UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Jennifer Stedelin, deputy chief information officer and associate vice president of enterprise systems and services at Penn State, has been named the University’s new vice president for information technology (IT) and chief information officer, effective July 1.
"We are fortunate to have a person as respected and experienced as Jen to lead Penn State’s IT operations,” said Nick Jones, executive vice president and provost. “Under her strategic and experienced leadership, we will continue to provide essential and exemplary technology support to students, faculty and staff University-wide.”
Sara Thorndike, senior vice president for Finance and Business and treasurer, added, “Jennifer’s efforts over the past three years have been integral in helping IT make a number of transitions, including shifts in technology, organization and structure, as well as supporting the University community through the pandemic. We’re excited to have her continue her work in this new leadership role at Penn State.”
In the role, Stedelin will lead the University’s information technology enterprise, including direct oversight of Penn State IT, which supports students, faculty and staff across the institution. She will provide strategic direction for services, support, infrastructure and administrative systems across the University’s academic colleges, 24 campus locations including World Campus, and other administrative units. Stedelin will join the University’s executive leadership on the President’s Council and will interface with the Board of Trustees on related matters.
“I’m truly honored to be appointed Penn State’s new vice president for IT and chief information officer. Since returning to Penn State in 2019, I’ve enjoyed working with my colleagues across Penn State to anticipate and meet the challenges that come with being a world-class teaching and research institution,” Stedelin said. “I’m looking forward to continuing that collaboration in making Penn State’s information technology services, support and infrastructure best in class and serving the needs of our students, faculty and staff.”
She replaces Donald J. Welch, who departed the University in October 2021 to become vice president for information technology and global university chief information officer at New York University. Michael Büsges was appointed to serve as interim vice president for information technology and chief information officer. Büsges will return to his role as senior adviser to the provost.
“I also want to thank Michael Büsges for his willingness to serve as interim vice president for IT while the University conducted its search for a permanent replacement,” Jones said. “We are truly grateful for his efforts in leading Penn State Enterprise IT over the past several months.”
Stedelin has been associate vice president of enterprise systems and services at the University since October 2019 and deputy chief information officer since November 2021. In those positions, Stedelin helped oversee Penn State’s transition from the Box cloud-based storage solution to Microsoft Office 365, and led the retirement of the University’s mainframe and related applications.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the rapid development of applications designed for contact tracing, case investigation and testing, while also developing a longer-term strategy for contact tracing and case investigation, which resulted in the implementation of Salesforce Health Cloud.
Stedelin also guided the enterprise systems and services team through organizational shifts, budgetary changes and strategic service restructuring.
She previously served as senior director for strategic operations in Penn State IT from July 2017 to January 2019.
Her professional experience includes IT leadership roles at Kent State University, Washington University in St. Louis and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Stedelin holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics and an MBA, both from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.