Information and Infrastructure Assurance at Indiana University

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• >> Merri Beth Lavagnino

M.L.S., CIPP

Chief Information Policy Officer

Merri Beth Lavagnino is Chief Information Policy Officer within the Indiana University Office of the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer. In this role, she develops and maintains policies regarding the appropriate use of information technology, and administers education programs about common technology and security issues and concerns. Merri Beth also oversees activities related to computing accounts administration for the IU community, and she coordinates investigations and responses to reports of abuse or inappropriate use of electronic information or information technology, interacting daily with and on behalf of students, faculty, and staff. She also works closely with University administration, judicial officers, Counsel, and other IU agencies, as well as internal and external law enforcement and prosecutors.

Before coming to IU, Lavagnino served as Director for Learning and Information Technologies for the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)-the academic consortium of the Big 10 schools plus the University of Chicago. As Director, she coordinated the collaborative information technology activities sponsored by the Chief Information Officers of those institutions. Prior to her work with the CIC, Lavagnino served as Associate Professor of Library Administration and Director of Library Systems at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she coordinated technology systems in 47 library units in 21 different buildings. She held similar positions at the University of Vermont (Library Assistant Professor and Head, Systems Department) and Yale University (Assistant to the Head, Library Systems Office).

Lavagnino earned her Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Indiana University in 1989, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Education from Temple University in 1985. She earned the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) credential in 2007.

Selected Presentations

• "Policy and Privacy," EDUCAUSE Advanced CAMP: Registering, Discovering, and Using Distributed Services in Academia, June 2008
• "Data Privacy and Security: Some Considerations for University Purchasing Departments," National Association of Educational Procurement, Indiana Regional Conference, October 2007
• Dialogue: Does the Cornell Policy Process Play in Peoria?," EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 2007
• "Revising Existing IT Policies: Tales from the Trenches," Institute for Computer Policy and Law, July 2007
• "Policy Issues for Incident Detection and Vulnerability Scanning," Institute for Computer Policy and Law, July 2007
• "Incident Response at Indiana University," Big 10 Audit Conference, June 2007
• "Preparing for Data Protection Laws: How to Earn an A+ from Your Attorney General," EDUCAUSE Security Professional's Conference, April 2007
• "Sensitive Data Exposure Risks & Response," Association for Financial Professionals of Indiana, March 2007
• "Responding to Sensitive Data Exposures at Indiana University," Indiana School of Business Information Management Affiliates, November 2006
• "Exposing Students to Legal Downloading Services," ACUTA Annual Conference, July 2005
• "Streamlining IP Registrant Identification, Notification, and Blocking for Threats in the Wild," EDUCAUSE Security Professionals Workshop, April 2005
• "Managing IT Security Events in Campus Housing: Policies, Procedures, and Partnerships," ResNet Annual Conference, June 2004
• "Anonymity Doesn't Buy 'Get Out of Jail Free' Card for Hate Mail Sender," EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, November 2003
• "IT, Law, and Policy: Teaming Up to Improve Security," Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) TechForum, October 2003
• "Canning Spam at Indiana University: What's Possible and What's Not?," EDUCAUSE Midwest Annual Conference, March 2003
• "Reflections from a Librarian-Turned-Information Technology Administrator," American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Conference, November 2002
• "Incident Response at Indiana University," Cornell University Computer Policy and Law Annual Seminar, July 2002
• "Balancing Privacy and Accountability in Information Technology Policy," Indiana Online Users Group Spring Meeting, May 2002
• "The Varieties of E-Community Experiences," American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Conference, November 2000
• "Persistent, Reliable, Ubiquitous Video Environments (PRUVE): Enabling Collaborative Educational Applications on the Network," CIC Video Working Group Workshop, August 1999
• "The CIC TRICAAP Project: Working to Implement Inter-Institutional Authentication and Authorization," American Society for Information Science and Technology Mid-Year Meeting, May 1999
• "Updates on Authentication and Authorization Projects," American Library Association Midwinter Conference, January 1998
• "Something from Nothing: Creating a Library Systems Office," Library Information Technology Association/Library Administration and Management Association National Conference, October 1996
• "Managing Staff for Changing Technologies," Library Information Technology Association Third National Conference, September 1992
• "Campus Networking Initiatives and the Systems Librarian," American Society for Information Science and Technology Mid-Year Meeting, May 1992
• "Local Civic Networks in Non-Metro Areas: The Rural Community Drop," Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Public Policy Roundtable on "Cyberspace Citizenship: Building Local Civic Networks," Washington, DC, February 1992

Selected Publications

• Partlow, K., Lavagnino, M.B. (2001). Strategic Opportunities in Collaborative Distributed Education: A Discussion Document. Champaign, IL: Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
• Lavagnino, M.B. (1999). Authentication, Bandwidth and Collaboration: The Library Systems Director's ABCs. Library Hi Tech, 17, no. 4, 396-401.
• Lavagnino, M.B. (1999). Librarians and Information Technologists: More Alike Than Different? Interviews with CIO's. Library Hi Tech, 17, no.1, 114-120.
• Lavagnino, M.B. (1998). How Can Technology Help? Interviews with Library Directors. Library Hi Tech, 16, no. 3-4, 114-120.
• Lavagnino, M.B., Bowker, G.C., Heidorn, P.B., Basi, M.M. (1998). Incorporating Social Informatics into the Curriculum: The Use of Case Studies to Train Library and Information Science Professionals. Libri, 48, 13-25.
• Lavagnino, M.B. (1998). And on the Eighth Day: Creating a Library Systems Office in the Late 1990's. Library Administration & Management, 12, no. 1, 213-216.
• Lavagnino, M.B., Editor (1997). Special Double Issue Theme: System Security in the Networked Library. Library Hi Tech, 15, no. 1-2, 7-102.
• Lavagnino, M.B. (1997). The ICAAP Project, Part One: A Continuum of Security Needs for the CIC Virtual Electronic Library. Library Hi Tech, 15, no. 1-2, 72-76.
• Lavagnino, M.B. (1997). Networking and the Role of the Academic Systems Librarian: An Evolutionary Perspective. College & Research Libraries, 58, no. 3, 217-231.
• Joy, A., Lavagnino, M.B., Philbin, P., Ross, L. (1996). The Role of Academic Libraries in the Dissemination of Scholarly Information in the Electronic Environment. In T. Harrison and T. Stephen (Eds.) Computer Networking and Scholarly Communication in the Twenty-First-Century University (pp. 369-382) Albany, NY: SUNY Press (Part of the SUNY Series in Computer-Mediated Communication).

Selected Instructional Activities

• Essential Privacy Practices for Higher Education," Pre-Conference Seminar, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 2008
• Developing an Information Management Program," Pre-Conference Seminar, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 2008
• Model Approaches to IT Security Policy Development," Pre-Conference Seminar, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 2007
• "Model Approaches to IT Policy Development with Policy Writing Workshop," Pre-Conference Seminar, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 2005
• "Model Approaches to IT Policy Development," Pre-Conference Seminar, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 2004
• "Policy Writing Workshop," Pre-Conference Seminar, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, October 2004
• Co-Instructor, "System Security (B490)," Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University, Spring 2004
• "Model Approaches to IT Policy Development," Pre-Conference Seminar, EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, November 2003
• Adjunct Instructor, "Administration and Management of Libraries and Information Centers (LIS405)," Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001

Selected Recent Professional and Service Activities

• Co-Chair, EDUCAUSE Security Task Force Policy and Legal Issues Working Group
• Member, EDUCAUSE Security Task Force Education & Awareness Working Group
• Member, International Association of Privacy Professionals
• Member, Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Security Working Group
• Member, United Way Key Club Committee, IUPUI
• Member, IU School of Nursing Data Privacy and Security Task Force, 2002 - 2003
• Member, IU School of Medicine HIPAA Implementation IT Security Advisory Committee, 2002 - 2003

Honors and Awards

• Distinguished Alumni Award, Indiana University School of Library and Information Science, 2007
• Selection as a Frye Leadership Institute Fellow, 2006
• Selection as a Fellow in the CIC Academic Leadership Program (ALP), 1998-1999
• Election as Director-at-Large to the American Society for Information Science and Technology Board of Directors, 1996 - 1999
• Special Interest Group Member of the Year, American Society for Information Science and Technology, 1995
• James M. Cretsos Leadership Award, American Society for Information Science and Technology, 1994
• Beta Phi Mu International Library Science Honor Society, 1990
• Temple University President's Scholar, 1985
• Pi Lambda Theta Honor for Outstanding Contributions to Education, 1980