1st chief information officer appointed

Arizona's Amelia Tynan also will be vice provost

Tynan

Amelia Tynan, the University of Arizona's vice provost for university information technology, has been named vice provost and chief information officer at the University, effective May 1. It's a newly established position at Rochester and it will direct strategic planning and operations of academic and administrative computing, network and Internet systems, and telecommunications.

"Mely Tynan was the top choice among a number of very able candidates," said Provost Charles Phelps. "She has an extensive understanding of all of the areas she will oversee."

The growing integration of computing, Internet, and telecommunications "now demands that we have a single individual focusing on the strategic decisions we continually need to make," Phelps added.

Tynan has been vice provost for university information technology at Arizona since 1994. In this role, she has been responsible for leadership and coordination of information systems and technology services, including administrative, academic, and telecommunications facilities and services. She has been chair of both the campus Information Technology Council and the President's Technology Council at Arizona.

Before assuming that position, Tynan led a major two-year transition of Arizona's central computer center, the Center for Computing and Information Technology, from a "monopoly provider" to a more flexible and partnership-oriented organization. Under her leadership since 1994, Arizona accomplished major technology improvements in dorm and campus building connectivity, campus e-mail, and Web services; in vBNS and Internet2 participation; in supercomputing improvements; and in developing instructional technology partnerships with faculty.

She joined Arizona in 1982, serving successively in the Center for Computing and Information Technology as a computer applications specialist, academic computing manager, telecommunications assistant director, and director of user support. She was a programmer/analyst at the University of Dayton for two prior years.

She earned her B.A. degree from Saint Paul College, Philippines, and her M.A. in psychology from the University of the Philippines. She taught in the University of the Philippines' psychology department from 1971 through 1979.

Tynan has been Arizona's institutional representative to Educause, the country's largest technology organization for higher education. Last December, she was elected to Educause's board of trustees and she teaches in its leadership institute for CIOs. She won five of the Governor's Spirit of Excellence Awards in 1996 for organizational excellence and project team accomplishments. She also won the 1995 Outstanding Asian American Award in Tucson and the 1998 Women on the Move award from the Tucson-area YWCA.