WCET: The Cooperative advancing the effective use of technology in higher education.

Louis Fox is the executive director of WCET and a research professor in the Information School at the University of Washington (UW). Prior to taking his post at WCET, he was vice provost at the UW, where he was responsible for the Office of UW-Community Partnerships, which expands and makes visible the ways in which the university works with diverse communities, and the Office of Learning Technologies, which develops and supports user-inspired, reliable, and inventive technologies to help UW students, faculty, researchers, and staff achieve their learning, research, and work goals. He has served the UW in many other roles, including special assistant to the president and associate vice provost for undergraduate education. In addition, he was the founding CEO and president of the Digital Learning Commons.

Louis Fox Is WCET’s New Executive Director

Boulder, Colorado - The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) is proud to announce that Louis Fox has joined WCET as its executive director. Fox, founder of the National Internet2 K20 Initiative and a well-known researcher and advocate in the field of technology and education, comes to WCET from the University of Washington, where he served as vice provost for educational partnerships and learning technologies. “WCET is extremely fortunate to have attracted Louis Fox to lead this exceptional organization,” says David Longanecker, WICHE’s executive director. “Louis, through his role at the University of Washington, has become an international leader in expanding cyber infrastructure, improving and increasing access to high-quality instruction and research in higher education. Under his leadership, WCET will be able to sustain and enhance its recognition worldwide as an organization operating on the leading edge of creative endeavors in technology-mediated instruction, administration, and management in higher education.”

While Fox has been with the University of Washington (UW) for over two decades, his interests extend beyond traditional academic ones. A Peace Corps volunteer in Africa early in his career, he has worked to give less developed communities better access to the educational, social, and economic opportunities enjoyed as a birthright by more prosperous ones. As UW vice provost, he created a number of partnership centers that bring university resources to rural communities. In the Yakima Valley, for instance, UW professors and students work with teachers and children from the Yakama Indian Nation and the valley’s large Latino community on everything from creative-writing projects to IT training (the university also helped launch several tech centers there). Fox was also instrumental in the creation of the state’s Digital Learning Commons, an online educational resource for students, parents, and teachers. On the national level, Fox, executive director of the five-year-old Internet2 K20 Initiative, leads the effort to connect schools, libraries, museums, community colleges, and baccalaureate institutions to Internet2, an advanced networking consortium of U.S. universities and other organizations; over 60,000 institutions in 37 states have been connected, creating a national education grid.

“Louis Fox brings several strengths – and a unique skill set – to WICHE and WCET,” says former Washington Governor Gary Locke. “He has researched how information technology can best be tapped in education and community development. He is also a pragmatic activist, working to connect research, action, and policy to make broad access to technology and higher education a reality, particularly for underserved communities. These issues are at the heart of the missions of both WICHE and WCET.”

Fox, who will continue as a research professor at the UW Information School, has focused on three primary areas in his research: community-specific research on whether and how information technology can improve quality of life; the use of IT to support community concerns and aspirations; and defining an agenda to shape local, regional, and national policy related to community development and IT. Follow-through efforts based on his research have served rural and developing communities in the U.S. and internationally.

Fox promoted UW’s research and interdisciplinary strengths at the undergraduate level – an often-overlooked population at major institutions – by founding the Undergraduate Research Program, which terms students with faculty researchers. He further supported undergrads by creating the Office of Undergraduate Education and converting the historic Mary Gates Hall to a $45 million tech-rich hub for undergraduate academic activities. “Louis Fox is one of the most extraordinary leaders I have encountered in my 29 years at the University of Washington – one of the most committed, most passionate, most visionary, most humane, most thoughtful, and most effective individuals that I have ever met,” says Ed Lazowska, UW’s Bill and Melinda Gates Chair of Computer Science and Engineering. “Louis’s accomplishments span the entire educational spectrum, from K-12 to graduate, from high touch to high tech. His particular flair involves building coalitions of outstanding individuals and groups to accomplish extraordinary things that others said couldn’t be done, and doing this on a shoestring.”

WCET was created in 1989 to investigate and advance the role of technology in education. Fox will be its second executive director. “Louis has the most appropriate background for WCET imaginable,” says Lee Huntsman, University of Washington’s president emeritus and professor of bioengineering. “He has been on the front lines of bringing technology to the service of students and learning at the UW – a widely recognized and highly innovative program. He has been a leader in the national discussion about how to use high bandwidth to further educational goals. He has been strikingly successful in developing enduring partnerships between the university and communities. He is, in short, the ideal person to lead WCET.”

About WCET & WICHE

WCET is a cooperative that’s actively engaged in sharing cutting-edge research and best practices in the effective use of technology in higher education. Its nearly 300 members are colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and corporations located in 46 states and nine countries. Through WCET, members work together to shape e-learning’s future in higher education and ensure its quality.

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and its 15 member states work collaboratively to expand educational access and excellence for all citizens of the West. By promoting innovation, cooperation, resource sharing, and sound public policy among states and institutions, WICHE strengthens higher education’s contributions to the region’s social, economic, and civic life. Our programs – Student Exchange, Policy Analysis and Research, WCET, and Mental Health – are working to find answers to some of the most critical questions facing higher education today, investigating issues such as access to higher ed for low-income students, the financing of higher education and student financial aid, higher education’s role in workforce and economic development, articulation between K-12 and higher education, and distance education. WICHE’s 15 member states include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The organization is governed by a 45-member gubernatorially appointed body.