GRACELAND UNIVERSITY
“ Many people make the mistake of thinking that an ERP transition is an IT project, and IT owns it”
Talia Brown, Chief Information & Data Officer, Graceland University
The transformation reaches beyond Oracle. Graceland implemented new platforms for Advancement and Enrollment, migrated to a cloud phone system, and launched Pathify as the new student portal with mobile capabilities. None of these projects were required by the ERP transition, but Talia pushed them through anyway.“ I know sometimes I’ m pushing the institution too hard on how many projects we’ re going to have in play at one time,” Talia says.“ We have a good time in our department, and the Teams chat blows up with emojis once in a while when I’ m pushing a little too hard.”
At a small institution, the CIO role collapses the hierarchy. Talia handles strategic planning, budgeting and vendor management, but she also answers Tier 1 support tickets alongside her team.
Graceland University joins HESS Collective for Oracle Cloud deployment The learning management system is next. The campus community has been asking Talia about it, prompting her to evaluate every contract the institution holds. She asks whether current products still make sense or whether Graceland should move to something else.
182 March 2026