Q&A by Ben Mundy

How would you describe where your department sits within the UC Davis ecosystem?

We are the HR Applications team, which sits under TADA, the HR technical and data analytics team, supporting the various units within HR. Our team provides the operational support of the applications that the HR teams utilize, whether it is ELR, talent acquisition, compensation, ASAP, etc. There are several different applications that we support and work with the teams on, primarily to enhance the system so that it works better for the client.

I love that our team knows so much about the data in these systems and how a lot of it intersects. I think that is unique to our team because of the history each of us has with UC Davis. Quite a few of our applications consume UC Path data so we must understand where that data comes from in UCPath for it to feed these systems accurately. But each system consumes it differently. I think our team's amazing. Each of my 6 analysts are so unique and bring a lot of strong skills, and sense of fun to our group!

You did your undergraduate at Ohio State and master’s at Oklahoma.  Starting a career in HR, did you sense that the field would evolve to utilize more technology?

During my college days, I did not plan to go into HR, and I did not plan to have an IT focus.  I started my career doing training support and development for an IT department in Texas, which led to a recruiting role. That gave me the foundation to land an HR generalist role for a US Air Force contracting company when my husband and I lived in Germany for three years. I never set foot on the Oklahoma campus! I was able to do my Master’s while living and working oversees. My generalist role there was supporting supervisors and employees who worked on the Air Force contract.  My employees were primarily in the UK, Bosnia, Italy, and Germany.  It was fantastic. After that we moved to California, and I joined UC Davis in a similar role as an HR analyst with Continuing and Professional Education.

That is a big department.

A fantastic department. I had such a good 10 years with them. My time at UC Davis began 20 years ago in the Admin Services West building at Research Park. When I transferred to the UC Path project, I relocated to the building next door. While on the UC Path project, things became a bit more technical, doing the business systems analyst piece of supporting the HR module of UC Path. Then the pandemic hit, and I ended up at home working out of my RV.  When the UC Path project dissolved, it made sense for my position to move to HR, and ironically back into the very same building I started in 20 years ago!  Quite a circle it’s been.

Does your department have its own development team? Or do you collaborate with developers for each system under your portfolio?

We have applications that have been homegrown by UC Davis and work with our partners and programmers in Admin IT. We have a fantastic programmer there that we partner with quite frequently for enhancements, defects, and issues with the systems they support.  Job Builder however is vendor supported.  We partner with UCOP directly for defects and enhancements that might then be escalated to the vendor.  TAM and ePerformance are supported by UC Path Center (UCPC). They have programmers and developers that have their specific niche of knowledge who we reach out to for support on defects and enhancements.

You have a team of niche specialists with a high level of expertise. How would you describe your team culture and your leadership philosophy?

I love collaboration, and we learn and grow as we collaborate with each other and other teams. I have some people on my team who are go getters in terms of wanting to be plugged in with UC Davis and other teams. It is fantastic to hear conversations and relationships that happen outside of our team that they bring back and share so we can all learn.   

To me what’s first and foremost is to see my team succeed as they troubleshoot issues.  I think our team is good at that because we know so much of the data and the intersections of these different applications. It becomes important for us to collaborate when there is an issue, for example what happens in Job Builder with a position description may then affect TAM related to the job posting, and another analyst can help suggest paths to research.  My team is strong at supporting each other in these ways.

At one point in your career did you work for someone you now try to emulate? Or have you always just been Valerie and you created your own concept of leadership?

I love connecting with different people, being in different meetings, seeing different leaders lead, and watching different presenters because there's always tidbits to learn and take away.  And analyze why something was successful. Why were they good at portraying and communicating that?  It can work the other way as well when you feel something wasn’t effective. This can be the difference with whether you jump onboard or not, or if it motivates you.

I once read a quote that stuck with me: “it's easy to find the dirt in people, but it's so much more rewarding to find the gold.”

I am a visual learner and communicator.  As a business analyst throughout my career, I found that if there is a complex or challenging issue, a visual is key to helping bring everyone onto the same page.  We could talk about an issue with data or an application for five-plus meetings yet still be on a different page. But if we can get an effective visual together, to really share what is happening, it brings us all to the same point in time to form a good foundation to then start the problem-solving discussions. I try to really encourage my team to create more visuals as they work through issues.

Is there something UC Davis that you are involved in that you're proud of?

I think honestly what I am most proud of is the team I have and helping them succeed. When my team learns, grows, succeeds, and we get something right, as a manager that is the most valuable thing I could walk away with.

What would you like your legacy to be?

That of being a positive leader people can learn and collaborate with.  For me it is not winning something or necessarily succeeding at one project or another, but rather valuing relationships over anything else. This is what matters when you are up against a challenge between teams, and you have got to really dig into the details. I want to walk away from having formed some good, positive relationships.