Dr. Bryan Berrett has been named the director of the Office of Innovation and Digital Excellence for Academic Success (IDEAS). Berrett has served 25 years at Fresno State and was initially hired as a full-time lecturer in the Deaf Studies undergraduate program. His commitment to students and the community was immediately evident by the creation of a four-year degree program in sign language interpreting and his service on a large number of departmental and university committees.

Berrett served as the director of the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) from 2016 until 2021. During that time the campus transitioned to a variety of technology tools including Canvas, Ally for accessibility, Panopto and Open Educational Resources. Additionally, CFE provided unprecedented professional development and student support during the pandemic for our entire campus. In 2021, he was appointed as the interim director of the newly formed Office of IDEAS, which combined a few campus entities/programs including CFE, DISCOVERe, Canvas, Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility and Academic Media.

The Office of IDEAS under Berrett’s leadership provides high level professional development opportunities in the areas of open educational resources, accessible course content, technology, innovation, and pedagogy, with a strong foundation on diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism and accessibility resources. Additionally, he leads the team to identify and address issues of equity and access for technology tools for all our students to provide an equitable digital learning environment.