Allison Holt
How does the UVA School of Medicine Office of Finance support faculty?
Allison Holt, Controller for the Office of Finance, answers that question and more.
This post is part of a series of interviews with faculty and staff who offer resources to SOM faculty. Stay tuned for more interviews with your colleagues!
Q: Can you tell us about how you work with department administrators to support faculty?
The finance team, which I lead, provides fiscal oversight and guidance to facilitate timely, accurate, transparent financial reporting and financial practices. This includes both preparation and analysis of monthly financial statements for the entire School of Medicine at a consolidated level, as well as ensuring departments are receiving and analyzing reports on their performance and then collecting the feedback from that, analyzing it, and reviewing it with leadership. We also work to develop efficient ways to manage money; we try to manage dollars so they’re the most flexible for future use. We coordinate the delivery of funds from the dean, the provost, the vice president for research, and the medical center related to funds flow for academic purposes. In short, we oversee the financial reporting processes and funds delivery, as well as finance policies to try and establish and drive best practices.
Q: There is a new gifts and endowments database for administrators. How does that work?
Yes, we really wanted to encourage departments to use their most restricted funds first, which tend to be gifts and endowments. Historically people would come to us and ask for information on gift or endowment purposes. However, the gift wasn’t given to the Dean’s office; it was given specifically to the department and often contains very complex and sometimes department-specific language regarding certain conditions or research areas. So our interpretation of the data wasn’t the best practice – we really wanted to get to a state where the people managing the funds could directly see the purpose of the funds.
Q: How long have you been at UVA and where were you before you came to UVA?
I’ve been in the Health System for fourteen years. First, I was at UPG, then worked for several clinical departments as an administrator, and then moved to the Dean’s office.
Q: Do you have any kids or fur babies at home that you’d like to tell us about?
I have an eight year old daughter. She’s in third grade. She’s wonderful! We like to go hiking and biking together as a family.
Q: Do you have a favorite local restaurant or hangout spot?
We really love Lime Leaf, which is a Thai restaurant north of town. We’ve been going there for a long time. We know the servers who work there, and they know us. When we’re not there for a while, they get concerned! It’s really quality food. It’s great.
Filed Under: Administrative Support Interviews, Interviews
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