2003 Penny Crane Award Recipient – Russell Vaught

Russell Vaught’s career has focused on information technology and research in higher education. He is a leader who has served as a mentor to many of his staff throughout his career. He is dedicated to providing high quality user services to his constituents. Russ represents the personal dedication to the profession for which the Penny Crane award was created.

Russ is Associate Vice Provost for Information Technology at Penn State. Before working full time in computing, Russ was a researcher at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, NC, and the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, OR. For the last twenty-four years, he has held full time computing positions at SUNY-Binghamton, Cornell, and Penn State.

Russ served on the Board of the ACM SIGUCCS group from 1983 to 1999 and was Chair of the organization from 1991-1995. He has encouraged his staff to attend and actively participate in SIGUCCS for many years.

Russ has made numerous presentations on information technology related issues. He wrote a chapter in the Educom publication, Organizing and Supporting Administrative Computing. He has consulted with a number of institutions on their use of technology. He has also taught courses in statistics and management of information systems. He has over fifty publications in areas ranging from quantitative methods and organizational behavior to traffic safety and parasites in fish. He received a Ph.D. in Psychology (Quantitative Methods) from Iowa State University in 1971.