Richard Czarnecki, Chief Information Officer
Rich Czarnecki is responsible for providing leadership support to MSU IT and works with campus leaders to deliver federated IT, executing the mission of providing high-quality, dedicated, focused IT support to campus partners.
Before his current role, Rich served as Associate Vice President for IT and Associate CIO. Before that, he was the director of the Application Services enterprise organization, providing the university’s HR, finance, facilities, CRM, CMS, messaging, mobile, identity management, and student information platforms to support the university’s mission of education, research, and global outreach. Application Services also operated numerous enterprise contracts with IT industry leaders. They provided general software development, database administration, web development, e-commerce, enterprise integration, application engineering, managed hosting, and load-balancing services to campus partners.
Rich is a strategic leader and seasoned technologist, bringing more than 30 years of experience leading the research design, development, and operation of educational and business systems. Rich’s research focused on incorporating real-time statistical analysis of learner performance into adaptive learning systems, earning awards, including a Smithsonian award for Innovative Use of Technology in Education. He was also an early adopter of and participated in pilots of interoperability frameworks, including SIF, SCORM, and IMS. Before joining MSU in 2011, Rich held corporate strategy, technology architecture, and systems engineering roles in award-winning companies, including Jostens, Computer Curriculum Corporation, Pearson, Siboney Learning Group, and Educational Options. Rich has led through multiple corporate acquisitions, mergers, and significant transformational change and enjoys leading through and leveraging the never-ending evolution of technology. Rich is a lifelong Spartan, holding a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University.
Teal Amthor-Shaffer, Executive Director for Campus IT Experience
Passionate about building intentional organizational frameworks that create sustainable alignment between operations, strategy, mission, and vision, Teal’s approach to organizational change management combines inclusive collaboration with human-centered design and systems thinking. A natural communicator, Teal leverages the power of relationships and storytelling to support and engage people through change. Perhaps she can blame her insatiable curiosity, but Teal’s career always leads her to places in phases of evolution or growth, and she thrives on building new teams and iteratively solving long-standing problems.
Before joining MSU IT, Teal’s work in higher education included stakeholder engagement for student success initiatives, preparing affected audiences for the implementation of institutional policy changes or enterprise software, strategic portfolio management, and extensive experience with marketing, communications, and public relations strategy. She teaches an experiential course in Broad’s Executive MBA program that merges consulting practices with design thinking to prototype innovative solutions to business challenges.
Teal holds her masters in business administration and executive management from Michigan State University. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in English, specializing in Creative Writing and Studio Art, from MSU. She is a lifelong equestrian who appreciates the sport for its balance between intuition, art, and science.
Yesim Askin, Executive Director for Enterprise Services
Organized and flexible, Yesim has over 25 years of consulting and IT management experience in application development and data analytics in higher education, automotive, and software development. She has a wealth of system development expertise along with the ability to create and maintain strong business relationships.
Over the past 16 years, Yesim filled critical roles at MSU, including Chief Data Officer, and served as the Interim Chief Security Officer in addition to her role as Executive Director of Enterprise Services. Before joining MSU, Yesim managed onsite/offshore development and architecture teams. Described as a team player and leader, she is PMP certified and has a Master of Science in Human-Computer Interaction and a Doctorate of Management in Information Technology. She showcases her technical knowledge and charisma at conferences, EDUCAUSE, and higher education groups.
Jason Beaudin, Executive Director for Educational Technology
Throughout his career, Jason has built and supported effective, service-centered teams and worked collaboratively across divisions to implement initiatives that improve operations and student outcomes.
With roots in teaching, he advocates for technology and training solutions, prioritizing student and faculty needs, mastery of learning outcomes, and classroom usability and effectiveness. Before joining MSU, Jason was the inaugural assistant vice president of Learning Experience at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College.
Carrie Murphy, IT HR Officer and Director
Carrie Murphy’s career spans 25 years in higher education, where she has held positions in information technology and athletics. As a member of the MSU IT Executive Leadership team, Carrie provides strategic leadership for employee-centric services to support the unit’s mission of providing innovative information technology solutions.
Carrie is a graduate of MSU’s Eli Broad College of Business and holds human resource certifications from the Society of Human Resources Management and MSU’s School of Human Resources & Labor Relations.
Don DuRousseau, Executive Director for Research Cyberinfrastructure
Don DuRousseau has over 20 years of leadership experience in research technologies, cyberinfrastructure, cybersecurity, and policy development. He is an active researcher who has led numerous federally sponsored R&D projects and has over 30 publications. Before joining MSU, Don served as the Director of Research at the University of Arkansas. In this position, he worked across the institution with researchers as well as multiple internal and external entities to support the research efforts and associated cybersecurity needs of the university. He holds a master’s degree in International Business and Computer Science from George Washington University and a bachelor’s in Neurobiology and Neurosciences from the University of California, Berkeley.
Judith Odett, Executive Director for Infrastructure and Technology
Before joining MSU, Judy served as senior executive director of Agency Services for the State of Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget. In this role, she was responsible for business relationship management and technology service delivery to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Judy has over 35 years of consulting and IT executive leadership experience in the private sector and state government. Throughout her career, she has led major technology transformation initiatives at the State of Michigan related to IT centralization, focusing on reliable infrastructure services and efficient operations. Judy also managed the delivery of strategic application development projects, leveraging human-centered design, resulting in increased citizen engagement and improved stakeholder outcomes.
While working at the State of Michigan, Judy received multiple leadership awards, including a National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Technology Innovation Award and a CTO Award for Leadership. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Informational Science from Oakland University. She is a certified Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP) with certifications in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundations and Service Operations.
Andrew Weisskopf, Chief Information Security Officer
Andy was the Chief Information Security Officer at the University of Delaware, where he developed and implemented a program to protect the institution’s systems and data. During his time as CISO, he administered the first-ever campus-wide information security strategic plan to expand the security program and roll out common tools to the entire university. Andy brings over 30 years of experience in the information security field, including a CISO position at Binghamton University, various information security roles at Iowa State University, and time with IBM and Intel.
Andy has served on various cybersecurity committees with EDUCAUSE, the Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC), NYSERNet, and SUNY. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Temple University and a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University.
