Curtis A. Carver Jr., Ph.D., vice president and chief information officer for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been named to the 2025 class of inductees to the CIO Hall of Fame.
Foundry’s CIO created the CIO Hall of Fame in 1997 to spotlight outstanding IT leaders who have significantly contributed to and profoundly influenced the IT discipline, the use of technology in business and the advancement of the CIO role. Hall of Fame inductees now number more than 200.
“We congratulate Dr. Carver on this well-deserved recognition in being named among the nation’s top CIOs, and among only a handful from higher education named in the history of this prestigious award,” said UAB President Ray L. Watts. “Dr. Carver has provided outstanding leadership in his nearly 10 years at UAB, as he and his talented team continue to ensure that our IT infrastructure remains on the very leading edge and supports our success across all pillars of our mission.”
Carver came to UAB in 2015 from his position as vice chancellor and chief information officer for the University System of Georgia. He has extensive leadership experience at the United States Military Academy at West Point, as well as multiple tours of duty with the U.S. Army, from which he retired as colonel, and 30 years as a classroom professor at various institutions.
“I am honored to receive this recognition to the CIO Hall of Fame,” Carver said. “My career has been dedicated to public service, where my focus has been developing leaders and cultivating cultures of innovation. Any success I have achieved would not be possible without the support of the teams I have led over my career, including the agents of innovation here at UAB who work each day to make lives easier for students, faculty, staff and researchers.”
Carver’s tenure at UAB has been marked by innovation, most recently the launch of a major project to create a data lake and comprehensive data strategy to optimize data insights and decision-making, and the adoption of AI tools and strategy to transform academics, research and work processes. UAB has built the state’s fastest supercomputer to support research that grew by $719 million, strengthened security operations to reduce risk, and introduced services and solutions to help streamline processes and improve academic success. During the COVID pandemic, Carver’s team was involved in multiple technology projects that were designed to save lives and to strengthen academic success. In 10 years, UAB has amassed more than 1,200 technology wins, the result of close collaboration among strategic partners across campus.
Carver has led innovative projects at each stop of his career. During U.S. Army campaigns in Bosnia and Afghanistan, his teams wrote the software used to help the military fight wars. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to help allies build their military academies. At West Point, he deployed the institution’s first learning management system, built a private cloud and overhauled customer service to guarantee same-day service. And in Georgia, he deployed cloud services to save money and improve functionality while also strengthening the statewide network and introducing a new learning management system, all activities geared toward student success.
Carver says one of his most important career accomplishments is leadership development, through the institutions he has served and organizations with which he has been involved, including AlabamaCIO, TechBirmingham and TechBridge.
“The best technology leaders have yet to serve, and we all have an obligation to prepare and grow the next generation of leaders,” Carver said. “I have always attempted to lead by example and to be at the right place at the right time to inspire others to greatness.”
Carver was nominated for the award by Jamey Taylor, CIO of Dragonfly Health and chairman of the AlabamaCIO Advisory Board.