Ryan Nesbit Remarks

Vice President Ryan Nesbit Remarks | May 14, 2025

Welcome from Ryan Nesbit, Vice President for Finance and Administration

Good morning and welcome to the 20th Annual Finance & Administration and University Human Resources Staff Recognition Ceremony.

My name is Ryan Nesbit, and I have the great privilege of serving as UGA’s Vice President for Finance and Administration.

On behalf of the Finance and Administration and University Human Resources Senior Leadership Teams, we are thrilled to host this special event here in Hodgson Hall once again.

Every year, we look forward to our recognition events and to celebrating the countless contributions you all make to the University on a daily basis.

We kicked off this week of appreciation on Monday with the UGA-wide staff luncheon at Stegeman Coliseum, hosted by the President’s Office.

And yesterday, F&A and UHR staff took a cruise through time at our annual ice cream social, featuring a classic car show in honor of 20 years of our recognition events.

I hope you were able to attend both events, connect with colleagues, and enjoy a well-earned “thank you” for everything you’ve contributed—both individually and as a team—over the past year

Among our audience today, a multitude of skills and critical roles are represented, each one unique and extraordinarily essential, valuable, and deeply appreciated.

And while these many roles and responsibilities may seem unrelated at first glance, when we consider everyone’s contributions together, the larger picture comes into focus.

Every F&A and UHR team member is working toward the same mission: to support and elevate the University of Georgia by providing exceptional service and stewardship of its human, financial, and physical resources.

The work done by our teams literally reaches every corner of UGA – and beyond —and we have some great stories to share about that a little later.

You show up, you invest in this great institution, and you help the entire UGA community achieve the success and the excellence we all aspire to achieve.

Today and every day, I want to express my sincere gratitude for all of you, for the decades of service you have invested in this University, and for the incredible ways you routinely go above and beyond to ensure the job gets done, and gets done well.

So thank you all for your outstanding teamwork and leadership, and for being here today to celebrate your extraordinary accomplishments with one another.

Now, before we continue, I would like to introduce the F&A Senior Leadership Team members who join me in honoring you today. So I’m gonna ask them to stand when I call their names, and remain standing, so we can recognize them:

• James Shore, our Senior Associate Vice President and Budget Director;
• Brett Jackson, our Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services;
• John McCollum, our Associate Vice President for Environmental Safety – this is John’s last recognition ceremony as our AVP – he will be retiring on June 30th after 16 years of service at UGA and over 40 to our State – so please join me in thanking John for his extraordinary service
• Next is Clayton Wilcox, our Interim Associate Vice President for Facilities Management;
• Gwynne Darden, our Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning;
• Chad Cleveland, our Associate Vice President for Finance;
• Dr. Dan Silk, our Associate Vice President for Public Safety;
• Dr. Roswell Lawrence, Junior, our Assistant Vice President and Chief of Staff,
• Krista Coleman-Silvers, our Assistant Vice President and Director of Space Planning and Management;
• Jeff Clark, our Chief of Police;
• Eric Orbock, our Director of Real Estate and Executive Director of the UGA Real Estate Foundation; and
• Adam Fouche, our Executive Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Insurance and Claims Management.

We also have 2 Special Projects Advisors who serve part-time with our leadership team who you may know and recognize:

They are Holley Schramski and Jimmy Williamson.

Jimmy was unable to be with us today, but he sends his congratulations to everyone who is being recognized.

So please join me in thanking these teammates for their outstanding leadership and service.

We’ve had many conversations around metrics and milestones this year—especially as F&A and UHR launched a joint data strategy initiative to better understand and elevate the impact of our work across the University.

And while numbers can never tell the whole story, they do help illustrate the scale of what we have accomplished, thanks to your dedication, and the efforts of teammates who couldn’t be here this morning.

Here are just a few examples of the incredible work our F&A teams have done from July 2023 through June 2024:

• Transportation & Parking Services transported more than 2.9 million passengers, keeping our campus connected and accessible.
• Dining Services served approximately 25,000 meals daily and sold over 13,800 meal plans, helping support student success.
• The UGA Bookstore generated $15.7 million in sales, and the Golf Course hosted over 48,000 rounds of golf.

On the facilities and sustainability front:

• FMD completed more than 44,000 maintenance work orders and oversaw 151 construction projects.
• Our team members planted 115 new trees and achieved $1.65 million in utility cost savings through energy efficiency efforts.
• More than 646 tons of recycling were processed, supporting UGA’s sustainability commitment and goals.

Our financial teams also had a tremendous year:

• The Bursar’s Office disbursed over $280 million in scholarships to nearly 30,000 students.
• Payroll processed more than $1.06 billion in gross pay for UGA’s workforce.
• Procurement issued nearly 100,000 purchase orders, totaling over $430 million.

In the areas of public safety and emergency preparedness:

• The UGA Police Department completed over 13,000 hours of training and handled more than 600 criminal investigations.
• The UGA Safe app saw over 16,000 new downloads, and nearly 10,000 fire extinguishers were inspected across campus.

And in support of campus growth and infrastructure:

• The Office of University Architects managed 164 construction projects totaling over $890 million, including the major transformations of the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building and the former Chemistry Building.
• And by this fall, more than 1,300 new parking spaces will be available across campus.

These achievements represent just a fraction of what you’ve made possible—and they’re a direct result of your dedication, expertise, and the collaboration that happens across every division.

Again, this is just a very small sampling so I encourage you to look at pages 15 through 22 of your program to get a better idea of the incredible impact you all have had this past fiscal year.

These achievements also wouldn’t be possible without the very strong and continued partnership we share with our teammates in University Human Resources.

With that, I’d like to invite my colleague and co-host for today’s celebration to the stage.

Please join me in welcoming Vice President for University Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer, Dr. Juanita Hicks.

Ryan’s Closing Remarks:

Thank you, Katherine and Frederic, and congratulations again to all our Merit Award finalists and recipients, as well as our Outstanding Teams.

Every year, the number of nominations we receive continues to grow, which is a reflection of how much we value and appreciate one another across F&A and UHR.

I want to express a special thanks to everyone who took the time to submit a nomination this year. Your efforts to recognize your teammates are an important part of what makes our culture so strong.

As you move through your day-to-day responsibilities, I encourage you to continue uplifting one another. Recognition and appreciation doesn’t have to wait for an annual event—it can and should be a part of how we work together each and every day.

As we wrap up today’s ceremony, I want to take a moment to reflect on what this year’s celebration represents.

2025 marks 20 years of F&A and UHR formally recognizing our incredible staff through these events. It’s a milestone that reminds us just how far we’ve come—and how committed we’ve remained to honoring the people who keep this University running – each and every one of you.

From our very first ceremony two decades ago to this week’s “Cruising through the Years” celebration, one thing has remained constant: our people are the heart of this institution.

The work you do may take different forms—from finance to facilities, dining to data, recruitment to retirement—but together, your efforts form the foundation of what UGA is able to accomplish.

And while the roles we play may often be behind the scenes, the impact is front and center.

So today, whether you were recognized for five years or 35, or nominated by your peers for a special award, I hope you take pride in what you’ve contributed, not just over the past year, but over the course of your time at UGA. Your dedication is what makes this community strong, year after year.

I also want to take a moment to thank the Recognition Committee for their leadership in bringing this week’s events to life, along with the many teams who helped make it all happen:

UHR, FMD, our Dining team, Transportation & Parking Services, Bulldog Print + Design, Mail and Receiving Services, the Bookstore, the F&A Staff Representative Group, the New to F&A Day Committee, the Culture and Belonging Committee, and the Elevation in Action Group.

Special thanks also go to the Performing Arts Center, Campus Reservations, the Office of Special Events, the President’s Office, and Rec Sports.

Let’s show our appreciation to all of these teams.

Before we go, just a few quick reminders:

• The celebration continues outside! We invite you to join us immediately following this ceremony for a reception just outside the hall.
• I also encourage you to stop by the University Bookstore any time today through 6 p.m. for refreshments, prizes, and a 30% discount exclusive to F&A and UHR staff—valid through May 31.
• If you were recognized for a 5-, 10-, 15-, or 20-year milestone, your certificate will be delivered to your department. Please check in with your Recognition Committee representative.
• And if you were a stage honoree or merit award finalist, we invite you to stay for a few minutes after the ceremony and come up on stage for an additional photo with your AVP if you’d like.

That concludes our program. Thank you all again for being here this morning, and for everything you do to support Finance & Administration, University Human Resources, and the University of Georgia.

Here’s to 20 years of recognition and many more to come.

And as always—Go Dawgs!