereo Foundation Board Chair, Jim Helwig - jim.helwig[at]apereo.org or Executive Director Ian Dolphin at ian.dolphin[at]apereo.org. 

Voting will be completed at the Apereo Foundation Annual General Meeting at Open Apereo 2017, which takes place this year in Philadelphia, June 4th-8th.

David Ackerman - New York University

I am the Apereo Foundation Board Chair, and I am running for re-election to complete my term as Chair and then serve beyond that. I was the dissolving Chair of the Sakai Foundation Board and have served on the Apereo Board throughout its existence. I have been a key participant in the retention plan for our Executive Director. My 25 years of experience at New York University -- currently serving as Chief Digital Officer and Associate VP for Research Technology -- combined with three graduate degrees makes me extremely qualified to be elected to the Board. My desire to serve speaks to my passion for open source software and the Apereo Foundation.

Lucy Appert - Columbia University

Lucy Appert is an Associate Director at Columbia University's Center for Teaching and Learning http://ctl.columbia.edu/. In this role, she leads innovative project partnerships with faculty for a staff of 35 that serves the University's Morningside and Medical campuses. CTL projects include a wide range of academic applications such as simulations, MOOCs, visualization and modeling tools, video and image annotation tools, and media archives. Prior to joining CTL (formerly CCNMTL) in 2013, she served as Director of Educational Technology for New York University's Liberal Studies Program, where she led the team providing instructional technology solutions for Liberal Studies faculty and students in New York and at NYU's Global Sites. She was also a faculty member in the program and has more than 20 years of teaching experience, having taught at Tulane, Vanderbilt, and Yale, in addition to NYU.
An active member of the larger educational technology community, she has fostered a number of IT/academic collaborations within both university and open source communities, including chairing the User Reference Group for the original Sakai Open Academic Environment project. Lucy holds a PhD in 17th & 18th c. British literature from Tulane University and a B.A. in Classics and English from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her special interests include special interests include digital literacy, accessibility, and open practices in software and education.

In my current board term, I have served as Vice Chair and served the larger community as editor of the foundation newsletter, as well as working on projects such as individual membership and Friends of Apereo. In a second term, I would seek to continue and grow this work to promote the foundation’s projects and mission. I will continue to bring to the board solid experience on both the user and producer sides of software projects and a commitment to representing the perspective of faculty and students. As an advocate for user-centered open-source technology that is pedagogically sound, I see the Apereo Foundation playing a critical role in the emerging educational technology landscape. Initiatives such as its incubation process provide a unique opportunity to produce innovative, sustainable software inflected with the values of academia. Thank you for your consideration.

Laura Gekeler - University of Notre Dame

As a relative newcomer to an international non-profit Board, I feel like my initial term was preparation for greater good I can now do with experience. I've recently begun chairing a committee tasked with scaffolding Apereo Foundation goals with our Executive Director’s personal goals for more cohesive progress. I would be pleased to continue serving Apereo as a Board member.

Jim Helwig - University of Wisconsin-Madison

I am the MyUW Lead Strategist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In this strategic outreach role I work with partners on identifying projects and initiatives that benefit by integration with MyUW, our local uPortal implementation, to help users work smarter, faster, and safer. I look for collaboration opportunities across campus, throughout the UW System, and with colleagues around the world. During my 20+ years of working in Information Technology since receiving my Masters in Computer Science, I have been a software developer, project manager, and team lead. Prior to that I taught math and science in K-12.

Since 2003 I have been very active in open source within higher education, primarily with the uPortal project and Apereo Foundation (and previously Jasig). I currently serve as the Chair of the uPortal Steering Committee as well as member of the Apereo Foundation Board of Directors. Throughout my involvement with Apereo, I have contributed to infrastructure administration, conference planning, marketing and communications, membership recruitment, project documentation, and strategic planning.

If elected, my focus for the next three years would be on continuing to improve the operations of the Apereo Foundation. As our community continues to grow, both in projects and members, there are opportunities to improve the way we operate. We can improve the services we offer projects and members. We can make it easier for developers and adopters to contribute their time and effort effectively for maximum benefit. We can create innovative ways to reach out to potential new adopters and members. This will help strengthen the foundation and position us for further growth in the years to come.

Jeremy Rosenberg - University of California, Berkeley

My experience as an IT professional over the last 13 years has taken me from programmer to manager with all the stops in between.  CAS has played a significant role in my IT portfolio since the beginning.  As Manager of Identity and Access Management at UC Berkeley, I have sponsored considerable work on both the core of the CAS server and local customizations.  As a strong supporter of the importance of a healthy open source community, I would be honored to participate in the Apereo board and ensure its continued health and prosperity.