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º£½ÇÉçÇø is pleased to announce the appointment of Ryan Schlagheck as Chief Information Officer. In this newly created executive leadership role, Mr. Schlagheck will lead º£½ÇÉçÇø’s information technology strategy across its Illinois and Arizona campuses. He will direct the University's technology strategy, overseeing enterprise technology, cybersecurity, data and analytics, digital transformation, and academic and clinical technologies to support excellence in education, research, patient care, and operations.

"As º£½ÇÉçÇø continues to grow, technology has become central to everything we do—from educating future healthcare professionals and supporting groundbreaking research to delivering patient care and strengthening our operations," said Joshua Baker, O.D., M.S., President and CEO of º£½ÇÉçÇø. "Creating the Chief Information Officer position reflects our commitment to investing in that future. Mr. Schlagheck brings the strategic vision, leadership experience, and collaborative approach to help us use technology in ways that better serve our students, faculty, staff, patients, and the communities we serve."

A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Schlagheck has nearly three decades of leadership experience guiding complex technology organizations in both higher education and healthcare. Most recently, he held senior leadership positions at Yale University, where he directed the University’s Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation, built Yale’s institution-wide data and analytics capabilities, extended the use of artificial intelligence to improve the customer experience, and fostered a culture where trust is earned and accountability is owned. Before joining Yale University, he spent 10 years at Cigna leading technology operations for one of the nation's largest healthcare organizations, supporting systems serving millions of customers.

"º£½ÇÉçÇø's mission asks a great deal of the people who deliver it. I'm looking forward to spending time with the students, faculty, and staff who depend on that work, and with the IT professionals across every college and campus who make it possible, to understand where we're already strong and where we have room to grow. Many of them have spent their careers without a shared sense of identity as IT professionals at º£½ÇÉçÇø; strengthening that community and shared purpose, wherever someone sits in the organization, is what I hope we achieve across both campuses."

Mr. Schlagheck is the recipient of several leadership and service awards, including Yale University's Linda K. Lorimer Award for Distinguished Service and the Cigna Chairman's Champion Award. He is also a graduate of the Society for Information Management Leadership Forum, EDUCAUSE Leadership Program, and the MOR Leadership Program. He will begin his duties at º£½ÇÉçÇø on July 27, 2026.