Office of Information Technology

OIT Leadership

  • Sharon Pitt

    Sharon Pitt

    Vice President for Information Technology and CIO

    Sharon P. Pitt serves as the Vice President for Information Technologies and Chief Information Officer at Brown University.  In this role, Sharon is charged with transforming and strengthening the core value proposition of a central IT function in a world-class research university. She oversees Information Technologies in support of teaching, learning, research and the student experience at the University. 

    Sharon came Brown University after serving VP of IT & CIO at the University of Delaware and before that as CIO at Binghamton University.  Sharon also served 9 years at George Mason University, most recently as its Deputy Chief Information Officer. Previous to her work at GMU, Sharon served as Associate Vice Provost for Learning Technologies at North Carolina State University, Director of Instructional Technology and Distance Education at James Madison University, and in the Educational Technologies division of Virginia Tech.  She also was an Executive Director of 4VA (4VA.org). 

    Sharon has served on advisory, governance and/or strategy groups for Blackboard, Inc., E&I Cooperative, EDUCAUSE, the IBM Cloud Academy, Internet2, NYSERNet, and SUNY. In addition, Sharon has served as a co-chair of the Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC) of EDUCAUSE and the EDUCAUSE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force. 

    Sharon is currently Vice-Chair of the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors. 

    Sharon has served as a faculty mentor of the NY CIO Leadership Academy as well as a mentor for the Leading Change Institute, Vantage's Leadership Lounge, the EDUCAUSE Senior Leadership Roundtable and the Hawkins Leadership Roundtable.

    Sharon is a 2004 Frye Fellow.  

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

  • John Spadaro

    John Spadaro

    As the Deputy CIO, John is responsible for Finance and Administration and ensuring that Brown's IT systems work together seamlessly to provide the university community with a comprehensive and modern set of reliable IT services that meet the needs of research, scholarship and the administration. He also oversees Project Management. John has been at Brown since 1984. Prior to his current role he served as a User Services Specialist, ran the Student Help Desk and was a mainframe systems programmer. More recently John directed the infrastructure systems and services team that supported email, directories, web services and the underlying infrastructure that makes them all work. John has taken on the Interim CIO role three times, as well as temporary leadership roles in Advancement IT, and the Center for Computation and Visualization (CCV).

    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.

  • Geoffrey Greene

    Geoffrey Greene

    Director, Departmental Systems

    Geoffrey Greene is Director of Departmental Systems for OIT.  Geoff has worked in IT at Brown since 1988, holding a variety of positions.  In his current role, Geoff and Departmental Systems support systems in the following Divisions and Departments: the Department of Public Safety - supported by the Public Safety Tech team; the Division of Business and Financial Services, the Division of Campus Life, the Brown Arts Institute, Athletics, Dining; and the Division of Biology and Medicine including the Alpert Medical School.

    To arrange an appointment, please contact Kim McAllister, Kim_McAllister@brown.edu.

  • Christopher Keith

    Director, Enterprise Applications and Software Engineering

    In his role, Chris oversees the strategic use of software applications and data in support of the
    larger University mission. His group provides services in business intelligence, content
    management systems, custom software development, customer relationship management
    systems, data warehousing, identity management, student systems, and system integrations,
    among others.

    Chris joined Brown in 2007 as the Director of Information Technology for the College. He joined
    OIT in 2014 as Associate Director, Integration and Identity Services. In 2012, Chris completed a
    master of science degree in Computer Science from Brown. Before coming to Providence, Chris
    spent a number of years as an officer in the United States Navy, first as a Naval Flight Officer
    and then as a member of the Information Warfare Community. He graduated from the United
    States Naval Academy in 1998 with a bachelor of science in Computer Science.


    To arrange an appointment, please contact Kim McAllister, Kim_McAllister@brown.edu.

  • Paul Stey

    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 Kim McAllister, Kim_McAllister@brown.edu.

  • Monica Sutcliffe

    Director, Digital Systems of Engagement

    Monica joined Brown University in 2017 and currently manages a team of CRM administrators and developers who work with systems such as Salesforce, Slate, DestinyOne and specializes in the areas of admission and enrollment, though the team has also branched off into other university needs such as community engagement, events management, and case management.

    Monica graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in Journalism. She subsequently took some graduate-level classes in Human Resources, and completed her Master's degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the University of New Haven. She also holds a certificate in Project Management and a Salesforce Administrator certification. In 2018, Monica and her team were recognized with a Brown Excellence Award in Efficiency, and Monica was awarded the OIT Baldrige Most Impactful Innovation award in 2020 as well as the Change Agent Award in Digital Transformation in 2020.
     

  • Tim Wells

    Director, Telecommunications and Network Technology

    Tim Wells came to Brown in June of 2006 as OIT's Director of Network Technology managing all aspects of the network and bringing with him over 20 years of IT experience. Since then Tim has taken on responsibility for Telecommunications, and Facilities IT Project Coordination. Before Brown, Tim was the Vice President of Enterprise Strategy and Architecture for Citizens Financial Group. During his eight years at Citizens, Tim held engineering and senior operational management positions, with responsibilities that included voice and data network support, planning and design, distributed systems support, data center cable architecture, storage architecture, disaster recovery and business continuity. Previously Tim worked for Honeywell Consumer Products as a network manager building a global voice and data network to support product manufacturing and distribution. Early in his career Tim also worked on the technical staff of Roger Williams University as a network engineer.

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

  • Linnea Wolfe

    Linnea Wolfe

    Assistant CIO, Infrastructure and Research Computing

    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. Her current responsibilities as Assistant CIO include; database services, systems services, datacenter operations, and storage, backup and IT DR 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.

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.