Unleashing the Power of the Community by Campus Crowdsourcing

Dr. Curtis A. Carver, VP and CIO at University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Curtis A. Carver, VP and CIO at University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Carver is an inspirational leader and visionary with more than three decades of success achieving strategic business goals and transforming lives. He has extensive experience in technology strategy and operations for large multinational organizations. With a unique mix of industry and academic experiences, Dr. Carver has led the transformation of IT services by partnering with business owners, institutions, and other state agencies to jointly solve problems.

Please tell our readers about your journey in the industry.

Leading a world-class team entails providing services that surpass customer expectations and create an emotional connection. This involves more than just making incremental changes; often, we must rethink problems and collaborate with our students, faculty, clinicians, and researchers to determine the most efficient approach to achieving our goals. Additionally, we need to empower frictionless innovation and creation of business value. When I joined in 2015, we had email and storage quotas, changed passwords all the time and ran out of network bandwidth all the time. Cumulatively, this hindered the progress of educators and doctors trying to save lives. We removed all of this friction to innovation new services such as unlimited email and storage, the fastest network and research computer in the state, and passwords that never expire, which has allowed our staff and students to reach their full potential.

“Leading a world-class team entails providing services that surpass customer expectations and create an emotional connection. This involves more than just making incremental changes; often, we must rethink problems and collaborate with our students, faculty, clinicians, and researchers to determine the most efficient approach to achieving our goals,” says Dr. Curtis A. Carver, VP and CIO at University of Alabama at Birmingham."

What are recent changes that you have observed in the industry?

18-24 months ago, we were in the pandemic, but our transition was smooth because of our prepared infrastructure and innovative team. We established a reputation for innovation and worked on critical projects, leading to trust to implement similar initiatives across Alabama. Our infrastructure adapted to remote and hybrid work, and we continued our work tempo while meeting our goal of improving the lives of our students, faculty, and staff. We managed multiple large projects without micromanagement, leveraging digital transformation and investing in building the IT organization of the future. Our focus is now on generative AI and digital transformation to delight our students, faculty, and staff.

What will be your advice to the peers and colleagues in the industry?

Lead by example and with humility. Everything that goes wrong is attributable to you. Everything that goes right is attributable to the team. Create a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration and gratitude. Focus on micro-innovation and lots of it. We have a 100 wins programs where we improve the lives of our users in at least 100 different ways each year through innovation.  Aim for nothing less than delight and work worth doing. Empower others and hold them accountable to do great things. Pass all credit to them when they achieve great results. Finally create revenue for your organization and political goodwill for your boss. 

Storage

Digital Transformation

IT Services