Dear Campus Community,
I am happy to announce the appointment of Amber Blakeslee as UC Santa Cruz’s next associate vice chancellor for budget analysis and planning. She will begin her position on June 24.
Blakeslee has 20 years of experience in budget and financial management. She is currently serving as the executive director of budget & financial planning at California State Polytechnic University (Cal Poly), Humboldt, where she has been part of the budget and finance office for 15 years. Blakeslee has been a member of Cal Poly Humboldt’s team transitioning the university into the third polytechnic campus in the California State University, and first in northern California. As part of that team, Blakeslee co-led the financial planning efforts related to multi-year financial planning and reporting. She serves on a number of campus committees focused on budget planning, strategic planning, campus physical planning, accreditation, and inclusive student success. Blakeslee has a master’s degree in public administration from the California State University, San Bernardino and a bachelor’s of science in business administration from Loyola Marymount University.
The Budget Analysis and Planning office plays a critical role in supporting leadership and the campus in areas of academic and institutional resources, financial and budgetary policy and planning, fiscal administration and information services.
Blakeslee will play a key role in campus-wide budget activities, identifying and recommending allocation of resources necessary for UC Santa Cruz to excel as a major research university, and data management services that translate and integrate data into information for use in analysis for campus decision making and in optimizing business processes.
I am grateful to Kimberly Register, who has served as AVC for budget analysis and planning for two-and-a-half years. Along with her budgetary duties, Kimberly led campus efforts to define an annual budget and funding allocation process for academic divisions, helped shepherd the campus through the pandemic's extraordinary impacts, and took initiative to modernize data management practices. She also served on the Implementation Task Force for Inclusive Excellence in Graduate Education Steering Committee as the co-chair of the Graduate Education Funding and Student Financial Support subcommittee.
I want to thank the selection committee members and Biju Kamaleswaran, associate vice chancellor/campus controller, who chaired the search committee.
Sincerely,
Ed
Ed Reiskin
Chief Financial Officer & Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations, and Administration
