IT Service Leadership at UTD

Information Resources at UTD is composed of five areas of service providing centralized IT support and infrastructure to the University. The major common factor in our wide spectrum of customer services is its "always on, access on demand" nature. Our philosophy is one of cohesive independence, which revolves around the quality, experience, and spontaneous cooperation of IR staff.

IR maintains an updated maintenance schedule and service outage report to keep our user community informed on status and potential interruptions in service. Communications with our customer and user base is a critical aspect of the organization and an absolute priority.

INNOVATION and CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT: We in Information Resources are committed to the University's Lean University initiative. Our management team is tasked with keeping on the lookout for opportunities to bring innovation, improvement, and efficiency in everything we do. Let us know if you see such opportunities!
About the CIO Office
The department is led by the Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO), Dr. Jim Gary, whose office is part of the President's cabinet and responsible for all things IT at UTD. The CIO is also desginated as the institution's Information Resource Manager (IRM) with the State. The IRM is responsible for management of all of the institution's information resources. The designation of an agency information resources manager is intended to establish clear accountability for setting policy for information resources management activities, provide for greater coordination of the state agency's information activities, and ensure greater visibility of such activities within and between state agencies. The IRM has been given the authority and the accountability by the State of Texas to implement Security Policies, Procedures, Practice Standards and Guidelines to protect the Information Resources of the institution including both centralized and decentralized systems.

Jim Gary's Personal Background
I began my IT management career at UTD as the CaTS Director in September, 2002 followed by becoming Assistant Vice President for Information Resources in 2006 and VP/CIO in 2007. Prior to joining Information Resources in 1998, I was a space scientist at The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory. Most of my work there involved developing systems for data analysis and distribution. I developed a keen interest in the support systems enabling such work at APL.

I graduated from UTD in 1994 with a Ph.D. in physics. My advisor was Rod Heelis, Director of the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences. Prior to graduate school, I spent a couple of years with the Peace Corps in Western Samoa, where I led an international team teaching high school sciences.