ARUCC Announces the Inaugural Executive Director of MyCreds™

Congratulations and Welcome Jodi Tavares!

The Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Jodi Tavares as the inaugural Executive Director of MyCreds™. In this role, Tavares will provide strategic vision and operational leadership for all administrative and financial operations of MyCreds™, in keeping with the association’s mandate and the network’s strategic plan and principles that have guided the evolution of the network. As the Network passes its third birthday with over 1 million learner wallets and well over 1 million documents in circulation, Tavares will be taking on the stewardship of a significant, award-winning, national enterprise that is supporting domestic and international learners with official academic document and credential exchange into, between, and beyond their studies at Canadian colleges and universities.

Working for 15 years in senior leadership roles within higher education, Tavares has led complex technology transformation and strategic planning while collaborating with numerous constituents to achieve set goals, improve services, and meet the changing demands of a diverse client base. In particular, her sector experience sector leading organization-wide teams through technological change initiatives has prepared her to make a significant impact across the country in her new role with MyCreds™ and ARUCC. Tavares is currently the Executive Director, Strategy and Administration at the York University Markham campus. There, she is responsible for managing the team charged with operationalizing the new campus with a $100M+ shared resource budget while bringing together the work of five different units.

Tavares is a lifelong learner having received her Master of Arts in English Literature from York University and achieving certification as a professional change leader through Change Catalysts. She also employs “Lean” methodology regularly as she navigates process improvement, having achieved Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification through the EZSigma Group that specializes in training and consulting on continuous improvement and process quality expertise.

York Markham campus

Tavares will lead the organization into its next phase as the MyCreds™ team works with its stakeholders to build out the resources and capacities of the network. To do this, she will work in collaboration with the ARUCC Board, its various MyCreds™ governance committees and communities, Romesh Vadivel, the ARUCC MyCreds™ Project Board Director, the Duklas Cornerstone Consulting Inc. (DCC Inc.) team led by Joanne Duklas, one of the network founders and executive lead, and our technology service partner, Digitary by Parchment. To ensure the continuity and continued sustainability of the network, the various service partners including DCC Inc. will support Tavares’s transition and into the next phase for MyCreds™. She will begin her role as Executive Director starting on January 1, 2024. ARUCC would like to extend its gratitude to the search committee for their time spent working with KBRS Executive Search on this critical hire for the organization.

“I strongly believe that people are at the heart of any enterprise. I have found that it is critical to ensure one has a direct line to the community we serve to correctly identify needs and opportunities. I want to hear from the membership of ARUCC, from opted-in institutions, and from other potential partners who have valuable feedback to help us understand where MyCreds needs to go next. I am proud to have built productive and engaged teams throughout my career because I know that consistently delivering on our strategies and goals isn’t something that can be done alone. I am so excited to step into this role and work alongside all the leaders who have done such great work building up MyCreds™ to where it is today,” said Jodi Tavares upon her appointment.

“The committee was looking for someone special with a specific set of skills that we weren’t sure we could find. We were impressed by Jodi’s background experience, but especially her thought process, design-oriented philosophy of practice, and her incredible energy level. She brings all of the skills we were hoping for and we can’t wait to see what comes next for MyCreds™ with her at the helm,” said Darran Fernandez, Vice-Chair of the ARUCC Board of Directors and Chair of the Search Committee.

“We are excited to have Jodi join and lead MyCreds™ beyond its third birthday,” says Romesh Vadivel, MyCreds™ Project Board Director. “She comes with an immense array of experience in the higher education field having led large scale projects, including helping to create the York Markham location. MyCreds is well supported by the DCC Inc. and Digitary teams that have helped to deliver an award-winning credential exchange network across 13 provinces and territories. We are proud of what the teams have accomplished thus far and are excited to continue this work with Jodi as the MyCreds™ inaugural executive director.”

About MyCreds™

MyCreds™ is a national, shared service and platform that provides students and graduates access to a secure, online, password protected learner credential wallet. This virtual wallet allows them to view and share their verified and official transcripts, credentials, and academic documents in a digitized format on a 24/7 basis – anytime, anywhere. It also enables sharing between organizations with the learner’s permission. Secure, cryptographically signed documents can be sent conveniently and require no further verification. MyCreds™ is the first and only national bilingual system of its kind in Canada.

About ARUCC

The Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC) owns MyCreds™. ARUCC provides leadership in the post-secondary education field and service to its member institutions nationally and internationally, helping foster the advancement of registrarial practices and learner focused service delivery in Canada.

Media Contact

Joanne Duklas, ARUCC MyCreds™ Executive Lead, info@aruccnationalnetwork.ca

Niagara College