LUCINDA T. LEA: VP for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer

In February of 2002, Lucinda Lea was named MTSU Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer. As a member of the president's cabinet, she has responsibility for strategic and tactical planning in all facets of Information Technology. She leads the Information Technology Division in providing the services of academic and administrative computing, instructional technology, web applications, networking and telecommunications, and the campus ID system. As vice president, she seeks to provide students, faculty and staff with the best, most up-to-date technologies that available resources can provide. She supports the use of this technology in providing quality education in a student-centered living and learning environment.

Ms. Lea has given numerous presentations and papers, nationally and regionally, describing campus innovations in information technology. She has served on the Syllabus Advisory Board, The Editorial Board of the Technology Source and has been involved with the TLT Group as a facilitator and speaker. In 1996, she founded the Instructional Technology Conference, held annually at MTSU. The conference attracts hundreds of faculty, instructional technologists, and administrators from across the nation to share knowledge and gain a expertise in technology-based education. She was the recipient of the 2002 Distinguished Service Award in Tennessee Higher Education Computing, chosen by her peers.

Elected by the EDUCAUSE membership to a four year term on the EDUCAUSE Board beginning in January 2006, she was served as vice chair of the Board in 2008 and upon election, is serving as chair in 2009. EDUCAUSE, a non-profit association with a membership of more than 2200 higher education institutions, has the mission to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

Ms. Lea was the instructional technology track program chair for the 2002 Seminars on Academic Computing; she served on the Seminars on Academic Computing (SAC) Advisory Board (2002-2005) and as SAC Board Chair in 2004-2005. She was a member of the Research Task Force commissioned by EDUCAUSE to examine avenues for collection and dissemination of core institutional data for higher education institutions. The process culminated in the creation of the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service. She was program chair for the 2003 EDUCAUSE Southeast Regional Conference and served as program chair for the 2005 international EDUCAUSE Conference.She served on the advisory board of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) in 2006-2008.

Previous experience includes: MTSU Assistant Vice President for Information Technology, Office of Information Technology, 1999-2002; Director of the MTSU Office of Information Technology, 1993-1999; MTSU Academic Computing Manager, 1979-1993; MTSU Faculty Liaison, Academic Computer Support, 1973 - 1979; Systems Programmer, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 1967-1971.

Ms. Lea holds a Master of Science in mathematics from Middle Tennessee State University and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Tennessee Technological University. She is married to Dr. James W. Lea, Jr., a retired mathematics professor from MTSU; they have a son residing in London, England and a daughter who resides in Washington, D.C.