by Barbara Wiedemann
Assistant Dean for Administration Joe DiConcilio joined the School in 2019 after having served the University in other administrative roles since 2001.
DiConcilio and his team are responsible for the facilities, finance, and human resources work that support the School’s mission. Together, they provide critical functions necessary to support groundbreaking research, nationally recognized teaching, and burgeoning community outreach efforts.
DiConcilio talked with us about how his team seeks to make the most efficient use of the School’s resources in alignment with the University’s Operational Excellence initiative.
The School’s workforce is growing as Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson puts new initiatives and opportunities in place. What does that mean from a human resources standpoint?
It means that HR Consultant Carolyn Adams is always working above-and-beyond. Remember: every time the School or one of our active centers, labs and institutes hires someone, it goes through Carolyn and her team. Since 2005, she has overseen HR for the School, and she did that with the help of HR Specialist Drew Lasater until 2022 when HR Specialist Jennifer Jean-Baptiste joined them. One of our recent efficiencies is that we took a retired accounting technician position and reclassified it, assigning it to HR. That allows us to provide additional support as we continue to grow as a School and advance initiatives to bring salaries, position and career growth in balance, in keeping with our goals to retain excellence at both the faculty and staff level.
In May, the School’s workforce was made up of 254 permanent and temporary faculty, staff and student workers. Every one of those people is backed by our HR team.
Another responsibility under your oversight is maintaining physical facilities and infrastructure and working to support and enhance campus safety. Give us an example of how that happens at the School.
Sam Deal joined the School as facilities manager in 2022. He maintains the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building and acts as SSW’s liaison with facilities and campus safety partners across Carolina. He has implemented improvements in two of what can be the most contentious topics on any campus: parking and office space allocation.
Visitors to what we affectionately call the TTK building used to jockey for passes which were manually logged and distributed on-site. Sam and IT Director Phil Kaufman investigated the possibility of issuing permits digitally and implemented a new system. Now, visitors contact a group of us directly via the sswparking@unc.edu email address to request a parking spot. We reserve spaces via a digital calendar that sends the requestor a printable pass. That has streamlined what was a cumbersome process.
Give us an overview of what is new in the world of space allocation.
In 2023, we formed a Space Planning Committee. That consists of four staff members, who call on the dean as needed. The charge is to develop best practices for how to use available space efficiently and equitably. That group assesses the needs of the community and looks at where offices are available. Juggling the “where” and “when” of available space is a complex conundrum. The committee is developing policies and procedures that allow for as fair and equitable a way forward as possible. We will implement some of those solutions this summer. This is one example of how we’re enhancing “compliance readiness” by aligning routine operations with suitable routine processes and procedures.
Can you give us another example of how the School has sought cost efficiencies while maintaining a supportive work environment?
After COVID struck in 2020, and the University began shifting to hybrid and remote work, we found that most of the office space we were leasing for one of our research groups was not being used. We made space in TTK for those who were not working from home. When we brought those colleagues back to TTK, we realized significant cost savings to both the School and the University.
Today, we are getting creative about the space that we have here on Pittsboro Street. We’re incorporating things we learned because of the pandemic about how effective many of us can be working from home. We’re taking into consideration how to best use concepts of shared space and office hoteling. We’re also looking at data about productivity and job satisfaction in order to be as nimble as possible.
How does Grants Manager Penny Hawkins’ team work to keep the School operating effectively?
At last check, total awards to the School’s principal investigators between July 2021 and mid-May 2023 totaled $34.5 million. Penny’s team includes Ruth Morgan, Nicolle Mynhier, Monica De Pietro, and part-time accounting support person Kim Whitfield. When I arrived at the School and recognized the high level of grant activity, I restructured the grants team to better meet those needs. Together, these five staff members help to facilitate the enormous success of our innovative social work researchers.
To that end, Penny’s group has developed new tracking methods for finance and accounting sharing agreements, FAQs related to the eCRT (effort certification) process, routing efficiencies for processes like the University’s travel records, changed the way primary award contact designees are handled, and worked with Associate Dean Sheryl Zimmerman and Research Associate Professor Steve Day to revise the proposal playbook used by faculty and staff alike.
How is the finance team optimizing the School’s success?
Accountant Diane Taylor and I work with budget managers to develop the most efficient use of available funds to meet the needs of the School, and Executive Assistant Cindy Justice is an integral supporter of that work. Diane works with Cindy and other executive assistants and program coordinators to track expenses in a timely way. We’ve been cleaning up accounts and revamping program codes to more closely track budgets. And for anyone who oversees or helps track a budget at the School, we have made that reporting digitally accessible wherever possible.
What are some other initiatives towards operational excellence in the academic year ahead?
We’re in the process of reworking the administrative structure of the School, with an eye to redistributing some of that work in support of existing departments and in our newly ramped-up Communications and Advancement teams and planned-for Office of Community Engagement and Outreach. We’ll continue to develop best practices in response to the needs of our colleagues. There is always room for improvement in enhancing the consistency and ease-of-use for policies and procedures related to travel, professional development, course buy-outs, and other key processes. Our goals of efficiency and effectiveness are guided by the desire to treat every situation equitably.
