New ACIO for Health Sciences

Yale IT is excited to announce that Dr. Wies Rafi, supporting the Health Sciences Division as associate chief information officer, joined IT, the IT Leadership Council (ITLC), and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as its newest member on August 1.

Wies began his career as a systems data analyst across various non-profit, higher education, and small business sectors. He has accepted challenging positions throughout his career, including health communications specialist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enterprise analytics manager with the Library of Congress, and assistant dean of health information technology with the College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University. Wies most recently served as assistant dean of technology services for the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where he was responsible for the optimal alignment of university and hospital IT services across the health sciences schools, centers, and institutes. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from VCU with a research focus on academic health science centers and the role of digital health technology policy in addressing health disparities via social determinants of health.

In his new role, he provides strategic guidance and operational support on the effective use of information technology at the School of Medicine, Yale Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, and Yale Health. His obligations include leveraging the IT portfolio to yield better coordination, efficiencies, and communication across research computing, academic and AV technologies, client services, administrative and financial systems, and business intelligence/enterprise analytics.

To align with university-wide infrastructure, policies, and priorities, Wies will continue to nurture trusted relationships with colleagues, deliver comprehensive IT systems and services, and meet each division’s complex and unique information service needs. “I am honored to join the Yale community and serve alongside such outstanding colleagues across the health sciences and beyond,” said Dr. Rafi. “This is an incredible opportunity to accelerate the growth of the academic research enterprise and deliver world-class, superior services to faculty, students, and staff.” John Barden, vice president for IT and chief information officer remarked, “I am excited to have Wies here to strengthen our continuance of One IT, and I want to thank Kathleen Omollo and John Eberhart for their leadership prior to his arrival.”

Please join us in warmly welcoming him to Yale IT and wishing him every success!