AI Today Podcast How PMOs Lead Responsible AI Transformation in Higher Education – with Ivonne Mejia
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Mar 4, 2026 Ivonne Mejia, Lead Project Portfolio Manager at California State University who drives PMO consolidation and trustworthy AI practices. She discusses embedding CPMAI into intake and governance. Short takes cover starting with the right business question, iterative go/no-go decisions, stakeholder alignment, ethics across the lifecycle, and what AI-augmented project leadership could look like.
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Business Understanding Comes Before Models
- Start AI projects with business understanding, not algorithms, to decide whether AI is the right solution.
- Ivonne Mejia stresses defining expected outcomes, data quality, and success metrics before model choices are made.
Require Problem Definition At Intake
- Embed CPM AI phase one into intake to assess AI suitability, readiness, risk, and alignment with institutional priorities.
- Ivonne will require stakeholders to define problems (e.g., retention, admissions) and surface ethics and privacy early.
Wine Seller Learned Channel And Stakeholder Fit The Hard Way
- Kathleen recounts a wine-distributor who built an email-sending agent that produced only two responses.
- The failure stemmed from skipping stakeholder discovery and misjudging the right channel and message.