I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve UAB in this role, and I don’t take the responsibility lightly. I wanted to share what my first 100 days will look like — not as a mission statement, but as a practical roadmap for where my attention will be focused.

UAB IT is engaged in important strategic initiatives that matter deeply to our academic, clinical, and research missions. My goal is not to pause our work with those initiatives, but to understand it well, strengthen it where needed, and make sure we are executing with discipline and purpose. If there are efforts that may not be well aligned with those priorities, let’s talk about them.

Operational excellence comes first. As we advance existing initiatives and consider new ones, we need to make sure our foundation is solid. We will be taking a hard look at our internal processes to identify places where we have an opportunity to reconsider or modernize our approach.
I’ll be listening. A lot. To our teams, to the departments we support, to anyone who interacts with IT services. If you’ve got friction points, workarounds you shouldn’t need, or ideas, we want to hear them. Expect more questions from me than pronouncements in these early months.
One of our jobs is to reduce technology friction so people can focus on their actual work. That’s the standard we will be using when we evaluate tools, processes, and policies. If something we’re doing creates drag without a clear benefit, we need to fix it.
When friction is needed, we will explain why. Security and compliance requirements are not optional, but we owe training and clear explanations, not just policies delivered without context.
Innovation needs to add value. We’re not interested in chasing trends for their own sake, but there are areas where strategic investment makes sense. AI and research technology compliance, particularly emerging requirements such as CMMC, will be early priorities. These are real requirements and real opportunities that affect UAB’s research mission and competitive position.

We will seek your input. Next month, we will launch an online venue for you to submit and upvote ideas so we can get a better view of places to focus our energy on solving problems and driving innovation together. This is a focused effort, but we will always seek to listen and understand.

More to come. In the meantime, my door’s open.