Dear Colleagues,
I write to inform you of the appointment of an Executive Director for SHIELD operations for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Kraig Wagenecht, currently serving as the senior director for external research partnerships in the Office for the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation will assume leadership and oversight of all campus COVID-19 SHIELD operations on Jan. 16. These responsibilities will include all components of our testing program as well as serving as the operational liaison for the SHIELD T3, SHIELD Illinois and SHIELD CU initiatives. Kraig has been involved with our SHIELD program from the very first days of its charge and has the working knowledge across the breadth of our complex operations that will let him step into this position with no learning curve and no disruption of the ecosystem we have created.
This transition will allow the research and technology faculty leads of our team to place their full focus and attention on developing more innovations to enhance our SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell ecosystem during this critical period of the pandemic response.
Please join me in thanking Kraig for taking on this critical role, and I ask that you begin including him in all SHIELD-related activities and communications going forward.
Sincerely,
Robert J. Jones
Chancellor
