Senior Director, Customer Support Services
Shahra Meshkaty is Senior Director of Customer Support Services at the University of San Diego, where she oversees multiple units that provide services and best practices for online learning and teaching, instructional technology development, faculty development, helpdesk and desktop services (Client Support Services), Digital Media Support, classroom and learning space support Computing labs and academic and research systems support. Shahra has been at USD for 20 years in different roles at ITS, including as adjunct faculty at the School of Education and the School of Business. Her teaching role beyond USD includes eleven years teaching at the San Diego Community College at the New Media Center. She has taught courses in business applications, ITMG, Web publishing, and multimedia and graphic design for many years. In her current role, she coordinates visioning, planning, and implementation of Academic Technology within USD. In close collaboration with faculty and departmental liaisons she works on learning space projects, and serves on several campus committees and taskforces related to improving and enhancing the learning technologies that lead to student and faculty success. Shahra helped form and co-chaired the Innovative Learning Space Design Committee at USD — the first attempt to improve formal and informal learning spaces at the university. She has given numerous talks, papers and presentations at national and international conferences such as the SIGUCCS, New Media Center, Blackboard, EdMedia, Educause, DET/CHE, and E-Learn -World Conference and is currently is serving as the president of the DETCHE Organization (Directors of Educational Technology/California Higher Education). Shahra has committed herself to a life-long pursuit of leadership skills development and is grateful to the many colleagues and mentors who have generously supported her personal and professional growth. Blessed by working with a remarkable team of experts, she has been involved with numerous rewarding IT projects and initiatives. She launched the Annual Technology Showcase, the Student Technology Assistant program, the digital initiative of the Classroom iPad project, and most recently the Innovative Summer Institute for faculty.