Mark Askren, vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer, has been elected to a four-year term on the board of directors of Educause, a national association for information technology in higher education.

The organization has more than 2,000 member institutions from the United States and around the world. It is the “foremost community” of information technology leaders and professionals committed to advancing higher education.

Askren, who has been active in Educause for about 15 years, said his goals as a board member are to build stronger relationships between IT professionals and senior academic and administrative leaders; to support IT research and initiatives that improve student success; to broaden professional development efforts and to encourage gender and ethnic diversity within the information technology profession.

“With increasing demands and flat resources, IT in higher ed is the path forward to work more effectively together, to encourage collaboration and economies of scale and to foster innovation in teaching and learning,” he said.

Askren is one of four new members who will join the 12-member Educause board in October.

He and Diane Graves, assistant vice president for information resources and university librarian at Trinity University in San Antonio, were elected by the membership. Reginald Henry, CIO for the American Society of Association Executives, and Edward Leach, executive director for the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development were appointed by the Educause board of directors.

At UNL, Askren is responsible for campus-wide leadership of information technology systems and services in support of instruction, research and outreach. He previously served as the assistant vice chancellor for administrative computing services at the University of California Irvine. He also has worked at the University of Illinois and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.