Lois Brooks, chief information officer and vice provost for information technology at UW–Madison, has announced plans to retire in the first quarter of 2025.
Brooks was named to the role by then-provost Sarah Mangelsdorf in August 2018, and has led university IT efforts through interesting and challenging initiatives.
Brooks’ tenure included shepherding university IT through the COVID-19 pandemic, as UW–Madison faced the daunting task of moving over 9,000 courses and programs into a virtual format in a matter of days.
Brooks also led the charge to modernize the sharing of information between campus IT systems with an initiative known as “interoperability.” This work paved the way to support the extensive Administrative Transformation Program (ATP) for the Universities of Wisconsin, and Brooks serves as an executive sponsor for ATP.
“Working here at UW–Madison for the past 6 years has been the capstone of my career. Together, the Division of Information Technology and our distributed IT partners have accomplished a great deal,” Brooks said. “We weathered the pandemic, launched new programs and initiatives, reengineered the campus infrastructure and so much more.”
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done. And I’m profoundly grateful for the strong partnerships and relationships we have with our IT colleagues,” Brooks added. “It’s this spirit of collaboration, combined with innovative ideas, that underpin the mission of the university. I’ve been honored to be part of our IT community, as we’ve collectively worked to pave the way forward for UW–Madison.”
In higher education, the role of the chief information officer (CIO) is a key driver in helping universities execute their teaching, learning and research missions—harmonizing both operational and strategic IT priorities. The UW–Madison CIO role also includes leading the Division of Information Technology.
Nearly every aspect of university life relies on technology: The assignments a student completes in Canvas. The terabytes of data storage a principal investigator needs to conduct their research. The Learn@UW tools an instructor uses to build and teach their courses. The Wi-Fi we all hop on as we make our way across campus, from medical sciences to the Memorial Union.
With technology at the foundation of everything we do in higher education, the CIO’s role is to lead and foster a collaborative information and technology community—one that enables innovation, supports scholarship, and equips the university with high-quality, sustainable tools and services.
Under Brooks’ leadership as CIO at UW–Madison, some key highlights achieved in collaboration with university partners and the IT community include:
- The creation of ResearchDrive, providing secure data storage to all researchers, and making major investments in computation and data center infrastructure
- Extending the university’s cybersecurity framework to prevent, detect and manage threats across the university—including launching cybersecurity awareness training for staff and students; and upgrading university email security, moving to Proofpoint for better protection against malware and spam
- Completing major upgrades to the university’s wireless network, campus cloud infrastructure and Student Information System, as well as the Universities of Wisconsin Shared Financial System
- Offering new enterprise services like Zoom, ramping up our virtual private networking capacity, re-architecting the network to allow for improved throughput and security, and reinventing how the Help Desk supports our university community
Brooks also led the development of 2022-2025 IT strategic priorities for UW–Madison, which organized technology efforts around the priorities of people, research, learner success, administrative transformation and cybersecurity.
“Lois has taken great strides to position the university for our success well into the future,” said UW–Madison Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Charles Lee Isbell Jr. “She has strengthened our campus network and research infrastructure; thoughtfully explored the effective and responsible use of artificial intelligence, and so much more.”
Reflecting on Lois’ tenure as CIO, Isbell also noted the collaborative, mission-driven strength of the university’s IT community.
From cultivating a robust UW IT Connects community across campus to an upcoming ice cream social for all IT staff, Brooks has continually fostered a culture focused on the relationships and partnerships behind the technology. Her weekly Virtual Office Hours sessions are also a popular offering, inviting distributed IT staff across the university to connect with each other, discuss IT topics, hear from guests representing all facets of UW–Madison—and simply chat, unwind and have fun.
“Since my arrival at UW–Madison last summer, I’ve been impressed by the spirit of collaboration, innovation and service in our IT community,” Isbell said. “That speaks so well of Lois’ leadership—and her steadfast focus on the people who both create and use our technologies.”
Brooks’ 6-year tenure as CIO and vice provost for information technology at UW–Madison follows an impressive 40-year career in higher education information technology. Notably, Brooks served at Stanford University as director of Academic Technology and at Oregon State University as vice provost for information services and CIO.
In addition to her career highlights, Brooks received the 2022 ORBIE award for excellence in IT leadership in the large enterprise category. She is active nationally in leadership and governance roles with the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium, Unizin, Internet2 and the Learning Initiative for EDUCAUSE, a national higher education group that promotes best practices in higher education.
Brooks also co-founded the Sakai Foundation (now known as Apereo Foundation), a non-profit organization that develops open source software for higher education institutions. She served on its board of directors and as executive director.
Brooks will remain in the position until a new CIO and vice provost for information technology is hired. UW–Madison will conduct a national search.
“I’m so grateful to Lois for agreeing to stay here with us until her successor is hired, ensuring a smooth transition and seamless continuity for the IT operations so critical to UW’s mission,” Isbell said. “She has been and will always be a great citizen of our community.”
In retirement, Brooks says she’s excited to see what comes next—and knows it will include time with grandchildren, dabbling in art and photography, traveling and breaking in 2 new pairs of hiking boots.