Two ITS managers who reported to Assistant Vice Chancellor Steve Haring until his retirement a few weeks ago have been elevated to executive director positions and will assume part of their former boss’ duties.
Now Wanda Boone is Executive Director of ITS Finance and Lisa Lipscomb is Executive Director of ITS Human Resources. Boone and Lipscomb become part of the ITS Executive Leadership Team and will report to J. Michael Barker, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer.
The ITS Finance & Administration AVC position Haring vacated when he retired on June 28 after 16 years with ITS will not be filled.
Barker announced the new roles for Boone and Lipscomb on July 16.
Demonstrated results
“ITS has a sterling financial reputation,” Barker wrote in his announcement. “Wanda will help us preserve and further strengthen that reputation. Wanda will continue our tradition of calm competence, reliability and sound judgment.”
“It’s an honor and a privilege to serve as the new ED of ITS Finance & Administration,” Boone said. “I’m excited and looking forward to working with each division of ITS as we continue to build on our strengths and fiscal responsibilities for FY25. My team is dedicated to upholding the traditions and integrity of ITS Finance & Administration.”
Lipscomb, meanwhile, “knows UNC-Chapel Hill in ways only a few others might,” as someone who has worked for the University since 1998, Barker wrote. She is “adept at balancing practical approaches with unit and leadership goals.”
Barker added that there is “no better nor more deserving person for it.”
This new role is “a great and unexpected opportunity” and it’s an “ideal time” after so many years at Carolina, Lipscomb said. “I am a true believer that hard work can and will pay off eventually.”
Lipscomb is delighted to do “something different yet remain in an environment that I’m very familiar with,” she said. In addition, she and her team of Linease Washington and Parker Whitley are excited “to start thinking about how we can move ITS HR forward and streamline processes that we control. “
Advancing Finance, HR
For the HR function, Barker said he and Lipscomb will work to develop it “in a way that will enhance our ability to conceive of human resources actions as packages more so than as discrete and individual action-by-action steps in isolation.” In addition, he said they want “to increase visibility as to where in request or approval processes particular actions are, whether waiting or not and on whom/what, and expose ways in which the managers of ITS can help the staff, themselves and us (as executives) get the most out of the Human Resources policies, processes and layers.”
In addition to continuing to serve ITS, Lipscomb will work with the University’s Office of Human Resources and as needed with the UNC System Office and the state of North Carolina Office of State Human Resources.
On the finance side, Barker said he and Boone “want to develop the finance function within ITS so we have greater visibility and planning with increasing contact points with our subdivisions. The ITS Finance function has been a significant asset to the University and to ITS. Wanda and I believe that value can further extend within ITS.”
Wealth of expertise and experience
Boone has worked for ITS for two years as Business Manager for Finance & Administration. She has managed, coordinated and overseen the budgetary, financial and transactional functions of ITS across the division and varied sources. She has handled reporting and year-end financials and has engaged with campus partners and others beyond the University.
Prior to ITS, Boone worked for Winston-Salem State University from 2015 to 2022. She taught first-year experience, was Budget Manager for the Information Technology division, and ultimately served as Director of Budget and Analysis. She has applied that expertise and experience with institutionally scoped financial and budget management at ITS.
Boone is “well-versed and widely accomplished,” Barker said.
Lipscomb, meanwhile, spent her first four years at the University with the central Office of Human Resources. After a year at the Cecil B. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, she joined Administrative Information Systems (AIS), where she handled such duties as employee relations, work planning and performance reviews, employee and manager advisement and career banding. When AIS and other groups joined to form ITS in 2007, she began leading human resources for ITS.
“Lisa’s story and ITS’ story are deeply intertwined,” Barker said.