Engineering IT is pleased to welcome Laura Herriott as our new Executive Director!
Laura’s first official day as Executive Director was January 5, 2026 and you might recognize her name from her previous time with Engineering IT as our Assistant Director of Research Support from 2018-2020 or or from her efforts with research infrastructure and support across campus and the nation.
Laura most recently served as Associate Director for Research Consulting at NCSA, where she led a directorate supported by $8.5M in annual state, academic, and industry funding. She directed and developed nine managers overseeing 55+ technologists who deliver advanced application support and domain expertise to researchers across campus. Laura has played key roles in campus IT governance, including the Boldly IT Delivery Leadership Team, Strategic Plan Core Team, and IT Council Steering Team, and helped lead Illinois Computes, a $50M initiative that modernized resource management, established new services based on IT best practices, and saved Illinois researchers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Laura brings a deep commitment to collaboration, service excellence, and people‑centered leadership. As co‑PI for the NSF ACCESS Allocations program ($11M over five years), she led change management, stakeholder engagement, and annual planning for DevOps through continuous improvement and created the ACCESS‑wide Researcher Advisory Committee of 33 faculty. She also introduced the NSF CyberAmbassadors program to campus and has authored metrics frameworks and reports that strengthen transparency and outcomes across advanced research computing. Laura will remain on the DeltaAI NSF-funded project as co-PI.
Please join us in welcoming Laura to Engineering IT!
Thanks to Dean Bashir’s announcement for much of this content.