The Executive Committee of the MDREN Board of Directors began a national search for a permanent Executive Director in late July. The committee is currently interviewing finalists for the position. Jerry Waldron has served as the Interim Executive Director since July 2022. MDREN has gone through significant changes over the period. Brad Bothun joined the team in January 2023 after ten years at Bowie State. Brad brought a great deal of network and management experience to the MDREN team. Corey Williams joined the team in June 2024 as an Associate WAN Engineer. Vicky Persaud was also added to the project team as a contractor to support the network upgrade and to develop the MDREN documentation library in July 2024. The router upgrade was completed on all member campuses in the summer and fall of 2024. The network core RFP is currently underway. MDREN also initiated the Tech Day mini-conference events and launched the quarterly newsletter. Washington College re-joined MDREN in the spring of 2024. MDREN initiated the creation of the Mid-Atlantic RENs group.

The group of directors from other regional RENs meets quarterly to discuss projects and collaboration opportunities. Jerry Waldron noted the accomplishments over the past three years and said, “MDREN is in a great place. We have significantly improved the network and staffing. We are stronger as an organization than we have ever been. I really enjoyed my time with the team and the members. It’s hard to leave!”

The new executive director is expected to be named later this semester.