The below email was sent by Kari Fazio on April 28.
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,
As you know, Jerry Berenson, Glenn Smith and Val Powell, who collectively have dedicated an incredible 105 years of service to Bryn Mawr College, will be retiring over the next several weeks. Their contributions have been innumerable and invaluable, and they leave a legacy from which the College will reap benefits well into the future. Although we will always miss these friends, we are excited to be welcoming some new members to our community and welcoming some existing members into new roles and responsibilities as a result of these retirements.
First, I am delighted to announce that Tijana Stefanovic will be promoted to Associate Treasurer for Financial Planning and Budgets. As her title suggests, she will continue to lead the budget development and monitoring processes, as well as assist with the capital budgeting process and myriad financial analyses. In addition, she will take on new responsibilities with regard to some administrative services, including working with our great teams in Transportation, the Bookstore and the Post Office. Not only is she a Mawrter herself but she is incredibly talented and skilled which she has demonstrated continually over her 16 years working at the College.
Tijana will be working with Jim Huang, who will assume managerial responsibility for the campus Post Office. In the year he has been at the College, Jim has already proven how capable he is by creating a robust and exciting institutional bookstore from scratch and integrating it into the fabric of the College. Jim will work with the staff at the Post Office and Bookstore to find and leverage synergies between the two units to better serve our students and the larger community in creative ways.
If you have ever met Maria Wiemken, our Associate Treasurer, you know she is indefatigable. She too will be taking on new responsibilities, including risk management and insurance. She will bring a fresh perspective and her critical thinking to this important aspect of our operations, which cuts across all major functions of the College.
Finally, it is my pleasure to announce that Nina Bisbee will be joining Bryn Mawr on May 2nd as the College’s new Director of Facilities. Nina brings a terrific combination of technical expertise and personal attributes that will ensure we continue to have a campus that is attractive, safe, efficient, and conducive to delivering a top-quality residential higher education experience today and well into the future. Her portfolio of responsibilities will include facilities maintenance, capital project management, housekeeping and sustainability.
Nina has spent the past 24 years managing the Philadelphia Zoo’s capital program and overall facilities planning efforts. Through her experience as Vice President of Facilities Planning with the Zoo, Nina has expertise with historically significant buildings and the life/safety issues associated with a campus that has around-the-clock operational needs. Throughout her tenure at the Zoo, not only has she initiated infrastructure projects to upgrade the buildings and the power, water, stormwater, and communications systems, but she also regularly collaborated with the curatorial staff, animal keepers, and guest services teams to ensure that the facilities support the Zoo’s conservation/education mission and strategic initiatives.
Prior to the Philadelphia Zoo, Nina had been a Project Manager at an architectural and planning consulting firm. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Penn State University and a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University of Michigan.
I am grateful to the members of the search committee and to the many members of the Facilities and Housekeeping teams who participated in Nina’s search process for their thoughtful contributions.
I am also sincerely appreciative of all of the members of the existing finance and administration teams; they are an incredibly capable team willing to work together in new ways to fill the void as Jerry, Glenn and Val enjoy their retirements.
Best wishes,
Kari Fazio