Office of Information Technology

OIT Leadership

  • Christopher Keith

    Vice President for Information Technology and CIO

    Christopher Keith is the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO). Reporting to Brown's EVP of Finance and Administration, Sarah Latham, Chris leads the strategy, stewardship, and delivery of technology in support of the mission, priorities, and aspirations of the institution. He serves as a member of the President's Cabinet and the University's Executive Committee. 

    Chris is proud of his diverse team of over 250 professionals in the Office of Information Technology (OIT), who deliver reliable, secure, sustainable and well-supported technology to faculty, staff, students, and alumni. OIT's services are focused on success in teaching, research, student experience, administration, and lifelong engagement of students and alumni. 

    Chris has served with distinction at Brown for over 17 years. He began his Brown career as Director for Information Technology at the College, focused on technology strategy and software development in support of advising, course feedback, and other technologies supporting faculty and students. He transitioned to OIT in 2014, joining the Integration and Identity Services team. More recently, he has served as Director, and then Assistant CIO, of Enterprise Applications, where he was responsible for custom application development, enterprise data services, student systems, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning, and many other business systems. In these successive roles, Chris has built a number of strong connections with academic and administrative leaders across Brown, as well as with technical peers at other institutions. 

    Before his time at Brown, Chris led the information technology organization at the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) in Newport, Rhode Island, where his team maintained all technology infrastructure and services, and where he rebuilt the student information system.

    Chris received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the United States Naval Academy, and served as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy for seven years, including four as a Naval Flight Officer. Chris is also a proud alumnus of Brown, earning his Masters of Science in Computer Science in 2012. Chris has received several Brown Excellence awards in his career, and currently serves as a member of the InCommon Community Trust and Assurance Board (CTAB).

    Chris values curiosity, introspection, and humility, and is passionate about the University's mission in support of education and research.

    To arrange an appointment, please contact Wendy Octeau, Wendy_Octeau@brown.edu.

  • Linnea Wolfe

    After graduating from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of science in Management Information Systems and Management Science, Linnea Wolfe worked for four years as a database administrator for government contracting companies supporting the naval Trident submarine program. She came to Brown in 1989 as a database administrator, supporting the Josiah library system. She has held various management positions in the Office of Information Technology in the database, administrative technical services, and infrastructure areas.

    As Deputy CIO, Linnea's responsibilities include OIT Human Resources, Finance, Project Management, IT Governance, and Departmental Systems. In addition to these, her responsibilities also include database services, systems services, datacenter operations, network and telecommunications, and storage, backup and IT Disaster Recovery services.  As operating director of the Center for Computing and Visualization, Linnea has responsibility for working closely with the faculty director of CCV to lead the growth of research technologies and support to help faculty researchers compete and succeed in their own fields.

    To arrange an appointment, please contact Wendy Octeau, Wendy_Octeau@brown.edu.

  • Mark Dieterich

    Chief Information Security Officer

    Mark Dieterich is the Chief Information Security Officer at Brown University. He started his career at Brown in 1997 with the Department of Computer Science, holding a variety of positions until he was finally promoted to Director of IT for the department. In his current role, Mark is responsible for information security architecture and best practices across the University, directing security compliance and risk assessment efforts, leading awareness programs, directing an incident response team, and overseeing the Information Security team. He has a vast technological background, with experience managing and securing many of the software technologies employed at Brown today. Mark’s background includes everything from high level architecture design to low level code debugging, covering a variety of security aspects.

    To arrange an appointment, please contact Lisa Vaillancourt, Lisa_Vaillancourt@brown.edu.

  • Don Rogers

    Assistant CIO, IT Support & Customer Experience

    As the Assistant CIO, IT Support & Customer Experience, Don leads the OIT teams who support the Brown community for their general technical needs. His group includes the IT Service Center, IT Support Consultants, Media Services, Print Services, Hardware Services, Software Services, Endpoint Engineering, and IT Communications. These skilled and helpful teams know what matters to Brown faculty, staff, students and alumni, and are their trusted partners in using technology effectively for teaching, learning, research, and administration.

    Don has supported IT at Brown since 1998, first in the Department of Sociology, followed by the Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences. He then joined the Office of Information Technology in 2017. Don graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art. His background includes extensive work in support, communications, service quality, and customer satisfaction in the academic and administrative environments in higher ed.

    To arrange an appointment, please contact Lisa Vaillancourt, Lisa_Vaillancourt@brown.edu.

  • Paul Stey

    Assistant CIO, Research Software Engineering and Data Science

    As the Assistant CIO, Research Software Engineering and Data Science, Paul oversees support for data-intensive computing, machine learning, informatics, reporting, and analytics through the Data Science Practice team. Prior to Brown, Paul worked as a Mathematical Statistician at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He completed a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the University of Notre Dame; his undergraduate work was at The Ohio State University. Paul is broadly interested in ensemble methods for machine learning, as well as high-performance computing.

    To arrange an appointment, please contact Lisa Vaillancourt, Lisa_Vaillancourt@brown.edu.

Advisory Groups

  • The Advisory Council on Computing & Information Technology shall consist of the President, ex officio, and no fewer than fifteen other members. Members shall be appointed by the President for staggered terms of three years each, beginning July 1 and ending June 30. A chairperson shall be designated annually by the President. 
  • The Council shall consider long-term policy and planning issues, strategic directions, and efficacy of implementation concerning Computing & Information Technology and their relationship to the overall educational mission of the University. 
  • Staffing: The Advisory Council on Computing & Information Technology shall be staffed by the Provost and the Chief Information Officer.