Heather Woods
Chief Information Officer,
Smith College
Leading IT Transformation at Small Institutions
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 | 9:45AM–10:30AM CT | EDUCAUSE Commons, EDUCAUSE Central Poster Area
Session Type:
Poster Session
Delivery Format:
Poster
The New England Conservatory of Music is a small independent conservatory in Boston with approximately 800 students and a growing Expanded Education division serving early childhood, K-12, and adult learners. Over the last four years, NEC has been steadily modernizing technologies and workflows (infrastructure, curricular, and administrative) with a lean technical staff, including network/computing upgrades, AI strategy, and the implementation of new Enrollment, SIS, and financial aid solutions serving both the College and EE divisions. Successful and nimble IT transformation is critical for small institutions, despite intense resource pressure and the risk of staff turnover. This presentation will look through a small college lens at successful strategies including leadership and board engagement, staffing, ownership and resourcing, portfolio management, system owner development, and proceeding “at pace” with simultaneous implementations.