Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that Katrina Spencer has accepted the position of Senior Associate Vice President and Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Rice University. Many of you have been working closely with Katrina over the last five months and know the deep knowledge and skill she brings to this role. I am delighted that she is a permanent member of the Finance and Administration leadership team.
Katrina has extensive higher education experience and has been a key member of the financial leadership teams at multiple higher education institutions, with core responsibility for providing leadership and broad strategic oversight for both the operating and capital budgets. Before joining Rice University, Katrina was the Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Colorado University-Boulder. She had direct responsibility for the Budget Office, Controller’s Office, Capital Finance, Finance Policy, and Financial Compliance. Katrina has also held high-level financial roles at the University of Chicago, the University of Connecticut, and UC Berkeley. In these roles, she has been responsible for university-wide resource allocation, budgeting, capital finance, multi-year planning, and strategic initiatives.
Katrina has successfully provided strategic thinking, leadership, and communications to support the financial portfolio. She has a proven track record for building inclusive and highly functional teams while collaboratively implementing and moving strategic projects forward, including implementing new budget models, reforming the financing of doctoral education, building stronger data and financial management tools, and implementing new a new budget system. She is leading our Budget Transformation Initiative with Provost Amy Dittmar and me, which will support and enable the university’s strategic goals of developing a budget that reflects Rice’s values.
Please join me in supporting and congratulating Katrina on this wonderful news.
All my best,
Kelly,
Kelly Fox, Vice President for Finance and Administration