Office of the Vice President

Morteza Rahimi

Vice President and Chief Technology Officer

Mort Rahimi was appointed a Northwestern University vice president and professor of electrical engineering and computer science in 1992. Before his appointment, he was vice president at Wayne State University for seven years. Prior to that, he was professor and chairman of computer science at Wayne. Mort began his university career at Michigan State where he was a professor of computer science. While on a two-year leave from Michigan State, he served as a manager of educational planning for Control Data Corporation.

He has served on various technical and scientific panels. He has also served as chairman of regional and national academic and economic development organizations. In January of 1999, Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Rahimi to serve on the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors (MCTA) for the City of Chicago.

Mort is a member of Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity, Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honorary and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Rahimi earned his B.S. 1962) and M.S. (1964) from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Iowa (1968).

Please visit Mort Rahimi's Web site for more information.

Contact: m-rahimi@northwestern.edu

Patricia Todus

Associate Vice President and Deputy Chief Information Officer

Patricia Todus is responsible for the University information technology strategic planning; she established a planning process that has been in place for 12 years. With a staff of 250, she is also responsible for NUIT operations and works closely with the University's chief technology officer on all aspects of information technology planning and deployment. She chairs the Information Technology Coordinating Council and participates in numerous University committees.

Prior to joining NUIT, Ms. Todus was president of Northwestern Technologies Group (NTG), a joint venture of Northwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital which provided all technology services to the Partners, their affiliates and support groups. As a consultant and director at the University of Chicago, she deployed the first digital telecommunications system providing technology services to the University and its hospitals. She served as the corporate technology leader at several corporations. Ms. Todus was the co-developer of a telecommunications degree program for Mundelein College (now part of Loyola University) and served on the faculty.

Ms. Todus is an active member in numerous professional organizations and has presented at regional and national conferences. Her longstanding memberships include EDUCAUSE, ACUTA, SIM, NACUBO/CACUBO, and the CIC.

Ms. Todus was selected to provide her technology and planning expertise to the 21st Century Project, an ACUHO-I initiative that brought University Presidents, facilities planners, external architects and students together to plan the residence hall of the future. This has culminated in a juried competition for a residence hall building.

In April 2009, Ms. Todus was honored by ACUTA with its highest level of recognition, the Bill D. Morris Award, named for a past ACUTA president and given to the person that exemplifies dedication, vision, professionalism, and leadership. Ms. Todus served as ACUTA president from 2005 to 2006 and currently serves as chair of both the Higher Education Advisory Panel and the prestigious Forum for Strategic Leadership in Information Communications Technology.

She is on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Technology Foundation (ITF), which is responsible for the leadership and direction of the Foundation. ITF was formed as a new initiative of the Illinois Technology Association focusing on the development of a technology talent pipeline beginning in elementary school, refined in high school, and fully developed in our region's higher education institutions.

Ms. Todus has been very active in supporting regional, state and local needs. She chaired the NSHEC (North Suburban Higher Education Consortium) Steering Committee which, through state funding, provided videoconferencing capabilities to higher education institutions in Illinois. Ms. Todus chaired the Technology Committee for the District 90 K-8 School System, developing a multi-year technology plan that focused on the needs of students, teaching, and curriculum, and addressed the State of Illinois requirements. The Plan was funded by a $1M local referendum. She also served on the District 90 Strategic Planning Team. Ms. Todus was appointed to the State of Illinois Year 2000 Preparedness Council and developed liaisons with the state CIO to bring use of the University's Collaboratory Project into state schools. She is a member of the ITEEx (Information Technology Executive Exchange) that fosters communications between regional institutions of higher education.

Ms. Todus earned her Masters of Management Degree from the Kellogg School of Management.

Contact: p-todus@northwestern.edu

Thomas Board

Associate Vice President of Cyberinfrastructure

Tom Board has been associated with Northwestern University since he arrived as an undergraduate student in September 1969, with the exception of a two-year hiatus in industry at Computer Sciences Corporation. Tom began to work full-time for Northwestern University in 1976 and held positions in software programming, software project management, telecommunications management, technology planning, technology user support, information systems architecture, and most recently cyber infrastructure.

As the Director of Information Systems Architecture, Tom was charged to design, validate and implement a University-wide architecture for administrative and academic systems, with emphasis on secure and efficient integration of transactions and information. Identity management and integrated access controls are also in his portfolio.

As Vice President of Cyberinfrastructure, Tom, together with NUIT directors Shehzad Amin and Dana Nielson, focuses attention on providing an infrastructure that meets the needs of the University's research, teaching, and administrative community, now and in the future.

Both of his degrees are from Northwestern: a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a Master of Science in Computer Science.

Contact: teb@northwestern.edu