UC Tech News is excited to launch the UC Tech Leaders Q&A Series in 2026—designed to spotlight the voices shaping technology across UC. voices shaping technology across UC.
What is Your Name?
Aisha Jackson
What is Your Title? UC Location?
I joined UC Davis in December as the first Chief Information and Digital Strategy Executive.
What Are Your Top IT/Security Priorities in 2026?
(1) Designing, iterating on, and implementing an IT Governance framework for our highly distributed campus.
(2) Leading the development of an IT Strategic Plan that sets the vision and roadmap for IT across UC Davis and UC Davis Health.
(3) Supporting the advancement of AI at UC Davis.
What Emerging Tech Excites You for Higher Ed? What Emerging Tech Worries You?
I think folks might expect me to say AI, but, and this might be an odd statement from someone that helps to lead technology initiatives on campuses, no emerging technology really excites me right now. I try to have a balanced perspective, particularly when it comes to emerging technology, toward ensuring that we make thoughtful, responsible decisions that consider how the technology helps us to enhance learning, teaching, research, and administration while also weighing the implications, be that social, ethical, environmental, and financial.
How Do You Balance Innovation with Security?
My goal is to design an environment where innovation and security move together, not in opposition. As someone responsible for both digital strategy and cybersecurity oversight, I am working to ensure that security is at the table at the onset, not a separate conversation that happens after we innovate. It’s also important to build clear guardrails, through consultation and governance, that enable experimentation where risk is low, while applying more rigorous controls as impact, scale, or sensitivity increases.
What Principles/Values Shape Your Leadership?
Many years ago, I participated in a leadership development program where I learned about the four dimensions of trust (care, sincerity, reliability, and competence) and how they can be used to both sustain relationships and repair trust. These dimensions have shaped my leadership practice so deeply that I keep them on a sticky note on my work monitor as a daily guide, and they interweave naturally with my years working at the intersection of teaching, learning, and technology.
Care shows up in how I center equity and accessibility. I want people to know their needs are seen and taken seriously, especially those who are often underrepresented or underserved. I demonstrate sincerity in leadership by being transparent about how decisions are made and being willing to have hard conversations. I also show sincerity by approaching leadership with curiosity, rather than with assumptions and with honesty, rather than avoidance. I demonstrate reliability by being disciplined, creating consistent processes, and following through on my commitments. Especially during change, people need to trust that commitments will be honored and that decisions won’t shift unpredictably. I show competence when people see that the decisions I make are thoughtful, that their perspectives were considered, aligned with the academic mission, and grounded in understanding institutional priorities, its culture, and technical (and financial) realities. Together, these dimensions guide how I lead and how I create the conditions where students, faculty, and staff can thrive.
What Books Are You Currently Reading?
I’m halfway through I, Medusa: A New Kind of Villain Origin Story by Ayana Gray. Up next is Kin by Tayari Jones.
What’s Your Favorite Thing to Do Outside of Work?
Spending time with my husband and our two-year-old son, preferably on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean, with a good book, downloads of shows from the Star Trek universe on my iPad, and West Indian food readily available.
Thank you for the conversation, Aisha!
Aisha Jackson
Chief Information and Digital Strategy Executive
UC Davis
Tech Leader Spotlights
UC Tech News is excited to launch the UC Tech Leaders Q&A Series in 2026—designed to spotlight the voices shaping technology across UC. The UC tech community values hearing directly from its leaders, and this series aims to be both inspiring and informative.
Are you a tech leader at UC? We’d love to hear from you! To participate, please complete the short Q&A form and please include a photo.
