IT Services is pleased to announce that Matt Meyer will be joining the University of Chicago as the new executive director for Academic Technology Solutions.

In addition and in preparation for Meyer’s arrival, the unit formerly known as Academic and Scholarly Technology Services (ASTS), has been renamed Academic Technology Solutions (ATS). The change brings the unit closer in name to similarly positioned units at other higher education institutions. More importantly, the new name better reflects the focus of the unit and team as providers of technology solutions, working in partnership with faculty, to best support teaching and learning at the University of Chicago.

Matt MeyerAs the new executive director for ATS, Meyer brings to the role 24 years of experience in the fields of learning design, educational leadership, and instructional technology leadership, including 16 years in private industry, where he directed the delivery of training and educational technology solutions in areas such as healthcare, finance, supply chain management, manufacturing, and health and safety.

Since 2009, Meyer has cultivated close professional relationships and beneficial partnerships with faculty at the Pennsylvania State University, while leading teams and staff dedicated to engaging faculty to support and advance the practice of teaching and learning through technology.

Cole W. Camplese, associate vice president for IT and chief information officer notes, “I am a firm believer in the appropriate use of technology to support teaching and learning and I have spent the better part of my own career and scholarship pursuing this endeavor. I am so very pleased to bring Matt Meyer to UChicago, someone who shares this belief and has spent his career at the intersection of the practical use of educational technologies with the practices and needs of faculty and students.”

At UChicago, Meyer will build on his past successes to advance new and deeper forms of faculty engagement. He will explore ways to bring faculty closer together with ATS and IT professionals to encourage conversations related to faculty problems of practice; grow an engaged culture of learning and instructional design within and beyond ITS; and build shared expertise with regard to academic technologies and the transformative role they can play in teaching and learning. Meyer will lead efforts to design world-class learning spaces at UChicago—both physical and virtual—aligning efforts and thinking with the ways in which faculty wish to utilize those learning spaces. In addition, Meyer will oversee the continued successful migration of the University’s learning management system (LMS) from Chalk to Canvas, supporting faculty as they move to Canvas and driving greater adoption of LMS tools and practices.

“I’m very enthusiastic for the opportunity to join the University of Chicago and support UChicago faculty in their use of academic technologies both for teaching and learning practice, as well as for research,” Meyer said.

Meyer will start at UChicago prior to the beginning of the Autumn Quarter.