From pandemic crisis to Oracle Cloud implementation, Graceland University’ s CIO explains the collaborative approach behind a rapid digital transformation
GRACELAND UNIVERSITY
From pandemic crisis to Oracle Cloud implementation, Graceland University’ s CIO explains the collaborative approach behind a rapid digital transformation
When Talia Brown became Chief Information and Data Officer at Graceland University in early 2020, she expected to manage what she describes as“ people, projects and pennies” because IT departments in higher education are chronically underfunded.
Within weeks, the pandemic hit. Twenty years at Graceland gave her the institutional knowledge to navigate the crisis, but the abrupt shift for every employee to remote work exposed additional digital transformation needs.
“ I came into the role just before the pandemic, so I got my feet wet, and a pandemic hit, and everything kind of went awry,” Talia says. There was no time for conventional onboarding: the world changed too fast. Students began expecting answers at two o’ clock in the morning with the same urgency as two o’ clock in the afternoon. Systems and operational processes that had served the university for more than two decades could not keep pace. Despite its abrupt nature, the pandemic accelerated trends that were already reshaping higher education, with remote learning becoming mandatory overnight and support services requiring round-theclock availability.
172 March 2026