In keeping with best practices under state, national and international privacy laws, the Office of Compliance and Risk Management has appointed Sally Makamson to be the privacy officer for the WSU system.
The systemwide privacy officer duties overlap with Makamson’s duties as the assistant director of health sciences compliance, a role she will continue to hold.
In her privacy officer role, Makamson will be responsible for developing, managing, and implementing processes to insure WSU manages its data in compliance with applicable state, federal, and international regulations. She also will be available to provide technical guidance to WSU units on privacy-related matters such as consent forms, notice of privacy practices, and opt-in/opt-out choices.
Makamson works within the Compliance and Civil Rights unit, which reports to Sharyl Kammerzell, associate vice president and chief compliance and risk officer.
“Sally has done a terrific job of standing up WSU’s systemwide privacy structure under HIPAA and other healthcare privacy laws, and we both look forward to working with our WSU colleagues to address and insure our institutional needs are met under the complex network of national and international privacy laws,” Kammerzell said.
Data privacy and security is recognized as a top risk in higher education across the nation. As the privacy officer, Makamson will work closely with Michael Walters, WSU’s chief information security officer, and with the team working on data stewardship through the Office of Strategy, Planning and Analysis.
“By working together on data privacy, security and stewardship we will be able to advance our strategic goals with safer, better data, that is managed and held to protect the privacy interests in the data,” Chris Hoyt, vice president of strategy, planning, and analysis, said.
