Keynote Speaker:

Lisa Kopecky | Bio

Lisa offers a broad range of skills gained from nearly a four-decade career that spans private industry, a small private college, a large public university and a community college. With many years of experience working at the senior administrative level on both the academic and financial/operational sides of an institution has enabled her to see the challenges and perspectives important to faculty, staff, students and administration.

She recently rounded out her career as Vice President for Finance and Operations at Cape Cod Community College. Overseeing finance, facilities, the auxiliaries and college police, improving data consistency and reporting, filling funding gaps and implementing short and long-term deferred maintenance plans and facility improvements that included completion of a major accessibility improvement project and strategic design for a new Science and Engineering building was the primary focus. Before that she served as Assistant Vice President for Academic Operations and Finance at California State University Fullerton (CSUF). During her 17 years there she was the Academic Affairs division manager for fiscal, facility and operational resources for 150 departments serving more than 40,000 students.

Over her 30-year academic career, Lisa gained first-hand knowledge of the many facets of an academic institution. This includes but is not limited to strategic planning, student success and other innovative initiatives, budget development and management, fiscal and facility analysis, academic operations, procurement, agreement development and oversight, facility use and improvement planning, internal controls, grants oversight, information security, human resource and pay processes, and more.

She began her career at the Corporate Credit Union League of NY specializing in cash management and new product analysis, and traveled the state to establish banking relationships between state credit unions and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Working in the banking industry, she progressed to Vice President/Director of Marketing for southeastern Connecticut’s largest bank. Lisa then joined Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where, during her 10 years there, she rose to serve at the right hand of the Provost as Director of Academic Operations and Summer Session and one of the four Cabinet members.

Her successes have included working effectively in a collective bargaining environment, streamlining operations and access to fiscal, human resources and other information through design and implementation of workflow and online reporting tools; developing and implementing systems and processes for improving budgeting processes and optimizing use of funds while maintaining internal controls. She orchestrated the largest renovation and relocation project in CSUF history with more than 750 offices and 78,000 square feet involved and has provided direction to hundreds of classroom and facilities improvement projects, of varying size and complexity. She has worked closely with accreditation teams, program development and delivery and performance metrics.

Lisa earned her B.S.B.A. in marketing/communications from Bryant University and her M.B.A. from WPI. She has worked closely with students and student success teams and has delivered workshops focusing on new program development and pricing, program economics and space planning and use for Academic Impressions, NACUBO and the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). In 2019 she was selected by her peers to serve as the first female chair of the Massachusetts Community College Vice Presidents and CFO’s consortium.

Questions?

Contact Michelle Taylor at michelletaylor@jccc.edu or 913-469-3831.