Our Vision

Digital Strategy and Innovation collaborates with faculty, staff, and students across UNT's academic and administrative units to ensure a world-class, 21st century institution; redefining public higher education through cutting-edge experimentation where the science of learning is the fulcrum that enables us to be at the forefront of innovative, omnichannel, lifelong education for the North Texas community and learners across the globe.

Our Mission

We embrace the mission of UNT by connecting our caring and creative community to pioneering strategies for the 21st century.

Our Team

DSI VP

Adam Fein

Adam Fein

Vice President for Digital Strategy and Innovation & Chief Information Officer

Dr. Adam D. Fein has served as Vice President for Digital Strategy and Innovation since November 2018. As the head of UNT’s online and digital strategies, he leads the charge to identify new directions and opportunities to improve the academic quality, reach and performance of the university in the online and global education markets. His research is focused on the examination of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and the effects of disruptive innovation theory in higher education.

Prior to joining UNT, Dr. Fein served the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 17 years in numerous roles with online and innovative education. He was responsible for shaping campus strategy and providing campus-wide support for innovations in classroom and online settings. In his previous roles, he was responsible for overseeing the instructional design, instructional development, instructional media resources, and online academic and student affairs teams. Prior to his time in higher education at two of the world’s largest universities, he served as a training and development consultant at Pepsi/Gatorade Inc. and at the Quaker Oats Company. In addition, Dr. Fein has published book chapters and numerous professional papers.

Education:

  • Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • M.Ed., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • B.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dana Duke

Dana Duke

Sr. Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Digital Strategy and Innovation

Dana currently serves as Executive Assistant to the VP for Digital Strategy and Innovation. She has worked at UNT for 15+ years and has worked in a number of areas on campus including the College of Business, Human Resources, Academic Affairs, and Finance and Administration.

Dana and her husband, Bryan, have three children. In her spare time, she enjoys trips to the Texas Hill Country and Broken Bow, Oklahoma with her family.

Contact Info:

Krista Watts

Director for Strategic Planning

Contact Info:

  • Project Coordinator, (Vacant)
Shannon Rowland

Shannon Rowland

Director, Budget and Operations

Contact Info:

  • Rena Vincent, Sr. Administrative Coordinator

DSI CLEAR

Rudi Thompson

Ruthanne “Rudi” Thompson

Assistant Vice President, Digital Strategy and Innovation, Executive Director of DSI CLEAR, and Associate Professor of Biology

Dr. Rudi Thompson is a UNT Distinguished Teaching Professor, faculty member in the department of Biological Sciences, Assistant Vice President in the Division of Digital Strategy and Innovation, and Executive Director of the Center for Learning Experimentation, Application, and Research (CLEAR) at UNT. She has been in the teaching realm for more than 30 years, with experience teaching learners from PreK through Grey. Her research focuses on the space and/or the barriers between teaching and learning in science.

Contact Info:

DSI CLEAR Team

  • Teresa Cox, Senior Program Coordinator
  • Dan Watson, Senior Administrative Coordinator

  • Course Project Management Team

  • Course Design Unit

    • Lauri Morrow, Assistant Director, Instructional Design
      • Deborah Bockman, Instructional Design Consultant
      • Dave Denny, Instructional Design Consultant
      • Neil Gregerson, Instructional Design Consultant
      • Benjamin Nye, Instructional Design Consultant
      • Austin Haynes, Instructional Design Consultant
      • Jordan Smith, Instructional Design Consultant
      • Thomas Tubbs, Instructional Design Consultant
      • Instructional Design Consultant (Vacant)

  • Creative Production Unit

    • Joesph Hoffmann, Director of Production
      • Eric Koch, Lead Multimedia Designer
      • Jon Holland, Lead Multimedia Designer
      • Olivia Haynes, IT Programmer Analyst
      • Nic Daniel, IT Senior Programmer Analyst
      • Eric Michener Lead Videographer
        • Cricket Childers, Video Production and Editing Assistant (Part-time)
      • Stingray Schuller, Videographer
      • Vishal Malhotra, Assistant Director for Media Production
        • Jeff Merrill, Media Technical Manager
        • Gracie James, AV Assistant (Part-time)
        • Ashley Padilla, AV Assistant (Part-time)
      • Abril Bhattarai, Assistant Graphic Designer (Part-time)
      • Yamash Subedi, Assistant Graphic Designer (Part-time)

  • Compliance Unit

    • Tania Heap, Director of Learning Research & Accessibility
      • Danae Harris, Digital Accessibility Specialist
      • Richmond Reyes, Digital Accessibility Specialist
      • Charlesa Olmstead, J.D., Compliance Coordinator/Officer
      • Daniel Bernardo, Application Support & Accessibility Analyst
      • Ethan Ligon, Digital Accessibility Assistant (Part-time)
      • Jarrod Trovada, Digital Accessibility Assistant (Part-time)

  • Faculty Development Unit

    • Aubree Evans, Sr. Faculty Development Specialist
      • Marshall Richardson, Faculty Development Graduate Services Assistant (Part-time)
      • Faculty Development Graduate Services Assistant (Part-time) (Searching)
      • Assistant Faculty Development Specialist (Vacant)
      • Malka Riell, Graduate Assistant
      • Natalie McCurley, Graduate Assistant

  • Faculty LMS Support Unit

    • Mary Speight, Application Support Manager
        • Kaleigh Ruiz, Faculty Helpdesk (Part-time)
        • Blake Manuel, Faculty Helpdesk (Part-time)
        • Julia Kitchen, Faculty Helpdesk (Part-Time)
      • James Ly, Application Support Specialist
      • Monique Scales, Application Support Analyst

DSI Digital Growth

Karen Bollinger

Karen Bollinger

Assistant Vice President for Digital Growth

Karen has spent the last 25+ years building innovative marketing ecosystems in corporate, government, creative agency and higher education settings. Most recently, Karen worked at the University of Illinois, where she served on the Chancellor’s Marketing Advisory Council and as chief marketing and communications officer for the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning and Illinois Online.

Some of Karen’s accomplishments include bringing together a highly decentralized campus to create an aggregate institutional brand for more than 90 online programs and hundreds of courses. This included a new website, program microsites, market research, identity standards, content strategy, digital marketing plan and the building, integration and deployment of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system used for both online and campus-based programs.

Karen and her husband, Eric, have two daughters, Drew and Claire.

Contact Info:

DSI Digital Growth Team

    • Cindy Carter, Administrative Specialist
    • Patrick Pluscht, Executive Director, DSI Digital Growth
    • Caleb Walter, Marketing Coordinator
    • Daniel Wenk, IT Senior Programmer Analyst
    • Taylor Abramson, Office Assistant (Part-time)
    • Jacob Head, Office Assistant (Part-time)
    • Omil Dudhat, Office Assistant (Part-time)

DSI Enterprise

Samantha Nikolai

Samantha Nikolai

Director, DSI Enterprise

Contact Info:

DSI Enterprise Team

    • Stephanie Myers, Digital Strategist
    • Tami Russell, Program Project Coordinator
    • Indra Bhagat, Program Project Manager
    • Jim Hoffman, Program Director, Energy Industry Finance & Accounting Continuing Education Programs
    • Denise Belmonte, Digital Strategist Intern (Part-time)
    • Pratibha Nayapamu, Digital Strategist Intern (Part-time)

DSI Tech

Ashely Olsberg

Ashley Olsberg

Executive Director, DSI Tech

Contact Info:

DSI Tech Team

  • Konner Gonzalez, Systems Integration Architect
    • Mathew Moore, Systems Integration Manager
  • Chris Canuteson, Systems Integration Architect
  • Michael Washington, Systems Integration Supervisor
    • Jessica Miller, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Allison Phillips, Student Assistant (Part-time)
  • Stephen Moran, Systems Integration Manager
  • Pierce Jackson, Systems Integration Manager
    • Adan Contreras, Cross Function IT Support Coordinator
    • Uchenna Ajiwe, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Zachery Algaze, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Dhruvil Dudhat, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Daniel Faubion, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Bret Ferguson, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Autumn Hatch, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Indigo Machado, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Kenneth Smith, Student Assistant (Part-time)
    • Jacob Woodson, Student Assistant (Part-time)
  • Jay Dotson, Systems Integration Manager

DSI Learning Research

Tania Heap

Tania Heap

Director of Learning Research & Accessibility

Contact Info:

DSI Learning Research Team

  • Audon Archibald, Data Analyst
  • Rubab Shahzad, Data Analyst Intern (Part-time)
  • Faculty Fellows

DSI Administrative IT Services

Abraham John

Abraham John

Executive Director AITS

Contact Info:

DSI AITS Team

  • Cindy Hall, Administrative Coord
  • Alexandra Martinez, Cross Funct IT Support Coord
  • Bruce Berg, Cross Funct IT Suuport Supervisor

    • Administrative Departments and Health Center

    • Chris Stoermer, Director IT Support
      • Ryan Faulder, Cross Funct IT Support Manager
        • Grant Glass, Cross Funct IT Support Coord
        • Samuel Sandel, Croww Funct IT Support Svr
        • Jonathan Hons, Cross Funct IT Support Svr
      • Troy Bacon, Cross Funct IT Support Manager
        • Derek Boyd, Cross Funct IT Support Spec
        • Daniel Griffith, Cross Funct IT Support Spec
        • Lazayvion Hammick, Cross Funct IT Support Spec
        • Jennifer Lee, Sr Cross Funct IT Support Spec
        • Ryan Ueland, Cross Funct IT Support Svr
        • Daniel Wiersema, Cross Funct IT Support Coord

    Auxiliary, Facilities, and Surveillance

    • Jason McMullen, Director IT Support

        Business Services

      • Jason Zorola,, Cross Funct IT Support Manager
      • Matthew Fenton, Cross Funct IT Support Manager
        • Joshua Edelman, Cross Funct IT, Support Coord
          • Michael Hamilton, Sr Cross Funct IT Support Spec
            • Mikela Jones, Cross Funct IT Support Coord
        • Colton Estes, Sr Cross Funct IT Support Spec

        • Surveillance

        • Frank Oliver, Cross Funct IT Support Coord

        Athletics/Facilities/Transportation

        • Alan Garrison, Cross Funct IT Support Manager
          • Austin Hord, Cross Funct IT Support Supervisor
          • Cross Funct IT Support Svr (vacant)
            • Evan McWhorter,  Sr Cross Funct IT Support Coord
          • Bill Wasson, Sr Cross Funct IT Support Supervisor
          • Jasmyn Huff, Sr Cross Funct IT Support Spec

        Web Development

        • Jonathan Piott, Dept/College Web Manager
          • Joshua Huckabee, University Web Dev Programmer
          • Sharon Huang, University Web Dev Programmer

    Student Affairs/Union

    • Christopher Horiates, Sr IT Support Manager
      • Matthew Trammell, Cross Funct IT Support Svr
      • James Taylor, Cross Funct IT Support Svr
        • Patrick Kennedy, Cross Funct IT Support Coord

    Campus Technology

    • Richard Sanzone, Director IT Support

        Host Computing User Services

        • Jacob Flores, System Administrator

        IT Help Desk

        • Sharukh Mithani, Cross Funct IT Support Manager
          • Harris Nguyen, Student Asst Help Desk (Part-time)
          • William Marino, Student Asst Help Desk (Part-time)
          • Assunta Prince, Student Asst Help Desk (Part-time)
          • Mohamme Al Saadi, Student Asst Help Desk (Part-time)
          • Student Asst Help Desk (Part-time) (Vacant)
        • Sam Wiggins, Cross Function IT Support Coordinator

    Frisco

    • Joshua Avery, Director IT Support
      • Matt Wierzbicki, Cross Functional IT Support Supervisor
      • Zachary Collins, Cross Functional IT Support Coord
      • Cross Functional IT Support Coord, (Vacant)
      • Harah Chava, Student Assistant
      • Salim Fahim, Student Assistant
      • Jared Leeper, Student Assistant
      • Louise Duffy, Student Assistant
      • (Vacant), Student Assistant

Office of the Vice President for Digital Strategy and Innovation Organizational Chart - Updated July 2021

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[Last updated: August 8, 2022, 10:30am CT]