The Chief Information Officer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign reports to and works closely with the Provost and other campus leaders. The CIO’s duties include overall responsibility for the central academic IT organization (Technology Services at Illinois), IT governance, and participating in national and international organizations and consortia. The CIO chairs the campus IT Council, whose portfolio includes both infrastructure governance and implementation of IT governance decisions.
IT Governance
Technology plays a mission-critical role in helping the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign remain a preeminent public research university with a land-grant mission. The creative development and use of cutting edge technology resources helps transform all dimensions of our academic enterprise, including research, teaching and learning, and public outreach. Simply put, technology in each of these areas helps to support and transform the University of Illinois. Learn more about IT governance.
IT Policies
The Office of the CIO, helps formulate IT policies for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. You can find links to specific IT policies by visiting the Information Technology Policies page.
Office of the CIO Personnel
Chief Information Officer
Mairéad Martin
Mairéad joined the University of Illinois and Technology Services in July 2022 after serving three years as the CIO of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education through the use of information technology. Prior to that, she held IT leadership positions at Tufts University in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Tennessee, serving more than 20 years in IT in Higher Education.
Seeing students, faculty, and staff benefit from the results of IT efforts is something Mairéad considers one of the most rewarding factors of working in Higher Education. The professional and personal development of staff is fundamental to Mairéad’s approach, and she considers herself a proponent of creating a leadership culture.
She is engaged at the national level in organizations such as Internet2, EDUCAUSE, the Common Solutions Group, and the Coalition for Networked Information and finds passion in this aspect of her work.
Assistant CIO, IT Planning and Outreach
Beth Scheid
Beth has been Assistant CIO since 2016, but her journey at the University of Illinois started as a student worker in 1979. Her first full-time position at the university was in 1984, and she has been part of computing on campus ever since. During her beginning years at the university, she oversaw the installation and support of the campus-wide network and the funding model to sustain it.
As strategic advisor to the Urbana-Champaign (or U of I) CIO, she plays an essential role in strategy formulation and advancing delivery of innovative IT initiatives to support teaching, research, and outreach. Currently, Beth oversees the groups involved with IT Strategy and Planning, IT Policy, Communications and Marketing, Service and Process Management, and Strategic Business Analysis. She works closely with the CIO in enabling the CIO’s vision and strategy for campus IT. She also serves on the Illinois International Advisory Committee, which focuses on the Campus’ global strategy.
Outside of her role on campus, Beth enjoys learning about and engaging with other cultures to build better connections at home and abroad.
Deputy CIO, Innovation and Technology Strategy
Tracy Smith
Tracy joined the University of Illinois in 2007 to lead the development and growth of the ICCN (Inter-Campus Communications Network). Through the years, her portfolio expanded to include infrastructure and then evolved into a research and innovation-centric focus. In 2019, she was appointed as Interim Deputy CIO for Innovation and Technology Strategy, becoming permanent in 2021.
As Deputy CIO, Tracy leads Research IT, Cloud Enablement, Enterprise Architecture, Organization Development, and the Data Innovation and Community Engagement team. Her outreach efforts include serving as a board member of UC2B, the Champaign-Urbana broadband and digital inclusion advocacy organization. She is also very active in the broader research and educational communities such as CaRCC (Campus Research Computing Consortium), Internet2, PEARC (Practice & Experience in Advanced Research Computing), and serves on IT Council. In addition to those responsibilities, she represents our University in the Common Solutions Group.
Tracy shared that the most rewarding part about working at Tech Services has been enabling others to do what they do best—including everyone from future leaders in the organization to researchers pursuing answers. Outside of work, Tracy enjoys nature and can often be found hiking.
Deputy CIO, IT Operations
Drew MacGregor
Since 1998, Drew has worked at all levels of IT across multiple units at the University of Illinois, including the Department of Computer Science and Engineering IT. He joined Technology Services in 2012 as a manager, then director, service owner, and eventually as interim Deputy CIO in 2021, then permanently beginning in May 2023.
Drew‘s areas of expertise include multimedia, educational technologies, and classroom support. As Deputy CIO, his responsibilities include enterprise applications, software development, web hosting, campus network infrastructure, classrooms, internet communications tools, endpoint management, instructional labs and customer service teams. He represents Tech Services on campus task forces and committees, contributing the perspectives of higher education IT services as well as representing the customer experience.
To Drew, meeting with staff, campus leaders, and customers is one of the most rewarding parts about his role. Outside of work, Drew enjoys not attending meetings or reading emails. Instead, he can be found reading, camping, or spending time with his wife and children.
Deputy CIO, Chief Information Security Officer
Kim Milford
In April 2023, Kim Milford accepted the role of Deputy CIO and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Illinois. In this role, Ms. Milford draws on her experience in research and education to lead strategy, direction, and innovation related to cybersecurity, identity protection, and privacy.
Prior to this role, Kim was the Executive Director and CISO at the REN-ISAC, working with research and education institutions and partners to provide member institutions with the information and tools to better defend their environments from threats. Her service in higher education began in 1998 having held leadership positions at Indiana University, the University of Rochester, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kim provides cybersecurity expertise and presentations at national and regional conferences and seminars. She guest lectures and teaches cybersecurity courses and training, and has authored/co-authored many articles on the subject. Ms. Milford has a B.S. in Accounting from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri and a J.D. from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois.