Deborah Keyek-Franssen is a creative educator and thought leader with over two decades of experience in IT and higher education. She began her career at the University of Colorado in 1998, where she served as director of academic technology; oversaw strategy and research in the use, implementation, and evaluation of educational technologies; and managed a team of consultants and technologists. Currently, Deborah works across the CU System in the areas of teaching and learning with technology, online education, access to higher education, and student success. She has been instrumental in furthering CU campuses' implementation of digital and online education solutions, including MOOCs. She serves as the director of the Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology (COLTT) Conference and oversees state authorization compliance.

She is an inaugural member of the Coursera Advisory Council, serves as faculty for the EDUCAUSE Management Institute, is vice-chair of the statewide Colorado Open Educational Resources (OER) Council, and sits on the steering committee for the National Association for System Heads’ (NASH) Taking Student Success to Scale initiative. She has supported the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) for more than a decade and participated in research and program development to increase the number of girls, women, and underrepresented minorities in IT education and work. Deborah is a graduate of Dartmouth College and completed her Ph.D. in German Literature at the University of Michigan, where she also earned a master's degree in Higher Education Administration from the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies.