Dr. John O'Brien serves as the president and CEO of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education through technology innovation. EDUCAUSE serves over 2,300-member colleges, universities, and organizations from 45 countries who themselves collectively serve over 16 million students. In his role as CEO, he speaks and writes on a variety of topics related to higher education, technology, and the crucial intersection where the two meet.

John is deeply committed to serving the community and has served on or is a member of several boards, including the Southern New Hampshire University Global Education Movement, Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth, the NorthStar STEM Alliance, the HealthForce Minnesota Executive Alliance, the Learning Network of Minnesota, the ARC, the Lutheran Social Services Foundation, and Minnesota Campus Compact.  He is also the former Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at the Minnesota State System and the former president of North Hennepin Community College.

Jeffrey J. Selingo has written about higher education for two decades. He is the author of three books, a contributing writer at the Washington Post and The Atlantic, and a professor of practice and special advisor at Arizona State University. He is also a visiting scholar at Georgia Tech’s Center for 21^st Century Universities.

Jeff received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ithaca College and a master’s degree in government from the Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the board of trustees at Ithaca College. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Washington, D.C.