Neal Vines has been named director of the college’s Information and Communication Technologies unit.

The unit’s services include video production and confer-encing, publishing, news and media relations, information technology, Web development, computer training and support, and exhibit design for the college.

Vines will provide leadership for information technology and communication initiatives; incorporate technology objectives into the college’s strategic plans; and implement strategies for identifying and reaching the college’s key audiences.

“Neal is a great addition to the college’s leadership team,” says Dean Robert Steele. “His experiences as both an extension agent and an information technology professional make him an ideal fit for this position.”

Vines earned his bachelor’s degree in animal science from Virginia Tech in 1980, then joined that university as an agricultural extension agent. From 1981 to 1988 he was a farm management agent, and in 1988 he was named a computer resource agent.

In 1995, after earning his master’s degree in information systems from Virginia Tech, he was named coordinator of the university’s Extension Information Systems. He directed the implementation of Virginia Cooperative Extension’s first statewide data and telecommunications network, a $1.5 million project that included negotiating with telecommunications companies and establishing procedures and guidelines for network installation.

Vines also established a Web project with the Department of Agricultural Research and Extension Communications, paving the way for the communications unit and Extension Information Systems to jointly develop and maintain Web sites for extension, agriculture experiment stations, and other parts of the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture.

In 1998, Vines joined Purdue University as director of Agriculture Information Systems. There he led a joint effort to establish a collaborative development project for departmental Web sites, which united academic departments, administrators, and technology professionals in a coordinated effort to address information technology issues.

He coordinated the Indiana Cooperative Connectivity Project and Purdue Cooperative Extension’s participation in Access Indiana. Through this project, county governments can share high-speed network access and costs with their local extension office, pairing the university’s investment in high-bandwidth services with county government’s need to acquire Internet services at a reasonable cost.

Vines also led an effort to switch county extension offices from Unix to a WindowsNT computing platform, which required garnering support from extension administration, staff, and local governments. In a six-month period, the plan was successfully implemented in 90 of 92 counties.

—Eston Martz