Virginia Garner Email & Phone Number

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Advise senior academic leadership on budgetary and operational nuances. Develops cost-benefit analysis for state proposals. Models staffing, course loads, and operational costs against revenues to advise deans and provost teams on standing up new programs. Anticipates and responds to functional needs by connecting stakeholders and assembling teams of subject matter experts, college leaders, and data analysts to recommend solutions and tools for far-reaching problems. Provides consultation for strategic planning, organizational assessments, and benchmarking. Navigates multiple campus change initiatives, represents the provost office at campus meetings and provides leadership to sub-units and new executive-level leaders for whom I provide mentorship. Current change initiatives include a new ERP, payroll, travel, and contracting systems; budget request process and supporting software; international travel/research, Saas, and SalesForce implementations. Develops campus-level service agreement practices to align current functions to new systems. Negotiates and drafts external contractual agreements with external stakeholders and partners.

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Chief fiscal, HR, and operations officer for the college. Developed and implemented college-level state allocations for the new campus budget model. Provided direction and supervision for financial analysts and accounting staff. Oversight of research, policy, and legal compliance. Provided dean, associate deans, and directors guidance in budget strategy and operations management. Developed measures to ensure a balanced year-end budget through shared governance and central oversight of all business, fiscal, and human resources activity. Worked closely with the dean and campus stakeholders to develop a plan to address attrition and operational inefficiencies. Represented the college in a leadership capacity to central administration, vice provosts and chancellors, human resources, budget and finance, and research offices. Provided direction and supervision for analysts and accounting staff. Indirect financial accountability for all employees within the college.

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Promoted centrally to help mitigate financial impacts, reduction-in-force, and realign roles affected by the pandemic. Worked closely with vice provosts to understand program-specific financial, staffing, and compliance needs to establish change strategies that revitalize program health. Evaluated the pandemic's impacts on international programs and guided leaders through mass attrition. Developed and implemented new state appropriation budget sub-units. Identified process weaknesses and implemented practices that improved accountability and transparency, allowing remote work to be more independent while supporting cross-functional team communication.Implementation of updated approvals and workflows to allow for remote work. Track departmental budget uses to ensure funds allocation to appropriate resources. Review and approve expenditures for compliance with timely disbursement of accurate payments. Collaborate with financial leadership to perform internal audits and investigate discrepancies to ensure human resources and fiscal compliance.Analyze financial frameworks to develop plans to recover from attrition due to COVID with steady financial standing and modernize workflows using Lean methodology and input from stakeholders.

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Chief fiscal, HR, and operations officer for the college. Developed and Implemented the college portion of the new campus budget model while also managing concurrent roles at the provost level. With no historical context and tight timelines, I developed a strategy to analyze existing data using new metrics to model future allocations. Proposed high-level, immediate impact practices to align new academic and budget leadership with college and campus long-range objectives to better function within a decentralized campus structure.

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Fiscal officer for five departments, responsible for oversight of daily business operations and marketing of independent unit. Developed budget proposal and tracking process to ease the transition to new ERP and campus budget model. Reorganized roles and functions using cloud services that increased transparency and capacity and lowered programming costs. Provided leadership in developing operational, marketing, HR, and financial processes by creating a new department from preexisting, under-funded, and understaffed offices. Designed program funding structures to align risk with revenue sources and ensure program sustainability and compliance. Responded to attrition by developing employee retention programs comprising comprehensive guided onboarding, peer mentoring, and coaching of subordinates to navigate complex landscapes. Set the scope of work, delegated projects, and staggered schedules to develop critical thinking skills among entry-level roles. Supervised administrative and marketing staff. Implemented competitive and equitable salary structures to enhance recruitment and retention. Employed cross-functional teams and web-based technology to develop internal procedures and raise awareness of roles, increasing respect among colleagues. Recommended professional development expectations and provided fiscal policy guidance to VP, AVP, Directors, and new Provost Staff to help them navigate the complex field responsibly and independently.

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Fiscal, operations, and HR officer for the college. Maintained accuracy and accountability in financial processes—consulted with dean, directors, faculty, and staff to navigate complicated campus procedures while moving from a centralized to a decentralized customer service model to support student experience and cross-training. Developed college state appropriation budgets. Managed expenditures and state-allocated budget, tuition revenue, gifts, endowments, and campus initiative funds. Approved all transactions and streamlined communication for three college campus locations (Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis) and campus/state offices. Provided guidance for staff and directors on GAAP, policy, and compliance. Improved financial practices and maintained detailed financial data used in budget forecasts. Managed the opening and closing of state and research funds. Supported research function by liaising with campus compliance offices on behalf of principal investigators. Subject matter expert (SME) for all financial transactions. Associated and provided context to the new budget director, informing my first comprehensive change management effort, which brought the college into compliance with financial, human resources, and operational concerns.

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Collected, compiled, and organized faculty engagement data for regional and national accreditations. Managed faculty retention, promotion, and tenure process. Maintained and analyzed vital financial data to generate budget and cost forecasts. Coordinated fundraising and special community events. Managed marketing and communications, SEO, and social media; developed strategy to increase engagement with prospective students through storytelling, which resulted in multi-million dollar gifts and bequests. Managed dean’s office travel, procurement, internal audits, and payments. Planned and executed all official, public, alums, and student-facing events.

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Knoxville, Tn, Us

Master Of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Business & Global Affairs, Concentration On Banking & Finance Administration

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Behavioral Sciences, Concentration In Business Psychology

Education record