Do you know what Education Partnerships does? What about Institutional Research?

If you want to find out more about what goes on in a UCOP department, division or building other than your own — or even more about your own department — you’ll be interested in the new Lunch and Learn series of talks, kicking off this Friday, July 18, with a talk by John Valva, executive director of Alumni and Constituent Affairs.

Executive Director of Alumni and Constituent Affairs John Valva will kick off the series on Friday, July 18, 12 to 1 p.m. in Franklin Lobby 1.

The monthly series is designed for the internal UCOP community to hear directly from department leaders about who they are, what they do and why. In last week’s Efficiency Review update, President Napolitano called it a “silo-busting speaker series” that can help us be more efficient by learning “as much as possible about what our colleagues do and how we can help them.”

The brainchild of former Chief Financial Officer Peter Taylor and former CFO Chief of Staff Maria Anguiano, the series was designed to provide a greater working understanding of the roles, responsibilities and challenges faced by sister departments, divisions and colleagues within UCOP. It was started in 2010, specifically for CFO staff, but will now be open to the entire UCOP community.

It’s an entertaining way to learn about how all of OP’s departments and divisions interact to support the UC missions of education, research and public service, said Business Resource Center (BRC) Director Amal Smith, who, as a member of the CFO Division, has attended regularly.

“You learn about what OP does as a whole,” Smith said, “and the speakers put a face and a personality on the work they do.” This is especially helpful for employees who are operationally focused and don’t have much opportunity to interact across departments, she added. “Then, when it was BRC’s turn to present,” Smith added, “we got a chance to showcase our own work.”

Presentations take place from 12 to 1 p.m. in Lobby 1 Conference Room and allow time for questions from the audience. Here’s the lineup of 2014 speakers (click on date to add event to your Outlook calendar):

• Friday, July 18: John Valva, Executive Director, Alumni and Constituent Affairs
• Wednesday, Aug. 20: Judy Sakaki, Vice President, Student Affairs
• Tuesday, Sept. 23: Tom Andriola, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Information Technology Services
• Wednesday, Oct. 15: Karen Petrulakis, Chief Deputy General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel, Litigation
• Tuesday, Nov. 18: Ellen Lorenz, Director, Retirement Administration Service Center
• Thursday, Dec. 4: Seth Grossman, Chief of Staff, President’s Immediate Office

If you have ideas for next year’s speakers, contact Cathy O’Sullivan at Cathy.OSullivan@ucop.edu.

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