About Us
Bio
Prior to retiring from the California State University system in December 2021, Kevin Morningstar served as the Dean of Instructional & Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Cal State San Marcos (CSUSM) for 6 ½ years. Spanning over 35 years’ experience in the technology field, Morningstar has built a well-respected record of developing and implementing forward thinking technology plans, working collaboratively across organizations, and serving senior executives as a trusted steward of fiscal resources and information technology services. Morningstar currently serves in volunteer roles on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Futures Foundation (SDFF) and a Commissioner with the City of Redlands Traffic & Parking Commission. After serving over six years on the Board of Directors (of SDFF), and two of those as President of the Board, in August 2023, Morningstar stepped in as an Independent Management Consultant to serve as the Foundation’s Acting Executive Director.
Morningstar’s career in IT started while working for a state-funded grant at Cal State San Bernardino that was part of California’s earliest efforts to train K-12 educators in the use of technology in the classroom. Later working for a small consulting firm and multiple municipal governments, Morningstar works as a programmer/consulting building complex electric & water billing and payroll systems. During the critical Y2k period, conceived, implemented, and managed an innovative cost sharing solution for providing joint Customer Information Systems (CIS) and data center operations between two cities. Experienced in multiple technical fields, Morningstar designed and coordinated installation of a city-wide Institutional Fiber Network (INET), managed telecommunications and environmental systems, and oversaw construction of new data center facilities and multiple IT-infrastructure construction projects.
Morningstar has worked in higher education for over 15 years, establishing his career at Cal Poly Pomona based upon his model and strategies for providing technology IT services. Morningstar served as founding director of a technology services unit within Student Affairs and went on to serve in two Associate CIO roles within the campus’ IT Division. Key initiatives included the implementation of a campus VOIP system and creation of a dedicated unit focused on providing classroom, faculty, and college technical support and solutions.
At CSUSM, Morningstar provided leadership and direction to the campus’ successful Technology Strategic Planning effort, responded to structural fiscal changes that have led to budgetary and operational restructuring, deployed the campus’ first Mobile App, and implemented several strategies for improving service. Part of this strategy has been a reimagining of campus IT facilities through a combination of enhanced technology, collaborative space design, and alignment of services in support of faculty, staff, and students. Through the 2020/21 period, Morningstar led the campus' technology response to both the needs of the campus community as well as the successful response to a major security incident that developed improved security procedures that were deployed and standardized across the CSU system. (Reference article on cyber security incident.)
Morningstar holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Redlands and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Cal State San Bernardino.