James Webb
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
James Webb, recognized as a Computerworld Premier 100 Technology Leader and recipient of the Campus Partner Award, provides executive leadership for West Texas A&M University's technology services and systems across the Canyon campus and Harrington Academic Hall in Amarillo. He leads a staff of 36 professionals and directs the University's strategy for cybersecurity, enterprise systems, digital learning, research computing, and technology services for students, faculty, and staff. He serves on the President's Council and the University Strategic Planning Committee, chairs the IT Advisory Committee, and represents WT on the Texas A&M University System CIO Council. A Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert in Security, a credential known in the industry as the doctorate of networking and held by fewer than three percent of Cisco-certified engineers, James brings executive leadership and deep engineering expertise to the same role, and continues to work directly in the University's technical environment alongside the teams he leads.
James has led the modernization of the University's core technology environment, from data center and network infrastructure to the systems students and faculty use every day. He served as institutional technology lead for the Geneva Schaeffer Education Building, a $40 million renovation that created a digital learning ecosystem of production studios, instructional design space, and extended reality facilities. Its centerpiece, Buffalo Vision: The Frontier of Learning, was named Best Collaboration Space Project at the 2026 Higher Ed AV Awards. He also led the design and construction of the University's disaster-recovery data center in Amarillo, which supports mission-critical operations across academic, research, and public-safety operations.
Under James's leadership, Information Technology serves as the technology provider for the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in Texas, operating the museum's data center and delivering the network, internet, security, email, and application services that its staff relies on day-to-day.
Beyond the campus, James built a partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Mid-Plains Rural Cooperative to bring public Wi-Fi to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the second-largest canyon in the United States. By extending an existing rural fiber network rather than running fiber from campus, the project increased available bandwidth fivefold and avoided more than $1 million in construction cost, while strengthening emergency communication for visitors on the canyon floor. The same effort delivered mobile applications, live panoramic cameras, digital signage, and a virtual tour supporting the "Texas" outdoor musical drama and the museum.
James has positioned WT early in the institutional adoption of artificial intelligence, delivering the University's own AI platform, along with the A&M System's secure AI service, to faculty, staff, and students through Buff Connect, the student portal his team designed and built in-house, alongside the official WT Mobile app. He established the University's AI governance framework in alignment with Texas A&M University System Regulation 29.01.05 and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. In research computing, he served as the primary technology partner, enabling National Science Foundation funding for WT's high-performance computing cluster, which Information Technology operates to support faculty and student research, and securing WT's connection to VISION, the A&M System supercomputer ranked the most powerful university system in the United States.
As WT's state-designated Information Resources Manager under Texas Government Code Chapter 2054, James is formally accountable to the Texas Department of Information Resources for the University's information resources program, including cybersecurity, cloud vendor certification, supply chain risk, prohibited technology screening, and digital accessibility.
Before joining West Texas A&M, James built a career spanning corporate, healthcare, and non-profit technology, including service as a global escalation engineer for Cisco Systems' worldwide security organization. He holds a B.B.A. in Computer Information Systems and an M.B.A. from West Texas A&M University, along with the CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, and CDPSE certifications, as well as Cisco CCIE Security Emeritus status.
James has been accepted into the EDUCAUSE Executive Leaders Academy 2026–2027 cohort. His executive development also includes the Innovative Technology Leader program at Stanford University, the Chief Technology Officer Program at the Wharton School, the AI Strategy and Leadership Program at MIT, and the Governor's Executive Development Program.
Alongside his executive responsibilities, James has taught upper-level courses in networking and security for the Computer Information and Decision Management department in the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business for more than a decade. Teaching keeps him connected to WT students and creates experiential learning opportunities that tie coursework to the University's real-world technology environment, and the feedback students give him about what is working and what is not directly informs the decisions he makes as the leader of Information Technology.