Chief Information Officer

Position Title:

Chief Information Officer
Job Description:

Search for the Chief Information Officer

Joliet Junior College

Joliet, Illinois

THE SEARCH
Joliet Junior College, the first, public community college in the United States, seeks a transformational, creative leader to serve as the next Chief Information Officer.

Founded in 1901, Joliet Junior College (JJC) provides a student-centered, career-enabling education to 27,000 students. Located just 40 miles outside of Chicago, JJC is an innovative and accessible institution, dedicated to student learning, community prosperity, cultural enrichment, and inclusion. The student population at the college is diverse in every sense of the word, representing a cultural plethora of gender, ethnic, racial, age, and socioeconomic status diversity. In 2023, JJC was designated a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with 34% of the student body identifying as Hispanic/Latina/o. The College delivers quality lifelong learning opportunities empowering diverse students and the community through academic excellence, workforce training, and comprehensive support services.

The Chief Information Officer joins the college at a moment when the College is poised for technology transformation and modernization. President Clyne Namuo has a background in technology leadership, and investments have been made across JJC to develop technology infrastructure and modernize enterprise architecture. The CIO is tasked with driving innovation. Collaboration and relationship building will be key to the success of the CIO, and there will be an emphasis on building political will and partnerships underscored by communication and transparency with JJC community members. Technology should enhance the student experience at JJC, and students are the heart of the College. The CIO will be tasked with considering how IT can support the student experience across a richly diverse student body, and serve the broader academic mission of the College. To be successful, the CIO will be expected to address a number of opportunities and challenges, listed below, and outlined in detail beginning on page four of this document:

Develop a strategic plan for technology across JJC

• Advocate for the role of IT across the College
• Bolster information security across the College
• Evaluate and modernize IT infrastructure across campus Effectively lead, organize, and invigorate the IT staff

Joliet Junior College has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist in conducting this important search and to help identify outstanding candidates. All inquiries, applications, and nominations for this opportunity should be directed to the search firm as indicated at the end of this document.

JOLIET JUNIOR COLLEGE
JJC offers pre-baccalaureate programs for students planning to transfer to a four-year university. A comprehensive community college, JJC provides occupational education leading directly to employment, adult education and literacy programs, workforce development services, and student support services.

America's first public community college began in 1901 as an experimental postgraduate high school program. It was the "brain child" of J. Stanley Brown, Superintendent of Joliet Township High School, and William Rainey Harper, President of the University of Chicago. The college's initial enrollment was six students. Today, JJC serves more than 27,000 students in credit classes and noncredit courses.

Established in 1973, the Joliet Junior College Foundation - a separate 501c3 - has been instrumental in providing financial assistance to students pursuing their academic goals at Joliet Junior College. Over the past 50 years, the Foundation has seen remarkable growth, with total assets surpassing $36 million and $18.5 million in endowments. The Foundation awarded $1,000,522 in donor-funded scholarships to students in the 2023-24 school year. The substantial amount awarded positions the JJC Foundation as one of the leading entities among Illinois community college foundations, emphasizing its commitment to fostering educational advancement and access.

In 2023, the Board of Trustees adopted the Strategic Plan. The plan outlines five goals and objectives: value diversity, student lifecycle, strength from within, infrastructure, and grow JJC possibilities. More information about the strategic plan can be found at jjc/strategic - plan .

Students at JJC have the opportunity to earn more than 180 degree and certificate programs across nine pathways: Agricultural Sciences & Veterinary Technology; Architecture, Manufacturing, & Automotive; Business, Finance & Information Technology; Culinary, Hospitality & Tourism; Health, Public Safety, & Human Services; Liberal & Fine Arts; Social & Behavioral Sciences; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM); Workforce Training.

Joliet Junior College has established itself as a statewide leader in dual credit enrollment, reporting a record 23.93% increase in dual credit enrollment hours from Fall 2022 to Fall 2023. This is the first milestone since the Fall 2022 introduction of the 12x12x12 program , an aggressive dual-credit that encourages the 40,000 high school students in Illinois Community College District 525 to earn 12 college credits for $12 per credit hour by 12th grade.

Leadership
JJC is directly governed by a seven-member Board of Trustees, all of whom are elected from within the district for six-year terms. A student representative, elected annually by the student body, is a non-voting member of the Board. The officers of the Board are chairman, vice chairman and secretary, all of whom are elected by their peers for a one-year term.

President Clyne Namuo Dr. Clyne Namuo joined JJC in July 2022 as the institution's 10th president. He has set forth an aggressive agenda for JJC which includes; the 12x12x12 dual credit initiative, expansion of the College's presence into neighboring Grundy County, support for first-generation students through the Namuo Family Scholarship and the Roots & Branches storytelling project.

Namuo holds a doctor of philosophy degree in higher education strategy from the University of Arizona's Center for the Study of Higher Education, a master's degree in information systems from San Diego State University, and a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Hawaii.

Executive Vice President Yolanda Farmer Dr. Yolanda Farmer is the inaugural Executive Vice President (EVP) at JJC. She serves as the strategic institutional partner for the college president and provides leadership for the Academic Affairs, Finance & Administrative Services, Information Technology, and Student Development divisions.

Prior to her time as EVP, Dr. Farmer served as the Vice President for Student Development for nine years, championing many initiatives to advance accessible and diverse student services and resources. Dr. Farmer has held many respected positions in the State of Illinois, such as the dean of Student Services at Moraine Valley Community College, director of Minority Student Affairs at JJC, and assistant dean of students at DePaul University.

Dr. Farmer holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Eastern Illinois University, a Master of Education degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from DePaul University.

ABOUT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Information Technology at Joliet Junior College is a mission critical division that enables the academic and administrative work of the campus to flourish. Modernization of the IT infrastructure is a strategic priority of the President. The College is currently undergoing large transitions from on premises to cloud technologies. At the forefront of these initiatives is a side-by-side ERP system migration; in 2022 the College migrated finance and HR to Workday, and in 2024 a decision was made to implement Ellucian Colleague as the student information system, which the next CIO will be responsible for deploying.

In the last two years, JJC has deployed Canyon GBS to support with AI Solutions and data infrastructure across campus. As the College moves to a cloud-based environment, ensuring that data is clean, secure, and accurate is key to developing a successful environment for data utilization.

The College's information technology division includes 40 staff across IT, several with deep, historical perspective of the College. While a separate unit, the JJC iCAMPUS is a close partner to IT and supports the online learning and educational technology components of the College.

The IT staff are represented by the Technical Office Support Staff Council of Joliet Junior College, a union with the College American Federation of Teachers.

THE ROLE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
As a member of the College's executive leadership team, the CIO participates in and contributes to overall College business strategy development, bringing a current knowledge and future vision of leveraging information and technology in business model design, business process re-engineering, products and services development, and support for competitive advantage. The CIO reports to and works closely with the Executive Vice President, and collaborates with other campus leaders, including the President's cabinet, senior leaders across the college, deans of the colleges, and department leaders. The CIO currently has four direct reports, including the Senior Director of Information Security; Director, Enterprise Applications; Director, Project Management and Enterprise Architecture; and Director . click apply for full job details

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