Announcing Staff Changes

Campus Controller’s Office

• We are excited to announce three grant accounting managers starting in March: Congratulations and welcome to Jesse Hinton (promoted from senior grant accountant), Adam Finefrock and Zahid Ashrafi (welcome back!).
• Congratulations to Rebecca Meredith who has been promoted to intermediate grant accountant.
• Please join us in welcoming two new grant accountants who started in February: Joan Baron Kopp and Nick Eberle-Taylor.
• Welcome back to Liz Kollipara as a senior revenue management grant accountant.
• We wish a fond farewell to Michael Ruybal and Alaina Disterlic. We thank Michael for his thoughtful contributions to both the RFS and Debt and Asset Management teams over the past several years. As a property accounting specialist, Alaina worked closely with campus partners and enhanced our equipment inventory procedures.You both will be missed!

• Please join us in welcoming two new grant accountants: Joan Baron Kopp and Nick Eberle-Taylor.
• Welcome back to Liz Kollipara as a senior revenue management grant accountant.

• Join us in welcoming Monica Ruiz, campus accountant, to the campus accounting team. Monica relocated from Florida to join us and has a solid background in accounting and customer service, which is an excellent fit for campus accounting!
• We wish a fond farewell to Sondra Payne on the campus accounting team.
• Welcome Janet Ianni, associate director of research financial services. Janet brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our institution with an extensive background in research and grants. She is committed to fostering collaboration and well-positioned to oversee our research projects while strategically navigating the complexities of grant management.

Campus Controller’s Office

• Join us in welcoming Joseph Ledesma, grant accountant intern, and Amber Paterson, grant accountant, to the Research Financial Services team.
• We are thrilled to announce the following promotions in Research Financial Services: Evan Blaisdell to research compliance and financial reporting manager and Amanda Genevie to intermediate grant accountant.
• We wish a fond farewell to Kaitlyn McCrudden on the campus accounting team and Jason Hopkins in Research Financial Services.

Budget and Fiscal Planning

We are happy to announce the promotions of several members of our team. Congratulations to Margaret Cummings on her advancement to senior budget analyst, Jeanette Gaydos on her promotion to budget analyst II, Venessa Ortega on her elevation to director of budget administration, and Hanna Webster on her promotion to budget analyst II. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and look forward to their continued leadership and expertise in their new roles.

Campus Controller’s Office

Please join us in welcoming Chaz DeHerrera to the RFS grant accounting team! Chaz comes to us from Engineers Without Borders where she was working as an accountant for over 10 years. She will be supporting a variety of federal and nonfederal sponsors as part of her portfolio.

We are also excited to announce that Addie Fleegel and Nick Liebman joined our team as new grant accountants within RFS. Addie (grant accountant) will be supporting the “University Of” sponsor desk, and Nick Liebman (senior grant accountant) will be supporting the National Science Foundation desk. 

We would like to welcome Matt Jagoda, cost accounting manager, to our team! Matt enjoys hiking and robust, technically complex spreadsheets. 

We would also like to wish Clark Brown and Kat Ogier a fond farewell. Clark Brown started a new position with LASP and Kat is spending more time with her family and new baby. We wish them success in their future pursuits!

Campus Controller’s Office

Please join us in saying farewell to Lauren Stockwell who has taken on a new role within CIRES as finance manager and post-award specialist. Lauren joined the RFS team as the revenue management supervisor nearly two years ago and created strong relationships with our campus departments. She made an incredible impact on our collections procedures and ability to understand our outstanding accounts receivable. We wish her good luck in her new role!

Campus Controller’s Office

• Join us in welcoming Jason Hopkins to the grant accounting team. He will be handling a portion of the National Science Foundation (NSF) portfolio as an intermediate grant accountant.
• Join us in congratulating Jesse Hinton on his promotion to senior grant accountant. He previously managed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) desk and has moved over to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) desk.
• A fond farewell to Katya Mironova and Andrew Norman. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors

Campus Controller’s Office

Please join us in wishing Sutha Thanikasalam a fond farewell. As a senior grant accountant, Sutha adeptly managed one of our two National Science Foundation desks with grace and accuracy. We wish her all the best on her move to California!

Madison Castillo’s last day was July 3. She had been with RFS for nearly one year. We are grateful for her time here and wish her the best moving forward

Campus Controller’s Office

Please join us in congratulating Teagan Quintana, former closeout intern, on his promotion to grant accountant, beginning on July 1. Also, join us in welcoming Nick Eberle-Taylor who began as a grant accountant intern on June 26. 

We bid farewell to Angelina Geerts and Curran Moffitt as they pursue new opportunities. Angelina’s last day was June 5 and Curran’s last day was June 2.

Campus Controller’s Office

Clark Brown transitioned from his position as an intermediate grant accountant to become the grant accountant supervisor for the non-federal team on May 10. In his previous role, Clark managed select National Science Foundation (NSF) Orgs, which consist of approximately half of the CU Boulder NSF funding. We look forward to Clark taking on this new leadership role and are excited to see him continue to grow within our team. Congratulations, Clark!

Katya Mironova joined the team on May 10 and will be the supervisor of our federal team. Katya joins us with nearly ten years of leadership and training experience that includes work in clinical trials, financial management and analysis, and contract management. She is an avid lover of art, has a strong interest in historical architecture, and has master’s degrees from universities in both Russia and the UK. We are looking forward to welcoming her to CU Boulder in a couple of weeks!

Campus Controller’s Office

• Please join us in welcoming three new grant accountants: Amanda Genevie, Shahzain Bhatti and Rebecca Meredith.
• Please join us in congratulating Stephanie Rosario on her new role as assistant director of research facilitation in the research support office at the College of Engineering. We appreciate Stephanie’s contribution to RFS over the last eight years and we wish her the best!
• Please join us in congratulating Liz Kollipara who will be working for the Computer Science department as a senior finance and accounting professional. Her last day in CCO will be May 5.
• We bid farewell to Zahid Ashrafi who has been a critical member of RFS since December 2014. His last day in CCO is April 14.
• Liz Spencer has been with CCO for over 11 years and has made countless significant contributions to the team and campus during her time here. We are excited for her as she embarks on her new adventure! Her last day in CCO is April 14.
• Eddie Castillo managed our cost share monitoring processes. We appreciate his contributions to our team and wish him well. His last day in CCO is April 26.
• Annie Soho’s last day with RFS is April 28. Annie has been with our team for 1.5 years and is leaving to pursue an opportunity to work as an EMT. We’re very excited for her in this career change. 

Campus Controller’s Office

• Please join us in welcoming Terry Krieger as our new revenue management accountant.
• Please join us in welcoming Omar Robledo and Madison Castillo to the grant accounting team. Omar joins us from Phoenix, Arizona where he worked in invoicing and accounting. Madison was promoted from the closeout intern team.
• Please join us in congratulating Mike Ruybal for his promotion to debt and asset manager. Mike will be transiting from the research financial services (RFS) team to the debt and asset team over the next several weeks and his last official day with the RFS team will be Friday, April 14.

Campus Controller’s Office

• We wish Karina Provost a fond farewell as she transitions to a new role at LASP as a financial analyst on the grants team. Karina was a dedicated, supportive grant accountant supervisor within CCO. She led one of the federal teams responsible for the oversight of some of our major sponsors such as NASA, DOE, DOD and State of Colorado agencies. We are grateful that Karina will remain a part of the CU research community!
• We bid farewell to an esteemed member of the grant accounting team, Elizabeth Achulo. She was a valuable member of CCO for over six years, first as part of the compliance team and then as part of the  research financial services team. We wish her all the best in her new role at the Colorado School of Mines.
• Please join us in congratulating Leila McCamey on an excellent career opportunity with the University of Northern Colorado as their new AVP of Finance. Leila has been with the Campus Controller’s Office for over 18 years, serving in various roles, including grant accountant, general accounting customer support manager, and deputy controller. Leila has led the CCO training initiative which most recently included the executive and research onboarding programs. We appreciate her service to CCO and the Boulder campus!
• Please join us in welcoming two new grant accountant interns: Lisa Timm and Julie Loose!

Campus Controller’s Office

• Please join us in welcoming Sheri Valashinas as our new director of financial systems and reporting! Sheri has a broad range of financial reporting, analysis and strategic management experience. She joins us from Florida where she most recently worked as a manager for operations and statutory reporting.

Campus Controller’s Office

• Please join us in wishing Valeria Chavez-Fernandez the best of luck in her new position as a senior financial analyst with CU's Office of Information Technology! Valeria joined Research Financial Services as a grant accountant in March 2022 and handled the complex NIH workload. Please contact Stephanie Rosario with any questions related to NIH until we fill her position.
• Please join us in welcoming Russell Jeans and Curran Moffit to the campus accounting team.
  • Russ is our new director of campus accounting overseeing campus accounting, cost accounting, and debt and asset management. He has served in leadership roles for audit and corporate accounting, has taught courses on auditing and has worked internationally.
  • Curran is our new fiscal compliance analyst. He is a CPA and comes to us from the public accounting sphere.

Budget & Fiscal Planning

• Alex La Rotta joined BFP as our new senior financial analyst for Capital Finance. Alex has a finance degree from the University of Georgia and is coming to CU from the private sector’s life sciences industry.

Campus Controller’s Office

We are excited to welcome Teagan Quintana, our newest grant accountant intern, and Glen Niccore, who is our newest grant accountant. 

This November, we’ve said goodbye to Fitra Simmons, Andy Settle, Kritima Sainju, Mauricio Arevalo, and Valerie Hasbrook. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors!

• Fitra Simmons began as a closeout accountant intern in October 2018 before joining the revenue management team one year later. We will miss her dedication and expertise. We wish her all the best in her new position with the city of Denver.
• We congratulate Andy Settle on his move to the BioTec building working for the ChemBio department. Andy has twice worked for CCO, this last time as our property accounting specialist beginning April of 2018. He was instrumental in implementing our current inventory tracking tool.
• Kritima Sainju started with us back in 2019 as a financial analyst intern. She became a grant accountant right before we started working remotely in February 2020. Kritima helped the team progress through some challenging times and always approached her work with enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn.
• Mauricio Arevalo joined us as a grant accountant intern in February 2022. He leaves us to be a budget and finance analyst for the Leeds School of Business.
• Valerie Hasbrook has been with CCO for the past two years. She will be starting a new position with the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering here at CU Boulder. 

Budget & Fiscal Planning

As the Financial Futures initiative moves into its final phase, ongoing projects and project support will be integrated into existing campus processes and structures, including the new campus budget model. To support the work that is transitioning from the Financial Futures Transformation Team to the BFP office, including business case support and funding assessment, we are excited to welcome Teddy Niedermaier back to BFP. Brian Danielson, a senior business analyst in the Business Strategy office, will also support BFP in these efforts. Teddy’s and Brian’s expertise in budget development and analysis will allow our office to provide better support for new budget development and review.

We have no staffing changes to announce this month, but we would like to congratulate Liz Kollipara in the Campus Controller’s Office. Liz received the University of Colorado Boulder Police Department Group Award for Finance Operations on Friday, September 9, 2022. Her dedication, self-sacrifice, and desire to serve others within our campus community make our community better and serve to inspire others to do the same.