Dear colleagues,
The complete renovation of Keck Hall. The design and construction of the BioScience Research Collaborative. The renovation and expansion of the south colleges. The replacement and expansion of major utility infrastructure. In total, over $1.5 billion in projects for the campus. The management of the hundreds of Rice employees who provide maintenance, custodial service, groundskeeping, construction, engineering, business support, project management, sustainability, and Central Plant operations.
Walk around our storied campus, and you’ll see these testaments – and many others – to 16 years of dedicated service by our Associate Vice President for Facilities Engineering and Planning, Kathy Jones. Through hurricanes, tropical storms, and, most recently, a pandemic, Kathy has helped Rice expand its capacity to house students, perform groundbreaking research, and make room for the generations of students, scholars, leaders, and visitors who will someday walk in our footsteps. As importantly, Kathy is also a proud parent of an alumna, her daughter Audrey, who resided in McMurtry College and graduated from Rice in 2014 with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
Many would envy our luck in having Kathy at Rice for so long, especially after a highly accomplished career that included 10 years as a Client Executive with a construction company, Linbeck Group LP; a position as Director of Construction Administration for Shalom Baranes and Associates in Washington, D.C.; and careers as a project architect for Wilson Architectural Group and Morris Architects, both in Houston.
But as much as we have benefited from Kathy’s care, responsibility, and excellence, we cannot keep her to ourselves forever. Kathy has announced her decision to retire from Rice in January 2023.
I recently read a column written about Kathy after her promotion to her current position. In it, she said she was a firm believer that “you should never ask anyone to do something that you aren’t willing to do yourself.” This comment captures the selflessness and sense of responsibility that marks the best of our leaders, and we are pleased to have benefited from Kathy’s leadership all these years.
For now, Kathy’s responsibilities will be assumed by Mark Ditman, who recently stepped into the role of interim Senior Associate Vice President for Infrastructure, Sustainability, and Services. I hope you’ll join me in thanking Kathy for her many successes at Rice and wishing her plenty of safe travels ahead. Please send your well wishes to Kathy at kjones@rice.edu.
All my best,
Kelly Fox, Vice President for Finance and Administration