When Joseph Moreau found out that he was selected as the Foothill-De Anza Community College District’s new vice chancellor of technology, Moreau said it was the happiest day of his life.
“When Chancellor [Linda] Thor called me a few weeks ago to offer the position. I couldn’t have been more excited,” said Moreau.
He is set to begin his position as vice chancellor on June 11, following Fred Sherman, who has held the position for the past six years.
The role of vice chancellor is to provide a vision and leadership to the Education Technology Services department and oversee networks and communication services, user support, and IT systems, applications, and operations for instruction, student services and administration, according to the FHDA district website.
Currently Moreau is the chief technology officer at State University of New York, Oswego. He took a large role in developing the Oswego Technology Master Plan leading SUNY Oswego to the “implementing of an electronic document management system.” He also oversaw the convergence of voice and data networks and implementation of [new systems]; and migrated an email/collaboration system to cloud-based systems,” according to his application profile.
“I’ve worked with a couple of institutions in my career and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of different kinds of faculty,” said Moreau. “Everybody that I’ve had the privilege of working with has taught me something very unique with how we can best utilize technology to educate students.”
Moreau brings more experience into the position, previously serving as dean of academic information services and dean of learning resources at Mira Costa College and West Hills College, respectively. He also served as the president of California Chief Information Systems Officers Association for four years.
Moreau said he hopes that his previous experiences in different educational roles will help him excel within the district, going from direct contact with students to helping students succeed in a different capacity. “I bring a lot of interesting lessons from a whole variety of places that would have a lot of value at Foothill-De Anza,” Moreau said. “I think over my career, I’ve learned a couple different ways to guide [students] through the process of questioning [and to] be comfortable outside their comfort zone.”
