Bridging Innovation and Inclusion in Higher Education IT
Dr. Beth Clark’s path into higher education IT leadership was anything but linear. Beginning her career at a time when the IT profession itself was still taking shape, she did not initially see a place for her technical skills in a field that felt unfamiliar and largely dominated by men. Drawn instead to mission-oriented work, Clark built her early experience in public policy, social work, and human services, where she worked in advocacy roles in Boston and Washington, D.C., including leading a treatment program for homeless men. “I helped run a two-year residential program for 36 men at the time, where the goal was to help them gain stability, including staying clean and sober, finding a job, and securing housing,” shares Clark. “The hardest part was employment, because in those days they had to leave the program and go into downtown Boston to search for jobs. Even when we sent them in pairs, too often they wouldn’t come back, or we would receive a call from the emergency room; it was heartbreaking.
“What made it so frustrating was that jobs were already online, but we didn’t have the infrastructure. I felt this problem was solvable, so I raised money, got donations, bought computers, wired the space myself, and set up an online job-search system right in the facility. It was game-changing. That was my ‘aha’ moment: realizing technology could be used to make people’s lives better. I’ve always loved technology, but I needed it to have a purpose, and that moment became the pivot that led me back to technology and ultimately into higher education.” Those formative years, grounded in solving complex human problems, would ultimately shape her philosophy of technology as a tool for service, equity, and impact, guiding her unplanned return to technology and later into senior IT leadership in higher education.
Now a seasoned leader, Clark heads up a team of 300 technology professionals as Chief Information Officer at the Harvard Business School (HBS). “When I made the transition into higher education, it did so much for me personally and professionally,” says Clark. “I believe deeply in the role higher education plays in society, by lifting people up and helping them achieve what they want for their lives. I was hooked early on, and from there it just grew. That was a pivotal moment for me. As much as I loved the work I was doing, I knew I wanted to work with technology in a way that felt truly impactful. Social work is inherently systems-oriented, and I’m a systems thinker. When you come into an organization and try to help it transform, you have to understand the entire ecosystem and how everything works together. I felt this field was a perfect fit. I love managing people and embedding technology into pedagogy.”
Creating a Diverse IT Workplace
While higher education IT has made progress on gender representation, women have consistently occupied just 24% of CIO roles over the past decade. “Unfortunately, the needle really hasn’t moved in industry or in higher education,” says Clark. “We’re slightly better off in academia, but not by much. One of the biggest barriers is something called homosocial reproduction, which is the concept that ‘like hires like.’ When organizations are predominantly white and male, they tend to stay that way unless there’s real intentionality to break the (hiring) pattern. There is also a persistent perception that women aren’t as technical as men, which just isn’t true. But when CIO roles are defined primarily through a technical lens, you lose a lot of women in the process, even though today’s CIOs need to be strategists, relationship builders, and vision-setters.
“In addition, caretaking responsibilities still fall disproportionately on women, which can be especially difficult as they reach senior levels,” continues Clark. “Unless organizations really analyze these patterns and intentionally design the kind of leadership they want, they’ll keep repeating the same outcomes. However, the pipeline is much wider than it used to be. There are more paths into IT, more women entering the field, and social norms are slowly changing. It’s a long game, but I’m hopeful we’ll see meaningful change over the next decade.”
As an executive sponsor for Harvard Women in Technology + Allies (HarvardWIT+), Clark has worked to create a more diverse and inclusive IT workplace. “Sponsoring this program has been a true labor of love,” shares Clark. “It’s about bringing people into the conversation and asking, very intentionally, what we want our organizations to look like and how we create supportive spaces where people who aren’t in the majority can truly thrive. One of the most effective strategies is simply making room for conversation, including bringing everyone to the table and helping people feel comfortable asking questions about their careers. At Harvard, with such a large and diverse IT community, those conversations have been incredibly rich.”
Beyond programming and dialogue, Clark has also focused on organizational design. “My goal has always been to ensure that the IT organization reflects the stakeholders we serve. At HBS, that’s a very diverse population, and we’re better stewards and implementers of technology when we have more perspectives at the table. Work needs to happen with managers to help them understand best practices for hiring and promotion, and to encourage a broader, more strategic view of the talent pipeline. But it’s not about filling roles based on surface-level characteristics. It’s about asking what perspectives and capabilities are missing, and how bringing those into the organization strengthens the work we do.
“When I made the transition into higher education, it did so much for me personally and professionally. I believe deeply in the role higher education plays in society, by lifting people up and helping them achieve what they want for their lives. I was hooked early on, and from there it just grew. That was a pivotal moment for me. As much as I loved the work I was doing, I knew I wanted to work with technology in a way that felt truly impactful. Social work is inherently systems-oriented, and I’m a systems thinker. When you come into an organization and try to help it transform, you have to understand the entire ecosystem and how everything works together. I felt this field was a perfect fit. I love managing people and embedding technology into pedagogy.”
– Dr. Beth Clark
Chief Information Officer
Harvard Business School
“For me, it all comes back to intentionality and outcomes. You have to be clear about what outcomes you’re trying to achieve through your hiring practices and then deliberately weave those goals into the process. That means working closely with managers, because without that awareness, people tend to hire others who look like them. Throughout my career, I’ve made it a priority to build diverse leadership teams. With deliberate focus on our hiring and promotion practices, I’ve seen meaningful change. Today at Harvard Business School, five of the nine leaders on my direct leadership team are women, and they are not all white women. Having diverse teams matters to people and shows that you’re serious about developing talent and building a pipeline. I encourage institutions to think carefully about the design of their organizations and the outcomes they want. Understand where bias may exist in your hiring and promotion practices, and be willing to change them so you can bring more depth, perspective, and strength into your leadership. Creating spaces like HarvardWIT+ helps support these conversations, as sense of community matters.”
Guiding Digital Transformation
Achieving true leadership in technology means guiding digital transformation in ways that expand access and equity, instead of widening existing divides. “With AI advancing so rapidly, I fear that gap could grow significantly,” says Clark. “Everyone may have access to the tools, but not everyone knows how to use them effectively. I see this in higher education, where well-resourced institutions can invest in tools and adoption, while those without resources either can’t buy the tools or struggle to ensure faculty, students, and staff have the skills to use them.
“If you start with equity as a guiding principle in choosing and implementing technology, you have a much better chance of closing gaps. You’re not just checking the compliance box, but designing systems and tools so that they’re truly accessible and equitable. You invest in people, not just technology, and make sure everyone has the training and governance needed to use these tools wisely and responsibly. Otherwise, the technology moves faster than we do as humans, and the divide only grows.
“Advanced technologies will continue to change how we run the business. At HBS, I’m focused on setting the school up to operate in very different ways, and on a pretty short timeline. AI, combined with data that are properly architected and governed, allows universities to do amazing things across research, teaching, and administration. We also must think about cybersecurity. For an institution as porous as a university, building a zero-trust architecture is essential. But technology alone isn’t enough, it has to be a community effort. Everyone needs to understand the role they play in protecting institutional data and intellectual property. Your IT organization can architect a safer environment, but education and awareness are key. People need to know the dangers and how they contribute to keeping the institution and the communities we care about safe and secure.”
– Dr. Beth Clark
Chief Information Officer
Harvard Business School
“You won’t know if your initiatives are inclusive unless you define what you’re trying to achieve and then measure it. Define how you measure equity and how you break it down across your organization. Once you’ve defined those metrics, you have to hold yourself accountable. It sounds simple, but too often people get excited about the shiny new tool and forget to set up the structures for success, and then they don’t know when success has actually been achieved.”
Leveraging Expertise through Collaboration
Enabling cutting-edge research, dynamic learning, and innovation in higher education is becoming increasingly reliant on robust networking infrastructure and collaborative partnerships. With developments in technology moving so quickly, no organization can have all the expertise it needs to make every judgment call that serves its mission well. That’s why I see these partnerships with consortiums like Edge are less as a service to consume and more as an extension of what your organization can do. Leveraging partners in this way allows you to enhance your work, gain deeper understanding, and avoid blind spots as much as possible.
“Academic institutions are incredibly porous, with many points of entry, making it very difficult to stay ahead when threat actors are moving faster than the rest of the world. That’s why I believe in more of a federated, partnership model. It makes your knowledge extensible and gives you experts at your fingertips for deep dives on whatever topics you need. Not every organization is comfortable with that, but we need co-creators in this space. Technology is moving fast; everyone wants everything instantly and it’s not easy to operate at enterprise scale while keeping systems and data safe, secure, and accessible.”
As technology trends continue to shape higher education, Clark says the transformative potential of AI cannot be ignored. “We’ve moved past the experimentation phase, and with tools like ChatGPT capturing global attention, it has set higher education on a new trajectory. AI combined with robust data systems is where real transformation is happening. University data used to be siloed, but now we can federate it, bring it together, and use it meaningfully across the institution. Adding agentic AI into the mix changes how work gets done entirely. Five years from now, the higher education landscape could look very different. The key is intentional investment: How do we change the way we work? How do we ensure our enterprise architecture truly supports the campus? Foundational capabilities are essential to enable AI to transform work effectively, and if implemented thoughtfully, this transformation can benefit the institution broadly. Of course, there are risks and downsides, but careful planning and clear outcomes are what make it successful.
“Advanced technologies will continue to change how we run the business. At HBS, I’m focused on setting the school up to operate in very different ways, and on a pretty short timeline. AI, combined with data that are properly architected and governed, allows universities to do amazing things across research, teaching, and administration. We also must think about cybersecurity.
For an institution as porous as a university, building a zero-trust architecture is essential. But technology alone isn’t enough, it has to be a community effort. Everyone needs to understand the role they play in protecting institutional data and intellectual property. Your IT organization can architect a safer environment, but education and awareness are key. People need to know the dangers and how they contribute to keeping the institution and the communities we care about safe and secure.”
Driven by a commitment to both technological innovation and social impact, Clark says this pairing is at the heart of her vision for the future. “Technology isn’t just for an IT organization; it should be a strategic enabler of the institution’s mission. We need to be thought partners at the table, helping design the future of where the institution needs to go. Some institutions think this way, others don’t, but in the next five years, if you don’t take this approach, you need to start. IT can be a cost center, but it shouldn’t be only that. Technology has the power to transform the way we work, teach, learn, and conduct research. The partnership between IT and the institution is critical. My hope and vision for technology in academic institutions are that it acts as a true strategic enabler, helping the institution achieve its greatest goals. Technology is everywhere, so let’s use this tool wisely and harness it for the greater good of the institution.”
“My goal has always been to ensure that the IT organization reflects the stakeholders we serve. At HBS, that’s a very diverse population, and we’re better stewards and implementers of technology when we have more perspectives at the table. Work needs to happen with managers to help them understand best practices for hiring and promotion, and to encourage a broader, more strategic view of the talent pipeline. But it’s not about filling roles based on surface-level characteristics. It’s about asking what perspectives and capabilities are missing, and how bringing those into the organization strengthens the work we do.
For me, it all comes back to intentionality and outcomes. You have to be clear about what outcomes you’re trying to achieve through your hiring practices and then deliberately weave those goals into the process. That means working closely with managers, because without that awareness, people tend to hire others who look like them. Throughout my career, I’ve made it a priority to build diverse leadership teams. With deliberate focus on our hiring and promotion practices, I’ve seen meaningful change. Today at Harvard Business School, five of the nine leaders on my direct leadership team are women, and they are not all white women. Having diverse teams matters to people and shows that you’re serious about developing talent and building a pipeline. I encourage institutions to think carefully about the design of their organizations and the outcomes they want. Understand where bias may exist in your hiring and promotion practices, and be willing to change them so you can bring more depth, perspective, and strength into your leadership. Creating spaces like HarvardWIT+ helps support these conversations, as sense of community matters.”