Crafton Hills, Valley College alumnus appointed Chief Technology Officer
Luke Bixler returns to San Bernardino Community College District
Luke Bixler joined the San Bernardino Community College District on January 14, 2019 as the Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Luke will collaborate with the faculty, staff, students and leadership to set the direction for district-wide technology, strategic planning, and implementing new technologies.
Luke brings 30 years of experience in the field of information technology, including 14 years in leadership positions within higher education. Previously, Luke served as the Associate Vice Chancellor and Deputy Chief Information Officer at Brandman University, part of the Chapman University System, in Irvine, Ca. While at Brandman, he was responsible for the Cloud environments, Student Information Systems, Data Warehouse, Reporting, Customer Relationship Management, Web Development, Systems, Networking, Service Desk and Media Services. Some key accomplishments include receiving the Chancellors Award for Innovation for a project that migrated all critical servers to a Virtual Private Cloud within Amazon. In addition, he led a project to implement a Cisco Telepresence solution to allow multiple remote campuses to virtually attend and interact with on premise courses taught at the main Irvine campus.
Prior to Brandman, Luke served as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the University of Redlands. In this role, Luke was responsible for the Student Information System, Data Warehouse, Reporting, Customer Relationship Management, Web Development, Networking, Systems, and Media Services. Notable projects included campus wide network and wireless upgrades, several new web site and content management systems, CRM selection and implementation, and collaboration with the faculty, staff and students to select and implement various technologies.
Luke has been active for many years with EDUCAUSE and completed the CIO Leadership Institute in July of 2017. In addition, he has worked as a proposal reviewer to select and recommend the sessions that are selected at EDUCAUSE for the past three years
Where did you go to school?
Luke: “I am excited to say that it all started for me at San Bernardino Valley College and Crafton Hills College, where I earned my Associate of Science degree in the evenings while I was working at ESRI. I later transferred to Cal State San Bernardino and worked on my Bachelor Degree in Math and Computer Science. I reached a point where the classes that I needed were only available during the day and I was working full time during the day. I continued to take some computer programming courses in the evenings at UC Riverside in their extension program. I then enrolled in the School of Business at the University of Redlands and I earned my Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and my Master of Science in Information Technology degrees.”
Where have you worked in the past and how did you fall into that line of work?
Luke: “I started out working for ESRI in Redlands right after high school, and my job was to deliver the interoffice mail to the employees, and to run errands for the owners. One of the owners, Laura Dangermond, found me an opening in their Information Technology department, and that was my first real experience working with computers. The foundation that I received at ESRI was very valuable, because I was able to learn about networking, servers, desktops and programming. After I left ESRI, I continued working in the Information Technology departments for multiple manufacturing companies, a retailer, and several institutions within higher education.”
How would your previous colleagues describe you as an individual?
Luke: “The technical teams that I have led would describe me as a good leader, organized, creative, problem solver, supportive, and focused. The faculty and staff that I have collaborated with would say that I am approachable, informed, a good communicator, problem solver, transparent and helpful.”
What hobbies do you enjoy outside of work?
Luke: “I enjoy camping, fishing and spending time with my family. I have fished in lakes and streams all over the country, but some of my favorite places to fish are in Alaska, Hawaii and Bishop. I am also a fan of many of the local football teams, including the SBVC Wolverines and the Redlands Bulldogs. It is great to see some of the local high school players that make their way to college and professional football. Beyond that, I really try to take advantage of any spare time to spend with my wife Lisa, my son Jordan, and my daughter Katelyn.”
