Introducing UVAFinance is a recurring blog feature created to introduce our team to our team, a couple of members at a time. Every other week, we'll present readers with two team members to get to know. To understand how these colleagues are situated within the greater UVAFinance structure, check out this resource on the UVAFinance website. (Keep in mind that it's not an org chart, but rather a map of what functions of central finance exist in which general areas.)
Let's go!
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Jennifer Godden, Travel & Expense Card Administrator
Jennifer Godden
What do you do as a Travel & Expense Card Administrator?
I oversee the functions of the University’s Travel & Expense Card program, which includes administrative tasks and customer service. I assist cardholders with applying for a card, making changes to their card, and helping with card-related expense and purchase questions. I also make card limit increases, keep up our card database and records, work with Bank of America, and oversee the annual T&E Card Training.
Who do you work with regularly?
I work with all cardholders, so, honestly, I work with everyone. I also work closely with my team members in Travel and Expense. To maintain our database, I work with the Business Systems Support Team, and the Training Team helps me with creating and improving the annual card training.
What seasons are busiest, or what rhythms exist in your job?
Annual Card training is a big marker in my year, and it’s not only in February. I start reviewing the training in November, then make sure all card records are up to date, clearing up inactive cardholders as much as possible. There’s a lot of work involved in getting things where they need to be before training starts. Once training begins in February, it’s non-stop, all hands on deck; I’m living and breathing cardholder training! Outside of training season, it comes in waves along with the purchasing trends at UVA: it’s slower in the winter when people aren’t traveling as much, and there are times of the year when more expenses occur.
What might surprise people about the work you do/this role/your department or area?
For one, what goes into the T&E Card training. Another thing is how far spread the card program is: it touches all departments. We have 2500 cards out there! This means I could be working with anyone at any time, and the situations they encounter using their cards are vastly different (think of faculty who go to remote places to do their research).
What do you like best about working in UVAFinance?
I like the way that I truly feel connected as part of the team. I see myself as a part of Finance and as a part of our processes. I feel cared for as a person because, on this team, we have flexibility and work/life balance. Even though UVAFinance has faced challenges over the last few years with the shift to hybrid work, I still feel connected to the organization.
How do you connect your work with the UVA Finance Values?
Annual Card training is a big marker in my year, and it’s not only in February. I start reviewing the training in November, then make sure all card records are up to date, clearing up inactive cardholders as much as possible. There’s a lot of work involved in getting things where they need to be before training starts. Once training begins in February, it’s non-stop, all hands on deck; I’m living and breathing cardholder training! Outside of training season, it comes in waves along with the purchasing trends at UVA: it’s slower in the winter when people aren’t traveling as much, and there are times of the year when more expenses occur.
What might surprise people about the work you do/this role/your department or area?
For one, what goes into the T&E Card training. Another thing is how far spread the card program is: it touches all departments. We have 2500 cards out there! This means I could be working with anyone at any time, and the situations they encounter using their cards are vastly different (think of faculty who go to remote places to do their research).
What do you like best about working in UVAFinance?
I like the way that I truly feel connected as part of the team. I see myself as a part of Finance and as a part of our processes. I feel cared for as a person because, on this team, we have flexibility and work/life balance. Even though UVAFinance has faced challenges over the last few years with the shift to hybrid work, I still feel connected to the organization.
How do you connect your work with the UVA Finance Values?
The biggest connection is how important customer service is to me. Excellent service means I care for people as individuals and give the cardholders the best experience possible. It feels so great when I hear people are happy with the service they received. At my core is the value of treating people with kindness, and understanding that our customers don’t have the same knowledge level as we do when it comes to the card; we help them where they are. Those values are supported in UVAFinance and that’s the work I want to do: keeping my colleagues and customers first.
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| Dan Hoogenboom |
What do you do as a project manager?
A Project Manager typically leads and organizes initiatives that functional teams want to implement with a defined timeline. In Finance, that means working with our teams in areas such as Treasury, Disbursements, or Supplier Diversity (to name a few) locally or in our business units across the university to gather points of inefficiency in their work and discuss collaboratively how to execute a new or improved solution. Enablement is the key word for me in identifying what I do daily. It all comes back to enabling people in our organization to optimize and get the best results with the least waste. The best way to do that is to define a project that tackles situations that are less than ideal.
Who do you work with regularly?
Six months into this role, I've been thrilled to be able to meet with most of our teams in central finance to understand their needs both operationally and with support from neighboring functions. There is likely at least one project in FY24 for every aspect of UVAFinance, which is exciting because it allows me to learn about the priorities of each area and how they integrate into one model, one Finance. Prioritization is critical in the work that our team conducts. I work with teams internal to UVA Finance on priorities that are determined by senior leaders, but all of that work funnels from our schools and units and how users navigate Workday, Marketplace, payroll needs, and vendor registration, again to name a few. Our monthly Fiscal Administrators' meetings help establish many of those needs and will drive projects in our area. (See the UVAFinance Projects Dashboard on the website.)
What might surprise people about the work you do?
The importance of considering how others work. Angela Knobloch and Patty Marbury have facilitated DISC behavioral workshops for our organization. It’s been a transformative concept not only for our team but across Finance because it resets the baseline of how to treat one another in the workplace so that we aren’t all coming to problems and solutions in the same way. It has encouraged empathy on a larger scale. Learning my own workplace behavioral style has given the Continuous Improvement portion of our tagline a new meaning even if I am relatively new to Finance. If I can keep DISC in mind when I approach the fundamentals of project management (initiating, monitoring, and closing projects, gathering information, and setting timeframes for my teams), I can do that with the mindset that each person in working groups can bring different strengths to enable the best possible final product.
In that vein, I read "The People Side of Change" when I first started in this role. It was a concise study of the services our team provides. Ideas ranging from making sure that preferred senders and receivers of information are considered and that resistance and comfort of individuals are measured within overarching value systems are things we can consider and ultimately can be advantageous to all involved. I would recommend it for any change professional and those looking to gain key skills in empathizing with colleagues.
What do you like best about working in UVAFinance?
A Project Manager typically leads and organizes initiatives that functional teams want to implement with a defined timeline. In Finance, that means working with our teams in areas such as Treasury, Disbursements, or Supplier Diversity (to name a few) locally or in our business units across the university to gather points of inefficiency in their work and discuss collaboratively how to execute a new or improved solution. Enablement is the key word for me in identifying what I do daily. It all comes back to enabling people in our organization to optimize and get the best results with the least waste. The best way to do that is to define a project that tackles situations that are less than ideal.
Who do you work with regularly?
Six months into this role, I've been thrilled to be able to meet with most of our teams in central finance to understand their needs both operationally and with support from neighboring functions. There is likely at least one project in FY24 for every aspect of UVAFinance, which is exciting because it allows me to learn about the priorities of each area and how they integrate into one model, one Finance. Prioritization is critical in the work that our team conducts. I work with teams internal to UVA Finance on priorities that are determined by senior leaders, but all of that work funnels from our schools and units and how users navigate Workday, Marketplace, payroll needs, and vendor registration, again to name a few. Our monthly Fiscal Administrators' meetings help establish many of those needs and will drive projects in our area. (See the UVAFinance Projects Dashboard on the website.)
What might surprise people about the work you do?
The importance of considering how others work. Angela Knobloch and Patty Marbury have facilitated DISC behavioral workshops for our organization. It’s been a transformative concept not only for our team but across Finance because it resets the baseline of how to treat one another in the workplace so that we aren’t all coming to problems and solutions in the same way. It has encouraged empathy on a larger scale. Learning my own workplace behavioral style has given the Continuous Improvement portion of our tagline a new meaning even if I am relatively new to Finance. If I can keep DISC in mind when I approach the fundamentals of project management (initiating, monitoring, and closing projects, gathering information, and setting timeframes for my teams), I can do that with the mindset that each person in working groups can bring different strengths to enable the best possible final product.
In that vein, I read "The People Side of Change" when I first started in this role. It was a concise study of the services our team provides. Ideas ranging from making sure that preferred senders and receivers of information are considered and that resistance and comfort of individuals are measured within overarching value systems are things we can consider and ultimately can be advantageous to all involved. I would recommend it for any change professional and those looking to gain key skills in empathizing with colleagues.
What do you like best about working in UVAFinance?
Since I was an undergraduate student, understanding the operations of a university has seemed complex and an interesting challenge. How the community that higher education roots itself in is galvanized in learning requires continuous investment to continue to offer the highest value possible. It has led me to an early career move in economic development and now administration. I really enjoy navigating the current and future needs of our business officers doing the work locally in the units. In hearing stories of where departments have been, who shaped them, and what they expect to challenge them moving forward is a wonderful part of the learning process. And of course, I have been welcomed with open arms, and been given great coaching, and I am very excited for the next few years.
How do you connect the work you do with the UVAFinance values?
Strategic Continuous Improvement is one of our core values. Making sure our team can consider processes from end to end by asking questions related to the purpose and the resulting value is the heart of why we exist in UVAFinance. I want to connect with others by listening intently to their concerns as well as their positive outcomes. It may be the work we do, but I also value the relationships that will come from it and the trust that is derived from it.
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Would you like to be featured in Introducing UVAFinance? Want to suggest a colleague to be featured? Email bv8h@virginia.edu
UVAFinance Mission & Values / UVAFinance Organizational Structure / Past Introductions can be found on our site under "Resource Shelf"
Would you like to be featured in Introducing UVAFinance? Want to suggest a colleague to be featured? Email bv8h@virginia.edu
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