University of Maryland Names Jeff Hollingsworth Vice President and Chief Information Officer

The University of Maryland has named Jeff Hollingsworth as Vice President and Chief Information Officer, effective today. In this role, Hollingsworth will oversee the Division of Information Technology (DIT) and provide leadership for the university’s IT strategy, infrastructure and services. Hollingsworth has served as Interim CIO at UMD since June 2017.

“The VP-CIO is critical to our success—modernizing and securing the tools we use every day and expanding our capabilities for the future,” said University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh.“Jeff has done an outstanding job as interim vice president in translating his academic expertise into sound policy. We are in good hands.”

Hollingsworth will be responsible for the university’s overall technology environment, including critical IT services for research and teaching; administrative applications and infrastructure; information security and integrity; and broad technical support for faculty, staff and students. He will also oversee the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads – the MAX – the regional optical connection point that serves education and government agency needs for highly advanced network interconnections and services.

“By focusing on important issues like transparency, shared governance and investment in people, we've made great strides in our IT operations and infrastructure,” said Hollingsworth. “I’m excited to continue this important work alongside my talented colleagues in the Division of IT and across campus.”

As interim CIO, Hollingsworth oversaw the implementation of a mandatory multi-factor authentication system for faculty, staff and graduate assistants; worked with campus stakeholders and the University Senate to adopt a web accessibility policy; drove the deployment of a new phone system across campus; and arranged a move to new office space in the university’s Discovery District to consolidate the division’s operations into one building.

Since 1994, Hollingsworth has served as a professor in the university’s Department of Computer Science with joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Science. He also served as associate chair of the department from 2008-2012.

While at UMD, he has published over 100 research papers and book chapters, served as a principal investigator on more than 30 grants totaling over $17 million and supervised Ph.D. dissertations of a dozen students. He taught undergraduate and graduate classes in computer architecture, networking, operating systems, and high performance computing. During that time, he has also served as adjunct research staff at the Institute for Defense Analysis Center for Computer Science and a visiting scientist for the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

Hollingsworth received his B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California; and his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer sciences from the University of Wisconsin.