Meet the members of the NextGen Program Office

Andrea Bolash

Senior Business Process Consultant

Rita Girardi

Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist

John Gohsman

Executive Director

John Gohsman is the Program Director. Gohsman is responsible for implementing an industry-leading infrastructure and a shared services model at U-M, while increasing the quality of services and products provided by ITS.

As Executive Director of Applications & Information Services, Gohsman lead the day-to-day operations of ITS systems to strategic planning, portfolio management, program/project management, major software upgrades, maintenance and enhancements. He represents ITS on the Administrative Domain Advisory Committee and is the primary ITS representative for the Learning and Teaching and Knowledge domains.

In his previous role at the university, Gohsman served as the director of Student Administration, Human Resource Management Systems, and Business Intelligence divisions. He was the Director of the Student Administration division from 2000 and Human Resource Management Systems division from 2001. In 2005, Gohsman served as the Business Intelligence Project Director and co-led the Business Intelligence efforts for campus. In 2008, Gohsman established and led a new Business Intelligence division in MAIS. In July 2010, Gohsman took on responsibility for the campus learning management system, CTools, which is the local implementation of the Sakai open source solution.

Stefanie Horvath

Stefanie Sterken Horvath

Communications Lead

Stefanie leads a team of dynamic communicators to spread awareness, build understanding, and spark excitement around NextGen Michigan projects and initiatives. Her team works closely with program leadership, technologists, IT leads, and individuals across campus to ensure information is shared and presented in a way that makes sense to a variety of audiences.

Stefanie has been "translating IT into English" for the past 13 years. Stefanie joined the NextGen Michigan team from Harvard Business School in 2011, where she was Associate Director of communications for the Information Technology Group. Previously, Stefanie worked at Text 100 Public Relations, a firm that specializes in communications and public relations for high-tech clients including IBM Software Group, Xerox, and Viewsonic.

Tim Kelly

IT Program Director

In 2009, Tim led a cross-functional team of campus IT and ITS employees in conducting an assessment of the state of IT across the U-M campus. This assessment was central to the formation of NextGen Michigan. Today, Tim leads the MiWorkspace team within NextGen Michigan, and he is responsible for end-to-end development of both the MiWorkspace and the End-User Computing project. He also works with Karen Sloan on campus IT workforce strategy. For over 20 years, Tim has worked on organizational transformation projects in retail, finance, product services, home services, and entertainment.

Mike Loviska

Executive Director of Process & Service Management

Mike Loviska is responsible for transforming ITS into a process and service organization that will support the new shared services structure. Loviska leads the enterprise project management office, including enterprise portfolio and planning management, service management, office business process management, organization performance metrics, knowledge support and education services, internal systems, the help desks, access and account services, and university telephone operators.

Loviska has over 30 years experience in the IT field, he has held numerous positions in both IT technical and management areas. Loviska has worked at the University for more than 20 years and served as the technical manager on the M-Pathways Project. M-Pathways is an enterprise-wide resource planning system used to support U-M's core business areas. M-Pathways won the 1999 Computerworld Smithsonian Award for using computer technology in innovative ways.

Andy Palms

Network, Data Centers Lead

Andrew (Andy) Palms will lead the network consolidation project for the IT Rationalization Program. He will also manage the migration of hundreds of local server rooms and closets into managed data centers.

Palms is the Director of Communications Systems and Data Centers for Information and Technology Services. He is responsible for campus data, voice and video infrastructures and services, and data center planning and operations.

For the past 20 years, Palms has worked with all areas of the campus to design and build communications systems, as well as design and implement funding models for communications systems and data centers. Palms is well informed about emerging and new technologies.

Palms attended U-M at the undergraduate level. His favorite time away from work is spent with his family, but he also enjoys building cabinets, landscaping, and discussing IT.

Amy Peters

Change Management Lead

Amy is responsible for analyzing all NextGen projects to identify the changes those initiatives will bring to campus, units, and users. Amy's goal is to help employees to navigate IT transitions as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. To accomplish this, she works closely with campus IT leaders, unit-level managers, and Unit IT staff to understand the functions of their offices and to communicate plans and helpful information. Amy seeks to minimize disruptions and maximize the benefits of any IT change that is rolled out to a unit.

In a previous role, Amy acted as the change management, communications and training lead for the campus-wide Concur implementation. Amy has been involved in large-scale U-M campus IT implementations for the last 14 years.

Phil Ray

Customer Relationship Manager

Phil leads the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) practice at Information and Technology Services (ITS). His goal is to build stronger connections between ITS and campus customers, helping ITS understand the technology needs of campus units, and listening to their assessment on how ITS is doing in meeting those needs.

The goal of the CRM team is to develop a deep understanding of the needs, goals, and directions of units across the U-M campus, so ITS can match those with technology services and solutions that will advance the university's missions. Additionally, Phil's team will ensure that ITS regularly requests, hears, and takes action based on feedback.

Before coming to ITS, Phil led the technology services group for the School of Natural Resources & Environment, where he collaborated with IT professionals and leaders across campus to influence improvements in ITS services and the broader campus IT environment.

Phil says, "ITS is reinventing itself, focusing on changes that will make it more responsive to the missions of the university and the needs of our many campus units. We need continual feedback to drive our improvements. How are we doing for you and your unit? What do we need to understand about how the future is unfolding for your part of the university so that we can be there with you as new technology needs emerge? Drop me a line at philray@umich.edu."

Jessica Rohr

Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist

Mary Jane Shand

Senior Administrative Assistant

Karen Sloan

Workforce Strategy Lead

Karen is responsible for coordinating and implementing workforce strategy on the U-M campus, as it relates to NextGen projects. As projects are rolled out to each unit, Karen works with the unit's implementation team to analyze the unit's workforce to determine the ongoing role that individual IT employees will play. After the roles are determined, Karen oversees the transition of those "neighborhood IT" employees into the ITS reporting structure.

Karen is a member of the HR Community of Practice at U-M, where she has a regular opportunity to stay connected to HR issues within units and across campus. Karen has been involved with NextGen Michigan Program Office since its inception, and is pleased that the team has engaged in a high level of collaboration with several different segments of campus leadership, to determine the overall vision and goals that would best serve the university.

Dima Tawakkol

Program Manager

Dima was appointed Program Manager for the NextGen Michigan Program Office in January 2012. The office is in charge of implementing the IT Rationalization strategic plan, as articulated by U-M IT governance, and planning and fulfilling other Next Gen Michigan projects. Dima is responsible for making sure that all NextGen projects not only meet their objectives, but also strengthen U-M's overall IT infrastructure in such a way that it is able to grow and evolve with the needs of the campus community. Currently, her focus is on building and maintaining the Shared Service Provider foundations for U-M IT, and ensuring that they align to the mission and goals of the University.

Prior to taking this position, Dima spent 15 years managing large-scale IT implementations in publishing, retail, medicine and higher education. Many projects have influenced her approach to managing change. In particular, her work on the U-M Space Utilization project, a joint effort between ITS and the Provost's Office, gave her a deep understanding of many different campus units and taught her how to get to the heart of the needs and goals of unit IT.

Bill Wrobleski

Director of Infrastructure Projects

Bill leads the implementation of projects to design and create the university's next generation IT infrastructure. He is currently overseeing the NextGen implementations of M+Google, M+Box, Cloud Computing, and Storage.

For the past decade, Bill has served in director roles, overseeing various aspects of the university's technical infrastructure. He has been a key contributor to many initiatives including U-M's first deployment of Wolverine Access, the creation of M-Pathways' technical infrastructure, and a wide range of enterprise-scale technical implementations.