Queens University of Charlotte CIO Chosen as a Finalist for ORBIE Awards

Kenitra Horsley, chief information officer for Queens University of Charlotte, was named a finalist in the 2022 Carolina CIO of the Year ORBIE® Awards in the Corporate category, presented by CharlotteCIO®. The ORBIE Awards is a national technology executive recognition program that honors chief information officers in multiple categories – based on the size and scope of their organization and responsibilities – who have demonstrated excellence in technology leadership.

Carolina CIO ORBIE Awards finalists are featured each year in the Charlotte Business Journal along with their success stories about how they are shaping their industries through technology and strategy.

“My greatest accomplishment since becoming CIO has been my investment in employee development and retention – not technology,” Horsley stated in her success column. “With the demand for technology continuing to grow and the impact COVID-19 has had on employees, I made a strategic decision to invest in student workers and existing staff. For the first time in nearly five years, we were able to hire two student workers and promote an employee to a newly created position. The significance is that it directly aligns with Queens’ mission to prepare students for purposeful lives, as well as one of the university’s strategic themes, ‘investing in employees.'”

Horsley came to Queens in 2019 with more than 20 years of experience and served as deputy chief information officer and director of enterprise systems. She then served as the interim chief information officer (CIO) for several months before being promoted to CIO in April 2022.

“Kenitra is a higher education leader whose impact goes beyond information technology,” said Rich Majerus, vice president for planning and strategy at Queens. “She looks beyond what we know as IT-related functions to help unify our leadership team around the importance of leveraging new opportunities in technology and how they align with the strategic priorities of Queens.”

Prior to coming to Queens, Horsley served as director of IT and risk management at VT LeeBoy, Inc., an international manufacturer of road construction and maintenance equipment, headquartered in Lincolnton, NC. She also served as director of applications development at Davidson College from 2005 to 2008. She holds an MBA from the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School and an undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Maryland.

CharlotteCIO® is a peer leadership network of Charlotte chief information officers and one of 25 chapters of the InspireCIO Leadership Network, a national membership organization comprised exclusively of CIOs from public and private businesses, government, education, healthcare, and nonprofit institutions.