We are excited to have a handful of new officers and directors coming on board to support the returning and renewed team helping move the association forward toward its strategic goals.
New Board of Directors officers
The following officers were elected to serve in their roles through May 2024:
Treasurer Robert Heyser
Robert is a longtime annual conference attendee and presenter from Tarrant County College (TCC), the community college system serving greater Fort Worth, Texas. At TCC, he is a former programmer-turned-manager of web development-turned-director of web communications. In addition to overseeing websites and social media, he assists the college in all things accessibility. In other duties as assigned, he supports the college Board of Trustees, works frequently with college legal counsel and serves as a leader on his campus.
He previously served as parliamentarian on the association’s Board of Directors.
Secretary Joshua Charles
Josh currently leads website strategy and governance for Rutgers Business School and has over 10 years of digital marketing experience and more than five years of experience leading and positioning teams for success. He is passionate about all areas of marketing technology and how to leverage those components to solve digital marketing challenges in higher education. Josh has contributed to the higher education community in various capacities, including volunteering, mentoring and speaking on leadership and other topics.
In addition, Josh was elected to a new term as a director until 2025.
Parliamentarian Chris D’Orso
Chris is the associate director of undergraduate admissions at SUNY Brockport and currently serves as the president of the SUNY College Admissions Professionals (SUNYCAP) program. A lifelong New Yorker, he previously worked at Stony Brook University, Finger Lakes Community College and SUNY Old Westbury. He holds a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Geneseo and a master’s degree from Long Island University. Proudly genderfluid, a Mets fan, a baseball card collector and a pub quizmaster, Chris also got his butt kicked on “Jeopardy!,” a defeat he rues to this day.
New Board of Directors members
In addition to a new slate of officers, we are thrilled to welcome two new members to our board.
Brenden Sparks
Brenden joins the board after almost two decades of working in higher education. In that time, he’s worn all the hats: from designer to developer, from trainer to tech support, from junior to senior (he likes the ones with propellers the most). He brings his analytical and strategic skills to bear to fight for users and keep stakeholders at bay with slide decks and Gantt charts. After wistfully participating in the HighEdWeb community remotely through social media for years, he eventually found his place as a participant, then a volunteer and now a board member.
Lindsey Sneed
Lindsey joins the HighEdWeb Board of Directors after serving two years as the programming chair for the HighEdWeb Accessibility Summit. Since 2020, she has worked for the University of Mississippi, her alma mater, as an IT accessibility specialist. In this role, she is a consultant, trainer and advocate for digital accessibility on behalf of students, faculty and staff. Lindsey is inspired by the mission of HighEdWeb because she believes that building a community of learning and support for digital professionals at colleges and universities is imperative for achieving equal access and unbridled success.
We also want to recognize Jackie Vetrano, who was renewed for a second term on the Board of Directors through 2025.
Job title change
Last but not least, Sara Clark was reclassified to full-time Executive Director effective June 1, 2022.
On behalf of the entire HighEdWeb Association, we thank our directors and board members for your hard work and dedication to the higher ed community!