Meet Phoebe Johnson
As Senior Director, IT Leads, Phoebe works with academic and support unit IT Leads to ensure that IT delivers consistent quality services systemwide. Phoebe joined OIT in October 2016 as our IT Service Architect and became the Senior Director for User Support in 2017.
Phoebe is an accomplished leader with over 13 years of experience in director-level positions within universities and academic medical centers. She is a skilled strategist and client services champion with experience building, leading and motivating teams.
Q & A with Phoebe
To learn more about the leadership style and get to know Phoebe a bit more, we talked with her about her new role to get a feel for her management style and the road ahead for IT.
Q: What do you envision for the new IT leadership co-reporting structure and virtual teams?
A: I am very excited about how we are expressing PEAK in IT. We are leaning into and evolving our existing IT leadership community which, for years, has been intentionally distributed, and highly integrated around leveraging core services in OIT, and delivering locally relevant value in the distributed units. Virtual teams will transform how we work together across units to advance important work, develop our technologists professionally, and achieve results.
Q: What opportunities are you offering to staff that they don’t have now?
A: Virtual teams will allow technologists across the whole UMN system to contribute to work that is critical in advancing the University’s mission, and that will provide opportunities for professional development through exposure to new technologies, new work methodologies (e.g. Agile), and new people to expand professional networks.
Q: What’s your leadership style?
A: You could say that my leadership style resembles that of the TV character, Ted Lasso. I lead with authenticity, transparency, optimism, a genuine interest in people, and strong stewardship.
Q: How did your career lead you where you are today?
A: I have worked in higher ed IT since 1996. My career started at a small college in Minneapolis, then extended to an Ivy League university in New York City, 2 academic medical centers, and large research institutions like ours. In that time, I have come to understand and appreciate the nuances, complexities, personalities, and deeply inspiring work that happens at places like the University of Minnesota. And I love contributing to the integral, supporting role that technology plays in every aspect of that work.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you are trying to solve currently in your new role?
A: The world is currently seeing rapid and transformational technological advances, some of which are arguably as significant and life-altering as the advent of the Internet itself–I’m looking at you ChatGPT! I am eager for our systemwide IT leadership team to grapple with these challenges together. Together, we ARE greater than the sum of our parts, and like a north star, we can guide our colleges, departments, and campuses through whatever is to come.
Q: How do you envision the culture will work to help keep staff connected to both their campus or college and with their new team in IT?
A: In IT, technologists will remain at work in their home units, and their IT Leads will enjoy a dual-solid reporting relationship to their unit leadership, and now also to OIT through my role. This will allow for a truly bi-directional flow of strategy, priorities, and work plans that ensures transparency, alignment, and delivery of relevant, high-value services to all of our University of Minnesota constituents.
Q: What is your favorite sport to watch and what was your favorite (game/race) that you have seen?
A: I have become a HUGE Formula 1 racing fan over the last few years. Yes, because of Netflix’s fantastic series Drive to Survive. I love any motor race that takes place in the rain!