About This Episode
n this thought-provoking episode of Edu Unlocked, host Ashish Fernando sits down with Andrea Ballinger, Vice Provost & CIO at Oregon State University, to explore the human side of digital transformation in higher education.
Andrea shares her incredible journey—from being one of six children assigned a career by her father, to navigating the banking world, falling in love with technology, and eventually being called to rescue a university from Y2K chaos. Today, she champions accessibility, enterprise architecture, and student-centered innovation at one of the top research institutions in the U.S.
Host & Guest
Andrea Ballinger
GuestChief Information Officer and Digital Transformation Leader
Andrea Ballinger is an accomplished technology and transformation executive who empowers universities and mission-driven organizations to thrive in the digital age by aligning technology, strategy, and innovation with institutional values. With a leadership philosophy grounded in transformative vision, emotional connection, and purposeful action, she believes lasting change occurs when teams are inspired to pursue something greater than themselves—fostering innovation, agility, and continuous improvement across the enterprise.
A strategic and human-centric leader, Ballinger is known for building consensus and integrating people, processes, and technologies to create the conditions for institutional excellence. Through inclusive governance and stakeholder engagement, she ensures diverse voices help shape technology strategy and organizational priorities. A champion for women and underrepresented groups in technology, she has founded and led initiatives that advance equity, mentorship, and leadership development across the IT profession.
With a global perspective and cross-cultural expertise, Ballinger views technology as a catalyst for transformation and societal betterment—supporting resilient, adaptive institutions equipped to meet the challenges of the future.
Key Achievements:
1. Led multi-year, multi-million-dollar modernization programs, including an $83M systems transformation that reallocated $10M in costs.
2. Co-sponsored enterprise AI strategies for education, research, and economic development.
3. Restructured high-performance computing environments to align with strategic research goals.
4. Revitalized IT governance to drive collaboration and measurable efficiency gains.
5. Founded initiatives to advance women in IT, developing mentorship and leadership pipelines.
6. Secured grants and partnerships to expand broadband access in underserved communities.
7. Recognized thought leader and speaker on digital transformation, IT workforce, and equity.
8. Delivered top-tier service while reducing IT expenditures by millions across institutions.
9. Provided decisive crisis leadership during COVID-19, ensuring seamless transitions to remote learning and work.
Ashish Fernando
HostFounder & CEO, EDMO
Ashish Fernando is the visionary founder and CEO of EDMO, a revolutionary educational technology platform that's transforming how people learn and grow. With over 15 years of experience in education and technology, Ashish has dedicated his career to making quality education accessible to learners worldwide. Before founding EDMO, Ashish held leadership positions at several prominent EdTech companies and worked as an educational consultant for Fortune 500 companies. He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Master's in Computer Science from MIT. Ashish is a frequent speaker at educational conferences and has been featured in publications such as EdTech Magazine, Learning & Development Today, and TechCrunch. He's passionate about the intersection of technology and human potential, believing that the right tools can unlock extraordinary learning outcomes for everyone. Under his leadership, EDMO has grown to serve over 100,000 learners globally and has partnerships with leading educational institutions and corporations. Ashish continues to drive innovation in personalized learning, adaptive assessment, and educational analytics.
Key Achievements:
1. Founded EDMO in 2019, now serving 100,000+ learners globally
2. Named 'EdTech Innovator of the Year' by Learning Technology Awards 2023
3. Featured speaker at Global Education Summit 2024
4. Published researcher in educational technology and learning analytics
5. Advisor to multiple EdTech startups and educational initiatives
Show Notes
- 1 00:00 Andrea shares a unique anecdote: her father assigned each of his six children a career based on perceived intelligence — hers was to be a pediatrician.
- 2 01:14 Host Ashish introduces Andrea Bolinger as Vice Provost for IT at Oregon State University, highlighting her leadership in innovation and women empowerment.
- 3 05:02 Andrea explains how Y2K and a call from her university chancellor brought her into higher education — a career path she hadn’t initially planned.
- 4 10:56 She breaks down the reality of digital transformation, explaining why universities can’t modernize overnight due to 150 years of technical debt.
- 5 13:00 Emphasizes the importance of enterprise architecture and prioritizing investments
- 6 17:44 Shares how Oregon State is replacing a 34-year-old ERP system to reallocate institutional resources towards student-focused priorities.
- 7 19:00 Passionately discusses using measurable outcomes to evaluate whether education tech investments are truly benefiting students.
Key Quotes
"You never get bored when you get into education... and that is why I'm still in it many decades after."
"We know that the return on mission is what drives us. You don’t join higher education to look at profit."
Resources
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