CEMI News & Momentum Stories
Understanding Epics in the DEEP Journey
As we progress toward our system go-live, our functional work streams are organized around Functional Epics.
In our project methodology, an Epic represents a major body of related capabilities and business processes being designed, configured, and tested within the new CRM platform. Rather than building the entire system all at once, breaking our work into dedicated Epics allows project teams and subject matter experts to focus deeply on specific operational functions—ensuring every workflow is built thoughtfully and tested thoroughly before launch. Each project team includes members from Ithaca AAD, including the Lab of Ornithology, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Huron.
Current Epic Progress Update
- Bio/Demo Epic (Well Underway): Development and design work for our foundational Bio/Demo Epic is making good progress and scheduled to conclude in early August. This work stream focuses on centralizing core referential person and organization data to ensure we maintain clean, reliable constituent records across all units.
- Campaigns Epic (Now Launched): Work on the Campaigns Epic has officially begun! In the context of our software implementation, “Campaigns” refers specifically to the technical setup, custom development, and system structures used to track, segment, and execute daily outreach and engagement initiatives. While some of these elements do feature in comprehensive fundraising campaigns, the focus of this epic is on the underlying CRM tools that help teams manage targeted appeals, communications, and digital outreach efforts effectively.
Looking Ahead
As functional teams dive into the details of the Campaigns Epic, we will continue to share updates, change impact details, and user readiness steps through our primary project channels.
Several teams engaged in the Cornell Experience Modernization Initiative (CEMI) are making great progress in finalizing plans to overhaul our engagement and fundraising software systems across campuses. The Donor and Engagement Experience Project is focused on migrating Cornell’s myriad ecosystems to the selected Kindsight Ascend platform.
To support these efforts, Cornell has recruited its first university-wide Director of Development IT, Ernest Penland. Ernest will join us on September 1, and collaborate with leadership from Cornell’s Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, including the Lab of Ornithology, and Weill Cornell Medicine’s Office of External Affairs, to lead the technical side of our Kindsight solution and related systems. These groups will support DEEP as our new Development Information Technology team.
Additionally, after a long and distinguished career at Cornell, Debbi Kruszewski-Warner, Executive Director of Advancement Information Systems for Alumni Affairs, will be retiring on September 30. Debbi has been instrumental in launching the Donor and Engagement Experience Project in tandem with other CEMI projects and in helping guide the initiative from needs assessment through system selection and into the implementation phase. Before her departure from Cornell, Debbi will partner with Ernest and the team to transition the valuable work already in progress for the Donor and Engagement Experience Project.
About Ernest
Ernest Penland is a higher education technology leader with more than 25 years of experience in enterprise applications, development technology, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and organizational leadership. Most recently, he served as Senior Director of Enterprise Applications at Virginia Tech, leading teams responsible for development and marketing technologies, learning platforms, geospatial systems, and other university-wide services.
Throughout his career, Ernest has focused on building strong partnerships between technology and business leaders, modernizing complex systems, and helping teams navigate organizational and technological change. He brings broad experience in enterprise platforms, service delivery, collaborative decision-making, and the leadership and development of high-performing teams.
Please join us in welcoming Ernest to Cornell. Follow the progress of the Donor and Engagement Experience and other CEMI projects at cemi.cornell.edu.
Curtis L. Cole, M.D.
Vice President and
Chief Global Information Officer
Cornell University
Fred Van Sickle
Vice President
Alumni Affairs and Development
Cornell University
Where are you coming from, in terms of your last organization and last major project?
The last project that I ran was for Iowa State University. I led a Workday Student implementation. It was one of the first Workday Student projects at a major institution in the United States, and I was there for about five years. Prior to that, I led a couple of system-wide initiatives in the state of Wisconsin for all the universities there, and also a few Workday-related projects.
Are you from the Midwest?
I live in Madison, Wisconsin, and have been here for about 10 years, but I grew up in Los Angeles. We came here years ago to be close to our son’s family and our grandchildren.
In the organizations where you’ve implemented a big change like this, you’ve probably seen some adapt better than others. What change management mindsets or practices did the more successful organizations adopt?
I tend to take a very practical approach to change management. The thing that I found is most effective is the most basic thing: You have to be willing to go and meet with people in person and hear about their experiences and reactions, and you have to be willing to make adjustments. For example, for the Iowa State project, after we went live, I spent my whole last year there going out and talking to deans and associate deans and department chairs and departments and end users about their experience with the system, and then patiently writing down everything that they said and then going back and making improvements and changes based on that.
We’re not going to get it 100% right on the day we turn the system on. So we’ve got to be prepared to continue to make improvements.
It sounds like listening is a huge component of successful implementation
Definitely. You have to go to their meetings and listen to people who are sometimes frustrated.
For the implementations you did at Iowa State and in Wisconsin, were the workforces remote at that point or were you still all in person?
They were mostly remote. One of the projects I did in Wisconsin was a statewide procurement project. We put in a new procurement system at all thirteen universities and we launched that project in May of 2020 and we went live in May of 2021, so we were in the middle of COVID. I didn’t meet a single person in person until after we went live. For that whole project, we were in shock. Organizational change didn’t even register because there was so much other change going on.
What are you here at Cornell to do, in your own words?
I’ve been doing these kind of projects at universities and academic medical centers for 35 years. I’m going to bring all those years of experience, all the lessons learned, the strategies that I’ve seen work, I’m going to try to implement them here. The approaches that haven’t worked, I’m going to make sure we avoid. We’re hopefully going to try to shortcut some of the typical mistakes that organizations make on an initiative like this.
What are some of the typical mistakes?
Underestimating the change impact. Being too ambitious out of the gate because you’re underestimating the change and how long it’s going to take for people to adopt the system. It’s really important that the CEMI program be viewed as an ongoing continuous improvement initiative. That approach allows you to narrow your focus for the implementation period, and to focus on something that’s achievable.
What excites you the most about this opportunity with CEMI and Cornell?
It’s an opportunity to impact people for decades. The decisions that we make and the systems we put in will impact people far in the future. There are students who haven’t been born yet who will be impacted by the work we do now.
What is your favorite part about doing this type of implementation work?
The challenge of these projects is immense. The thing that I enjoy the most, and the coolest part of it for me, is that there are always people who rise to the occasion and grow. The implementation phase of this project is an opportunity for people really to step up and grow. It’s wonderful to see that.
I attended one of the Workday ERP stakeholders meetings a couple of weeks ago, and everyone was giving kudos to other colleagues who had been doing very good work. It was really nice to hear, because you could tell people were, as you put it, rising to the occasion.
I think that expressing gratitude is hugely important for our team to grow and be successful. We need to provide space for that. It’s something I always incorporate into my projects. We want to reinforce good behavior, and thanking people is a way to build a high-performing culture. High-performing teams express gratitude.
What do you think will get better as a result of CEMI?
The biggest thing initially is that by getting everybody into the same system, the access to information and data will get better and easier for people. Particularly with a Workday implementation, once you get everybody into the same system across HR, finance, budget, and ultimately student, then you’ve got an amazing amount of information all in one place. And there’s a lot of power that comes from accessing that information.
What does a successful CEMI rollout look like to you?
It’s one where our initial objectives are about business continuity. We implement the system so that the business can function, and then we rapidly shift into that continuous improvement mode.
What do you think are the biggest challenges of CEMI for the Cornell community?
Sequencing the activity appropriately. Refining the scope of what we’re going to deploy initially versus what we’re going to get to over a period of time afterwards.
Do you have any summer travel planned?
Not this year. CEMI is going to dominate my agenda this year. But we’ve taken a couple of big trips recently. Last year my wife and I went to Antarctica, and the year before that we went to Africa.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
My wife and I compete in ballroom dancing. The one trip we are going to take is to a national competition in Las Vegas at the end of July.
That sounds fabulous, how long have you been dancing?
Three years now. We’ve been competing for two. Kind of a funny story – there was a national dance competition in Manhattan at the Marquis Times Square in March. And so I was doing one of my final interviews with Chris Cowen, who I report to, and I was actually down competing in the ballroom at the same time. I went up for my Zoom call, changed out of my dance clothes, did my interview, and then changed back and went back down and finished.
The Cornell interview obviously went well, how did you do in the competition?
Really well. Last year my wife and I were the number three ranked amateur couple in the country.
What book are you reading right now?
There are two. One is by a guy named Michael Singer, and it’s called Living Untethered. And the second one is called A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Either of these books will blow your mind.
Each quarter, Curt Cole shares updates and answers questions about CEMI in a virtual Town Hall. His roles as Cornell’s Vice President and Chief Global Information Officer and one of CEMI’s executive sponsors enable him to share significant milestones and also explain how the progress is shaped by team leaders across the university as well as the dependencies and expected impact of each step forward.
Invitations to the virtual Town Halls are distributed to the CEMI Community approximately one month before each webinar. To be included in that group, go to the CEMI Contact Hub and choose “Join the Mailing List.”
Register for the next webinar, scheduled for Wednesday, August 26, 2026, at 9:00 Eastern Time.
As we work together to modernize and unify Cornell’s development and engagement technology across our campuses, understanding how you feel about this transformation is our top priority.
In May, we launched our first Readiness Pulse Check. This survey is designed to establish an early baseline of staff awareness, concerns, and preparedness. By administering these pulse checks quarterly, we will track trends, measure our progress, and adjust our change strategy based directly on your feedback.
Who We Heard From
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts! We had fantastic engagement on this first check-in:
- 127 total respondents participated, representing an overall 29% response rate.
- The Breakdown: 106 respondents from Ithaca-based Alumni Affairs and Development (AAD), 11 from Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM), and 10 from the Lab of Ornithology.
- A Solid Foundation: The survey showed a very strong foundation—staff understand why CEMI-DEEP is happening and have high trust in leadership’s support for the initiative.
- The Clarity Gap: Because the majority of staff have not yet had hands-on exposure to the new system, our lowest scores were around understanding personal, day-to-day impact.
- Want to learn more? Here’s a detailed summary (pdf).
You Said, We Are Doing: Our Action Plan
Your feedback is driving our next steps. Over the next quarter, the CEMI-DEEP team is actively working to address your top priorities:
- Concrete Role Clarity: You asked to see how the system will actually affect your day-to-day work. We are prioritizing role-based views and day-in-the-life system demonstrations so the impact is concrete long before go-live.
- Protecting Staff Capacity: Balancing a project of this scale with a full workload is a major concern. Project leadership is working with unit leaders to establish clear capacity trade-offs, identify what work can be paused or deferred, and prioritize hiring and backfill support.
- Streamlining Communications: To prevent anyone from feeling out of the loop , we are leveraging our central website as a single source of truth and activating our newly launched Change Network.
Meet Your Change Network
The Change Network serves as a vital two-way bridge between your unit and the Core Change Team, ensuring your voice is represented and your unique needs are met.
If you have questions, feedback, or want to know more about what’s coming, please reach out to your designated Change Network leaders, pillar representatives, or area members:
Change Network Leadership
- Tracy Cary (AVP of Operations, Alumni Affairs and Development / DEEP Change Management Lead)
- Trish Davis (CEMI Cornell Wide Change Management Lead)
- Jeffrey Wat (DEEP Change Management Lead, Huron)
- Wes Reel (DEEP Change Manager)
Communications & Training Pillars
- Andrew Gossen (Communications Pillar)
- Scott Burroughs (Training Pillar Co-Lead)
Change Network Members
- Nicole Cook (Annual Giving – Ithaca AAD))
- Heather Wells (Alumni Affairs – Ithaca AAD)
- Angela Tracy (College/unit fundraising leader – Ithaca AAD)
- Casey Lucier (Events – Ithaca AAD)
- Adam Murtland (CMP – Ithaca AAD)
- Tyler Willcox (Data Strategy and Reporting – Ithaca AAD)
- Leigh Robert (Technology – Ithaca AAD)
- Maria Vallejo-Nguyen (Major Gifts – Ithaca AAD)
- Catie Fleming (Principal Gifts – Ithaca AAD)
- Denise Ward (Prospect Development – Ithaca AAD)
- Fran Farrell (MGA – Ithaca AAD)
- Brandon Thomas (Principal Gifts Associate – Ithaca AAD)
- Bobbi Smith (Advancement Services – Ithaca AAD)
- Brandy Hoover (Finance/Advancement Services/QA – Ithaca AAD)
- Anna Woods (Development Associate – WCM)
- Javier Pinto (Prospect Development – WCM)
- Emily Anderson (Principal Gifts – WCM)
- Jeff Stulgis (Finance – DFS/WCM)
- Liz Kinast (Gift Planning Admin & Stewardship – Lab of O)
- Jessica Cassidy (Membership and Annual Giving – Lab of O)
Welcoming a New Partner to the DEEP Team
The CEMI-DEEP project team welcomes Wes Reel as our new DEEP Change Manager. Wes will support DEEP, as well as other CEMI project initiatives, as we operationalize our Change Management Strategy, helping prepare, engage, and support staff across Ithaca AA&D, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Weill Cornell Medicine through our implementation of Kindsight Ascend.
Background and Expertise
Wes brings a diverse background in leading organizational change, digital innovation, and cultural readiness across higher education, franchise operations, and automotive industries. Most recently, he served as a Change Management Advisor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he led project initiatives, team workshops, training programs, and leadership consulting.
Operationalizing Our People-Centered Strategy
Wes believes that successful change requires building trust, creating clarity, and helping people move forward with confidence. As he steps into his role to bring the DEEP Change Management Strategy to life, his approach will focus on:
- Listening First: Serving as a trusted partner who asks meaningful questions to create practical, people-centered solutions.
- Mindful Adoption: Approaching every implementation milestone with intention and genuine consideration for the staff impacted.
- Bridging Experiences: Aligning overarching university goals with the day-to-day human experience of upcoming system changes.
Wes is eager to learn, build strong relationships, and make a positive impact across the Cornell community. Please join us in giving him a warm welcome!
Moving to a new system involves more than just changing software—it changes how we work together every day. The DEEP Change Management Strategy (pdf), which has been approved by the DEEP Executive Sponsors, is our roadmap for making sure staff have the guidance, training, and tools they need to embrace Kindsight Ascend on launch.
This strategy focuses on supporting our people. It is designed to:
- Show the Tangible Value: highlight how a shared system saves time—helping staff focus less on wrestling with manual workarounds and more on building meaningful relationship strategies.
- Keep Daily Operations Running Smoothly: provide practical, role-specific training sessions and post-launch troubleshooting teams to help minimize everyday disruption and manage workloads evenly.
- Respect Local Needs: Ground our work in the principle “As common as possible, as different as absolutely necessary.” This means creating shared processes where they make sense, while explicitly protecting the unique mission-critical or privacy guidelines (like Personal Health Information boundaries at WCM) specific teams rely on.
- Give Staff a Continuous Voice: Establish clear feedback channels so the core team can listen to real-world questions and adjust training resources dynamically as the project moves forward.
Our Core Change Enablement Pillars
To turn this strategy into reality, our change program relies on three functional pillars:
- The Change Network: A dedicated ambassador network consisting of peer representatives across Ithaca AA&D, including the Lab of Ornithology, and WCM. These members serve as vital local advocates, testing program messages and bringing localized feedback directly back to the core project team.
- Role-Aware Communications: We will provide clear, role-specific insights through predictable channels like our upcoming monthly newsletter, structured toolkits for managers, and training programs
- Continuous Organizational Readiness: Rather than evaluating readiness at the very end, we are building it into the implementation process. Using approaches like the quarterly Readiness Assessment pulse surveys we launched in May, we will actively track community sentiment and step in with custom support exactly where it’s needed most.
What’s Next and How to Engage
- Explore the Strategy: Detailed overviews of our North Stars, project governance, and stakeholder matrices are permanently archived right here on the DEEP Site.
- Connect with Your Champions: The DEEP Change Leaders are Trish Davis, Tracy Cary, and DEEP Change Manager Wes Reel. Within the next few weeks, we also will share the roster of Change Network members so that staff can find the designated OCM representatives for their areas.
The CEMI DEEP Initiative has reached another major milestone: the finalization of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (pdf) that define our path toward value realization in donor engagement and experience.
While there will be many ways in which the progress, performance, and benefits of DEEP will be quantified, these KPIs are a select set of high-level metrics aligned with the broader CEMI program’s categories and structure and focused on impact. They were developed by the Project Leadership Team, and approved by the Executive Sponsors, to align with the strategic goals of the initiative, measuring tangible impact using existing systems and data sources. The finalized KPIs will allow us to measure progress and clearly demonstrate meaningful outcomes in areas including fundraising, constituent engagement, and operational efficiency.
This milestone marks a pivotal step toward delivering measurable results and driving the success of the CEMI DEEP initiative. The team is eager to dive into the next phases of the project and will share updates along the way.
As CEMI-DEEP continues to move forward, we’d love to hear from you about how the project is progressing and ensure you have access to the latest information and resources.
🎉 Help Shape the Future of CEMI-DEEP
Your feedback is an important part of our change journey. We invite all colleagues to complete the new Readiness Assessment survey, designed to help us understand how our community is experiencing the project and where we can provide additional support.
The survey takes less than five minutes to complete and is the first of a series of planned quarterly check-ins.
Please complete the survey by end of business on Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
The assessment focuses on four key areas:
- Awareness & Preparedness – How well do you understand the upcoming tools and process changes?
- Identified Barriers – What are the potential risks or hurdles to adoption we should address early?
- Refining Our Strategy – How could communications, training, and change management activities better meet your needs?
- Support Enhancement – How can we address “readiness gaps” identified by the survey?
🎉 Project Team Completes HIPAA Privacy Onboarding Training
As part of our commitment to responsible data stewardship, members of the CEMI-DEEP project team recently completed mandatory HIPAA Privacy Onboarding Training in preparation for the implementation of Kindsight Ascend.
This training helps ensure that project team members understand the privacy requirements and responsibilities associated with working in environments that involve patient data at Weill Cornell Medicine and reinforces our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of data protection throughout the implementation process.
You can read more about this milestone here.
🔍 Explore the Updated Donor and Engagement Experience Project Website
We’ve also refreshed the DEEP website with additional information to help you stay informed and engaged throughout the project.
Highlights include:
- Project updates and announcements to keep you informed of major milestones and decisions.
- Project background and goals that explain how CEMI-DEEP supports Cornell’s broader modernization efforts.
- Resources and documentation to help colleagues understand project activities and upcoming changes.
- Opportunities to get involved and learn how community members can contribute to the project’s success.
- Professional development and learning opportunities that support readiness and change adoption across our community. These resources are designed to help colleagues build skills and confidence as we prepare for implementation.
⚙️ Why Your Participation Matters
CEMI-DEEP is more than a technology project—it’s an opportunity to improve how we engage with constituents and support fundraising efforts across AAD, inclusive of the Lab of Ornithology, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Cornell Tech. Your feedback helps us understand what’s working, identify areas for improvement, and ensure we’re providing the information and support our community needs.
Thank you for your continued engagement and partnership. We encourage you to take a few minutes to complete the survey and explore the updated website. Together, we’re building a stronger foundation for the future.
Best,
CEMI-DEEP Core Team
The CEMI-DEEP project team has launched its first Readiness Survey. This baseline pulse survey is designed to gauge how well-prepared and supported staff feel as the university prepares to transition to the new Kindsight Ascend system.
As the first of a planned series of quarterly touchpoints, this assessment will help the project’s implementation and change management teams tailor future resources. Specifically, the survey focuses on four key areas:
- Awareness & Preparedness: Understanding upcoming tools and process changes.
- Identified Barriers: Catching potential adoption risks or hurdles early so they can be actively addressed.
- Strategy Refinement: Shaping communications, training timelines, and change management activities to better meet staff needs.
- Support Enhancement: Providing targeted intervention where specific “readiness gaps” are identified.
Participation Details
- Time Commitment: The survey is designed to be brief and should take no more than five minutes to complete.
- Confidentiality: All responses are strictly confidential. While the survey asks for unit affiliation to ensure support resources are directed to the right teams, all individual data will be aggregated into high-level executive summaries only.
- Deadline: The survey will remain open until the end of business on Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
The survey is open to members of the External Affairs team at Weill Cornell Medicine, members of the Ithaca and Lab of Ornithology Alumni Affairs and Development teams, and selected other Cornell staff involved with the project. All eligible respondents have received an email containing the survey link.