After more than twenty-five years as a staff member at UMBC, Damian Doyle has accepted the position of Deputy CIO at UVA. As someone who  has worked closely with Damian each day for the last ten years, I’m both excited and saddened. Excited because I have watched Damian grow personally and professionally into an outstanding leader who excels at both the human and technical aspects of higher education. I know Damian’s best work is still to come and all of higher education will benefit. Saddened, because I will miss him as a valued colleague and friend. Watching how connected Damian is perceived across the higher education community, I’ve warned him he will need to set aside time for all of us at UMBC who have come to take those short impromptu conversations for granted to stay connected to him.

Damian’s contributions to UMBC and the Higher education community go well beyond information technology and speak to his impact as a person. Damian has been connected to UMBC since birth, both of Damian’s parents were UMBC graduates who met in that period called the Founding Four years. Damian chose to attend UMBC, earning both a B.S. in Computer Science and M.S. in Information Systems from UMBC. Damian has been actively involved in shared governance, serving on the UMBC Professional Staff Senate, including two terms as President. He has been actively involved in mentoring efforts on campus and works tirelessly to advance UMBC. One example is his work  advancing STEM in K-12 through Maryland’s FIRST LEGO Robotics competition. Damian has pulled in many of his UMBC friends and colleagues to help organize the state championship each spring that brings thousands to the campus. In addition, during his time here at UMBC he has been active in UMBC’s Center for Women in IT and serves on the UMBC Alumni Board. In 2022, he also received the UMBC Presidential Distinguished Staff award.

Nationally, Damian is highly engaged with organizations like EDUCAUSE and Internet2. He received the EDUCAUSE Rising Star award in 2018. He has served as a faculty member for EDUCAUSE’s Senior Director Institute and their online Management Program and currently chairs the EDUCAUSE National Recognition Committee. Within Internet2, he chairs the Cloud Services Architecture Advisory Committee, co-chairs a track of the annual Technology Exchange conference, and is a long-standing member of the planning committee for the Higher Education Cloud Forum. Damian has been highly sought after as a mentor to a number of IT professionals at other institutions as they are beginning their leadership journey.

Damian will leave DoIT in a good place. He has built a very strong team and we know his colleagues are equipped technically and professionally to take on the added responsibilities. His direct reports –  Todd Haddaway, Ray Soellner, David Toothe, and Jason Paluck – have been working with Damian each step of our journey. Damian leaves UMBC on a high-note, having just been funded as Principal Investigator on a NSF CC*Storage proposal submitted by UMBC. His DoIT colleagues will continue to see Damian at conferences such as EDUCAUSE and Internet2 and will likely feel strange hearing Damian mention his affiliation as Virginia but we will know he is thoroughly Black & Gold.

Officially, Damian is taking advantage of his long tenure to actuallyofficially retire from UMBC. In this way, he will remain part of our extended community. Plans for a time and place for those outside of DoIT to wish Damian well will be shared soon. Damian, I know I speak for all your DoIT colleagues in thanking you for your collegiality and service to UMBC!