Higher Ed IT Strategist · AI Governance Leader · Senior Director, Yale College
Darice
Corey
Digital strategy, AI governance, and student-centered systems in higher education
I lead digital strategy across academic and administrative teams in decentralized university environments, focusing on AI governance, student experience, and institutional alignment. At Yale, I connect enterprise priorities to systems people can actually use — including building Yale College Voices, a multi-platform storytelling initiative I created and lead.
In decentralized universities, central mandates have limits. My work focuses on building adoption models that hold up across units — where institutional authority runs out and local judgment takes over.
How I Think
Four ideas that shape how I work.
Decentralization is something to design for, not work around. The goal is models that hold up when the center can't reach.
AI adoption is shaped by risk tolerance and institutional context, not just access to tools. Governance has to account for that.
Technology strategy should start with student experience. If it doesn't improve something real for students, the case for it weakens.
Governance should support thoughtful experimentation. Institutions that only allow low-risk adoption will always be behind.
What I Stand For
I help institutions make technology usable, trusted, and worth adopting.
My work sits at the intersection of institutional strategy, digital systems, and real-world adoption. I care about whether something works in practice, not just whether it gets deployed. That means understanding how people actually use technology before deciding how to build or buy it.
In decentralized university environments, adoption doesn't happen because leadership says so. It happens when people trust a tool, understand why it exists, and see that someone thought through how it fits their work. Governance that accounts for this reality looks very different from governance designed for a centralized organization. That gap is where I focus.
At the center of my work is translation: strategy to systems, systems to people, and institutional goals to tools people can actually use every day.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Building AI support models that work across Yale College and partner units, without relying on central mandates
Connecting local institutional needs to enterprise platforms and university-wide strategy
Designing tools and workflows that people trust, return to, and recommend to colleagues
Supporting adoption through clear communication, hands-on guidance, and community-building
Grounding research questions in real leadership work, then bringing findings back into practice
Current Focus
Right now, I'm focused on:
Co-leading Yale's AI support strategy across academic and administrative teams, building shared adoption models that work where institutional policy runs out and individual judgment takes over.
Helping faculty and staff adopt new tools in ways that feel manageable, not imposed, through community-based engagement and hands-on learning.
Researching how risk, authority, and institutional context shape AI decision-making in decentralized universities, and feeding those findings back into my leadership work.
How I Lead
Stewardship over speed. Judgment over novelty.
I lead through context, care, and clarity. I am most effective working at the intersection of complexity and uncertainty, helping institutions move forward with emerging technology without losing sight of their values. I prioritize listening before acting, restraint alongside creativity, and transparency in every decision.
My role in AI leadership is not to chase tools, but to shape how AI is thoughtfully introduced in environments with real constraints: privacy, security, equity, and long-term sustainability. That means framing the problem AI is meant to solve, being clear about what it should not be used for, and establishing guardrails before experimentation begins. I view AI leadership as an exercise in judgment — determining when innovation serves the institution, and when restraint is the more responsible choice.
Strong operations create the foundation that allows institutions to innovate responsibly. Part of my work is making invisible infrastructure visible to decision-makers: clarifying tradeoffs, surfacing inefficiencies, and aligning technical decisions with financial and organizational realities. The goal is not efficiency for its own sake, but resilience that endures.
Leadership Principles
Frame the problem before selecting the tool — clarity about purpose matters more than speed of adoption
Make invisible infrastructure visible to leaders who have to make decisions about it
Build governance structures that reflect how the institution actually works, not how it should work in theory
Treat restraint as a leadership choice, not a limitation — knowing when not to act is as important as knowing when to
Sustain change by investing in people and community, not just systems and processes
Impact at a Glance
Numbers that tell the story.
About
I connect the work on the ground to the strategy at the top.
"I took a blank slate as an invitation to build something that truly serves Yale College."
When I stepped into this role, Yale College's digital presence was largely undefined. There was no unified web strategy, no governance model, no clear line between local site decisions and institutional standards. I built those things. Over 13 years, I grew the role from web operations into a senior leadership position that now spans AI strategy, cross-unit governance, student-facing platforms, and enterprise IT planning. The blank slate became a foundation other work could stand on.
Today my work operates across several interconnected areas. I oversee a $981K IT budget and govern 50+ websites across Yale College's academic and administrative units. I serve on Yale's IT Leadership Council, a university-wide body of technology leaders that advances IT strategy, policies, and standards across Yale's schools and units — working as One IT to align resources and promote institution-wide innovation. I co-lead Yale's AI support and governance model for faculty and staff, a cross-university initiative that connects policy, community, and measurable outcomes. I also created and lead Yale College Voices, a multi-platform institutional storytelling initiative now in its fourth season. My role is as much about building alignment across units as it is about managing systems.
Alongside this work, I'm an Executive DBA candidate at Fairfield University, expected to complete in 2028. My research focuses on how professionals in decentralized universities decide whether to experiment with AI tools, and how risk, authority, and institutional context shape those decisions. It's a question I live with every day at Yale, and the research makes my leadership work sharper. I also serve as a textbook reviewer for Processes, Systems, and Information: An Introduction to MIS — a small but meaningful way of staying connected to how the field teaches what practitioners actually do. And for more than 14 years I've taught IT, database systems, and e-commerce across four institutions, an experience that shapes how I explain complex ideas to people who aren't technical, which turns out to be most of the people I work with.
Selected Work
Leadership that leaves something behind.
A focused look at the initiatives that best represent my leadership story, from institutional platforms to community-driven AI strategy.
Year-End Report · 2024–2025
The OneIT Connector: A Year of Bridging Yale College and Central IT
An interactive portfolio documenting a full year of strategic IT leadership across AI ecosystem development, first-year student onboarding, digital signage, POS compliance, and cross-unit collaboration. A living record of what decentralized IT leadership looks like in practice.
Read the report →
AI Strategy · Governance
AI Community of Practice and Support Model
Co-leading Yale's AI support model, I built a community where learning happens safely and gradually — lowering barriers to entry while respecting that readiness varies widely across roles and units. The CoP now has 100+ members across academic and administrative teams. Participants reported a 92% confidence boost. Sustainable change happens when people feel supported, not pressured.
Platform · Career Development
Designing Your Career
Co-created a career readiness platform now used by 7,100+ students across 83 institutions nationwide. Recognized with Yale's Linda K. Lorimer Presidential Award for Distinguished Service in 2024. A locally developed solution that scaled to broad institutional impact.
Digital Strategy · 2020
Yale College Website Redesign
Led the full redesign of Yale College's web presence, which won the Webby People's Voice Award in 2020. This project remains the foundation of Yale College's digital identity and established the governance model used to manage 50+ institutional websites since.
AI Tool · Student Experience
Yale Xplore
Played a key role in shaping Yale Xplore, an AI-powered resource navigation tool designed to help students find what they need across Yale College's systems. The goal was to remove friction so students can move forward confidently, even within complex institutional structures. Student-centered digital work is often invisible when it goes well — and that is by design.
Publication · 3 Editions
Processes, Systems & Information: An Introduction to MIS
Textbook reviewer for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of this widely adopted university MIS textbook by Earl McKinney Jr. and David M. Kroenke. Contributed to shaping course-aligned content and case materials used across institutions nationally.
Case Study
Yale College Voices
Building an institutional storytelling platform at Yale from the ground up.
The Opportunity
Yale College has remarkable stories. Faculty doing groundbreaking research, staff leading student-facing programs, administrators navigating significant institutional change. There was no centralized platform for those stories to reach the people who could benefit most from hearing them: students trying to understand what careers at Yale look like, colleagues looking for connection across a large institution, and leaders building visibility for the work happening across Yale College. I saw that gap and decided to close it.
What I Built
I created, host, and produce Yale College Voices, a multi-platform storytelling initiative now in its fourth season. Starting from scratch, I built a full content pipeline covering guest development, editorial planning, production, and distribution across eight platforms. The podcast is listed on Yale's official podcast directory and embedded in Yale College's web presence, making it part of the institution's broader digital identity rather than a standalone project.
Editorial Strategy
I set the editorial direction for each season, selecting themes, developing guest relationships, and shaping how Yale College stories are framed for a broad audience.
Production Leadership
I lead the full production process from pre-interview research and recording to post-production and publication, maintaining a consistent voice and quality standard across 40+ episodes.
Distribution and Integration
I manage distribution across Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, iHeart, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, and Yale's own platforms, and have integrated the podcast into Yale College's digital ecosystem.
Impact
Yale College Voices has created a sustained, visible channel for amplifying the work of staff and faculty who often go unrecognized outside their immediate circles. For students, it provides direct exposure to non-linear career paths and the real decisions people make to build meaningful professional lives. For colleagues, it creates connection across a large institution where those connections can be hard to make organically. The podcast has also served as a mentorship platform at scale, offering the kind of candid professional storytelling that formal mentorship programs can't always deliver.
Why It Matters as a Leadership Initiative
Yale College Voices demonstrates something important about institutional leadership: influence doesn't require formal authority. I built this platform because I saw a need, designed a model to address it, and sustained it through four seasons without a dedicated production budget or staff. That's influence through initiative, and it reflects how I approach institutional strategy more broadly. The platform also connects directly to student experience and institutional culture, two areas where senior IT leaders increasingly need to demonstrate they can make a difference beyond systems and infrastructure.
Results
Impact, by category.
💰 Financial Impact
- $130K annual savings from video transcription vendor strategy
- $225K–$1.4M in savings from student housing modernization (2013–2019)
- $981K annual IT budget managed with no overruns
- PCI-compliant POS deployment across 20 departments, reducing cash-handling risk
🎓 Student Impact
- Designing Your Career: 7,100+ students across 83 institutions
- Slate integration enabling seamless onboarding for ~1,600 incoming students annually
- First-year onboarding portal unifying advising, orientation, and engagement
- 12+ students mentored including New Haven Promise interns
🏛️ Institutional Impact
- AI Community of Practice: 100+ members, 92% confidence boost
- 14 residential colleges migrated to unified Appspace digital signage
- 50+ websites governed and maintained under shared standards
- YaleSites Planning Advisory Committee member driving Drupal 10/11 upgrade
🏆 Recognition
- Linda K. Lorimer Presidential Award for Distinguished Service, Yale 2024
- Webby People's Voice Award — Yale College website redesign, 2020
- U.S. Congressional Commendation — community technology leadership
- EDUCAUSE-sponsored Next Leaders Fellowship
AI Leadership
Shaping how decentralized universities adopt AI responsibly.
Many universities are still working through a core question: how do you support AI adoption across units where central mandates have limits and local teams make their own decisions? My role is not to chase tools, but to shape how AI is thoughtfully introduced in environments with real constraints — privacy, security, equity, and long-term sustainability. I've been building governance structures, community models, and adoption frameworks to answer that question in practice at Yale, grounded in what my doctoral research is revealing about how institutions actually make these decisions.
See My Research →How It Works
Research, governance, community, and feedback as a continuous loop.
Each element informs the others. The research sharpens the governance model. The community tests it in practice. The feedback restarts the cycle.
Research (DBA)
Executive DBA research on AI governance in decentralized universities provides the theoretical grounding and informs how the institutional strategy is structured.
Strategy & Governance
A structured AI support and governance model aligns research with university policy and security considerations, producing a clear AI support roadmap that accounts for decentralized decision-making.
Community (CoP)
A 100+ member AI Community of Practice creates space where learning happens safely and gradually. Workshops and Lunch & Learns lower barriers to entry while respecting that readiness varies widely across roles and units — generating adoption data and surfacing the questions governance hasn't answered yet.
Validation & Feedback
Community feedback surfaces new research questions, restarting the loop. 92% of participants reported increased confidence in using AI tools after community engagement.
My Position
How I think about AI in higher ed.
Adoption requires trust, not mandates
Faculty and staff adopt AI when they have space to ask honest questions, share early experiments, and understand how it fits — or doesn't fit — their work. Community-based models build that trust in ways top-down rollouts cannot.
Governance has to match the institution's structure
Decentralized universities need governance frameworks built for their reality. Centralized approaches don't reach where decisions actually get made, and they don't account for variation in local risk tolerance.
Equity has to be built in, not added later
Adoption strategies that don't account for access, representation, and impact on underserved populations will replicate existing gaps at scale. This is a governance question as much as a values question.
Practitioners are the bridge
The gap between AI strategy and institutional practice is filled by people who understand both. That's the role I occupy at Yale, and it's what makes the governance work credible rather than theoretical.
Restraint is a leadership choice
Determining when innovation serves the institution — and when it doesn't — is as important as building adoption capacity. The goal is not novelty, but usable, ethical systems that earn trust and can endure beyond early adoption.
The CIO role is changing
Senior IT leaders in higher education will need fluency in AI ethics, governance, and community leadership alongside technical knowledge. The institutions that recognize this early will be better positioned.
Let's Talk AI
Working on something similar at your institution?
I'm always open to connecting with IT leaders, researchers, and practitioners working on AI adoption, governance, and support models in higher ed.
Get In TouchDoctoral Research
Practitioner. Scholar. Both at once.
As an Executive DBA candidate at Fairfield University (expected 2028), I'm researching AI decision-making in decentralized universities, an area where the gap between institutional policy and actual behavior is wide and the existing research is thin. The questions I'm studying are ones I'm working through in practice every day at Yale, which is what makes the practitioner-scholar model more than a label here.
The Research Question
How does institutional context shape AI decision-making in decentralized universities?
How do professionals in decentralized universities decide whether to experiment with AI tools in their work, and how do risk, authority, and institutional context shape those decisions?
What Gap Does This Fill?
Most research on AI adoption focuses on centralized organizations or K-12 settings. Decentralized universities, where faculty, departments, and units make significant decisions independently, present a fundamentally different situation. Central policy doesn't automatically translate into local behavior. Individual judgment, local risk tolerance, and the ambiguity around institutional authority all shape what actually gets adopted. This research addresses that gap directly.
Why Decentralized Universities?
In a decentralized institution, there is rarely a single source of authority over technology decisions. A faculty member's willingness to experiment with an AI tool is shaped by their sense of what's permitted, what's safe, and what their colleagues are doing. These are organizational and social dynamics, not just technical ones. Understanding them requires a setting where that complexity is visible, and higher education provides exactly that.
Why Practitioner Insight Matters Here
This isn't a research problem I'm observing from the outside. I've spent 13 years navigating these dynamics at Yale, building AI workshops, shaping governance frameworks, and watching how risk perception and institutional culture shape what people actually do with AI tools. That experience makes my observations sharper and my frameworks more grounded in what real adoption looks like, day to day, in a complex institution.
How Research and Practice Reinforce Each Other
My leadership work at Yale provides the context for my research questions, and the research findings sharpen how I build adoption models and governance structures. The AI support and governance model I co-lead at Yale is informed by what the research is revealing about how professionals perceive AI risk and make decisions under ambiguity. That loop, from practice to theory and back, is what the practitioner-scholar model is built on.
The Connection
Research, leadership, and strategy as a loop.
What I study at Fairfield, I test at Yale. What I build at Yale, I examine through research. Leadership work produces better research questions. Research produces more grounded strategy. That cycle is intentional, and it's what keeps both the scholarship and the practice honest.
Publications
Textbook reviewer, three editions.
Textbook reviewer for a widely adopted university MIS textbook by Earl McKinney Jr. and David M. Kroenke, helping shape course-aligned content used in classrooms across the country.
Collaborate
Interested in this research?
I'm open to connecting with researchers, practitioners, and institutions working on AI adoption, governance, and decision-making in higher education. If you're exploring similar questions, I'd like to hear what you're finding.
Let's ConnectSpeaking & Media
Contributing to the conversation in higher ed IT.
I present at national conferences, participate in panels, and lead workshops. I design sessions around real questions and concerns, not hype or demos. My goal is plain language, concrete examples, and space for reflection — especially for audiences navigating AI for the first time. Thoughtful adoption begins with understanding, not acceleration.
Invite Me to SpeakSignature Topics
What I talk about.
AI Governance and Adoption in Higher Ed
How institutions build AI strategies that hold up across decentralized environments. I focus on what AI can and cannot do, how to approach it thoughtfully rather than fearfully or uncritically, and why AI literacy is most effective when it is human-centered and values-driven — not just technically informed.
Digital Transformation in Decentralized Institutions
What it takes to modernize technology in environments where central authority is limited. Real examples from 19 years navigating the space between local needs and enterprise platforms.
Building and Leading IT Communities of Practice
How to build communities that drive adoption, share knowledge, and create institutional change. The Yale AI Community of Practice as a case study in scaling impact without scaling headcount.
The Practitioner-Scholar Model for IT Leaders
Why the next generation of higher ed IT leaders needs both research fluency and operational experience. How to pursue doctoral work while leading at a senior level, and what that combination makes possible.
Past Engagements
Where I've presented and participated.
AI Innovation & Impact at Yale: Community, Practice, and Research
Presented on the intersection of AI adoption and institutional equity, introducing the practitioner-scholar model to a national audience of higher ed IT leaders.
Regional Higher-Ed AI Strategy
Served on the planning committee and moderated sessions focused on student services and ethical AI governance for regional IT leaders.
Catalysts of Change: Diversity in Tech Leadership
Panelist at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2024, contributing to a discussion on how diversity in IT leadership shapes institutional technology strategy and culture.
AI Task Automation Showcase
Co-led a hands-on AI task automation showcase at the Yale One IT Conference, demonstrating practical use cases for Power Automate and AI-assisted workflows.
Yale's Web Ecosystem Strategy
Presented on Yale College's Drupal-based web ecosystem strategy, governance model, and multi-site platform approach.
Leadership Programs & Fellowships
Formal leadership development.
In addition to speaking and presenting, I've participated in structured leadership development programs that have shaped how I think about institutional strategy, equity, and the future of higher ed IT leadership.
EDUCAUSE-sponsored Next Leaders Fellowship
A competitive national fellowship for emerging leaders in higher education IT. Capstone focused on AI support models for decentralized institutions.
Next Leaders Fellowship
Selected for this leadership program focused on developing the next generation of senior IT leaders in higher education.
Emerge at Yale
Yale's internal leadership development program for senior staff, focused on institutional leadership, equity, and professional growth.
MOR Leaders Program
A leadership program designed for senior IT professionals in higher education, with a focus on strategy, organizational change, and the evolving role of the CIO.
Vantage Leadership Lounge
A leadership development program focused on executive presence, career strategy, and building professional networks at senior levels.
Institutional Storytelling
Yale College Voices
I created and lead Yale College Voices, a multi-platform storytelling initiative where I shape editorial direction, lead production, and manage distribution across eight digital channels. Now in its fourth season, it functions as an institutional platform for amplifying staff and faculty voices, building community across Yale College, and creating visibility for the kind of work that rarely gets a public stage. It's listed in Yale's official podcast directory and embedded in Yale College's web presence.
Speaker Bio
For event organizers.
Short Bio (150 words)
Darice Corey is the Senior Director of Web and IT Planning at Yale College, where she leads digital strategy, AI governance, and IT operations for one of the country's most complex liberal arts institutions. With 19 years at Yale, she has built her career at the intersection of technology, institutional strategy, and student experience. She co-leads Yale's AI support model, shaped the development of Yale Xplore, and co-developed Designing Your Career, used by 7,100+ students across 83 institutions. She also created and leads Yale College Voices, an institutional storytelling platform now in its fourth season with 105K+ annual impressions. An Executive DBA candidate at Fairfield University researching AI governance in decentralized universities, she is an EDUCAUSE-sponsored Next Leaders Fellow, a Webby Award winner, a recipient of Yale's Linda K. Lorimer Presidential Award for Distinguished Service, and a U.S. Congressional Commendation recipient.
Mentorship & Community
Investing in people is the work.
Mentorship isn’t a side activity for me. It’s central to how I lead. Whether I’m advising a first-year student navigating college life, supporting a junior colleague building their IT career, or connecting professionals to new opportunities, the goal is consistent: help people see what’s possible and give them what they need to get there. Strong mentorship builds stronger teams and stronger institutions. That connection is intentional.
Areas of Mentorship
Where I show up for people.
First-Year Student Advising
Pierson College, Yale UniversityAs a Pierson College Fellow and First-Year Academic Adviser, I work with incoming Yale students during one of the most significant transitions of their lives. I provide academic guidance, help students navigate course selection and degree requirements, and serve as a steady point of contact as they find their footing in a demanding environment. The goal is to help each student feel seen, supported, and ready to thrive.
Yale ITS Peer Mentorship
Yale University IT ServicesThrough Yale’s Staff Learning and Development peer mentorship program, I mentored junior ITS colleagues navigating early-career growth in higher education IT. Our conversations covered career pathways, building visibility within a large institution, and developing the leadership presence needed to move into senior roles. I focus on helping colleagues see the full scope of what’s available to them, not just the next step.
New Haven Promise Mentorship
New Haven Promise ProgramI mentored New Haven Promise interns placed on Yale College IT projects, providing hands-on supervision and career guidance for young people from the New Haven community. One standout intern contributed meaningfully to a YaleSites migration project and earned a graduate school recommendation based on their performance. This work reflects my commitment to using my position at Yale to open doors for people who might not otherwise have access to this environment.
Working Women’s Network
Yale UniversityI participate in Yale’s Working Women’s Network, a community focused on career pathways and professional development for women across the institution. This network creates space for honest conversations about advancement, leadership, and navigating institutional structures. I bring my own experience as a senior leader who has built a significant career within Yale to those conversations, with the hope that others can see a clearer path forward.
Student IT Associates & Developers
Yale College ITI have directly mentored Yale student photographers, student IT associates, and student developers working on real Yale College IT projects. Rather than treating student employment as transactional, I structure these experiences as genuine professional development. Students have served as project co-leads, built app prototypes, and developed media and portfolio work. Several have gone on to graduate programs and professional roles in technology.
Yale College Voices as a Mentorship Platform
Yale CollegeYale College Voices is, at its core, a mentorship platform at scale. Each episode amplifies the story of a Yale staff or faculty member, giving listeners an honest look at non-linear career paths, resilience, and what it means to build a meaningful professional life. For students and early-career staff, these stories provide the kind of access to senior voices that formal mentorship programs can't always deliver.
My Approach
How I think about mentorship.
Good mentorship is not about giving advice. It is about helping someone understand their own strengths more clearly, see options they hadn’t considered, and build the confidence to act on what they already know.
I prioritize trust, access, and challenge — encouraging experimentation while modeling accountability. Rather than directing tasks, I focus on helping emerging professionals understand context, consequences, and the value of thoughtful decision-making. My goal is not just skill development, but confidence, judgment, and a sense of responsibility to the communities these systems serve.
I also believe mentorship is most powerful when it crosses boundaries: between senior and junior, between institution and community, between those who have access and those who are working to build it. When it works, it doesn't just help one person. It builds capacity across a team and, over time, across an institution.
The throughline in my mentorship work is the same as in my technology work. I connect people to what they need to move forward.
By the Numbers
Connect
Interested in connecting?
Whether you’re a student, an early-career IT professional, or someone figuring out what’s next, I’m open to a conversation.
Get In TouchGet In Touch
Let's talk about what's next.
I'm always open to a good conversation. Here are a few reasons people typically reach out.
Invite Me to Speak
Conferences, panels, workshops, and institutional events on AI governance, digital strategy, and higher ed IT leadership.
Explore a Collaboration
Research partnerships, institutional projects, or shared work on AI adoption, governance, or student-centered technology in higher education.
Connect About Leadership
Conversations about IT leadership in higher ed, the practitioner-scholar path, or what decentralized institutions are learning about AI governance.