Pima Community College

Issac Abbs serves as the Chief Information Officer at Pima Community College, where he leads the institution’s technology strategy and digital transformation initiatives. With a strong focus on student success, accessibility and innovation, he works to ensure technology strengthens both learning and institutional operations.

In this feature, he discusses how digital infrastructure, AI integration and modern student systems are reshaping higher education, emphasizing inclusive technology, improved advising platforms and partnerships that equip students with the digital fluency needed for today’s evolving workforce. Technology is something that should never be developed without clear targeted outcomes, in my opinion. IT has to be a tool of college's mission achievement. It is not enough that we work with the academic and administrative groups only when they already have some problems that need IT solutions, it should be a continuous collaboration for finding and implementing new ways to use technology for college development.

Moving from a reactive approach of handling IT support requests to a proactive engagement of spotting and sharing IT, related opportunities is how we are transforming our IT department.

“We don't operate IT for the sake of IT, we operate IT for the sake of the business,” says Issac Abbs, Chief Information Officer, Pima Community College.

In one aspect, community colleges are different from other schools because the students who attend them are the most varied in terms of their background (including those who come right from high school, professionals who come back to work on their skills and even senior people who come for personal learning).

Our main objective is to adopt technologies which are not only intuitive and convenient but also suitable for users ranging from our youngest to most elderly members and all levels of technical skills. A key project that exemplified this had been launching a student portal. We removed an outdated system and introduced a modern platform that is also mobile, friendly and has a separate mobile app. The portal is a single entry point giving students and staff easy finding of whatever they want without them having to master the different system compartments.

Leading Technology Innovation in Higher Education
Beyond that, we have been the driving force behind many substantial digital transformation undertakings in the college. Not long ago, we introduced a new students application system coupled with a CRM platform based on Element 451 as we phased out the old system which was a source of annoyance and had become quite inefficient to use. On the student advising side, we implemented a new platform known as ConnectED which is more than just a tool for degree, seeking students only but one that allows all students to reap the benefits of improved advising.

"We don't operate IT for the sake of IT, we operate IT for the sake of the business."

On another note, we made a big step in improving our identity and access management infrastructure. We migrated from an internally developed system to SailPoint which is an enterprise level solution that has taken a big step in improving how we manage and control digital access across the institution.

Artificial intelligence is one of the areas we have targeted for our ongoing investments, our intention is that our students leave our schools equipped with the digital fluency that characterizes the contemporary workplace. In order to make this possible, we have teamed up with companies such as Adobe and initiated trials with a tool like Grammarly to introduce AI, assisted writing and creativity tools in educational settings. Being a Google school, we have also given access to Google Gemini to all students, offering them a safe space to experiment with AI technologies.

Being a successful technological leader in higher education is basically finding out who you're talking to. Our communities vary widely, so the systems we create need to cater to all. If we make the educational mission and values along with accessibility and fairness our main focus at every step when choosing technology, then we can guarantee that any new idea is a real advantage for all learners.