Recent Headlines
(Back: L to R) RaeAnne Pisa, Ryan Dromgoole, Gidget Baum, Jocelyn Lavier, Christopher Landers. (Front: L to R) Kristina Hart, Sandra Hirschman, Brenda Beach, Virginia Frost.
Staff Spotlight: Business Office New Employees
The ESF Business Office has welcomed nine new people over the past year. We sat down with them to get our community caught up with all the new faces and names.
New Business Office Staff:
- Gidget Baum, Payroll Examiner 1
- Brenda Beach, Payroll Examiner 2
- Ryan, Dromgoole, Financial Analyst
- Virgina Frost, Contract Administrator/MWBE Officer
- Kristina Hart, Program Aide (Travel)
- Sandra Hirschman, Administrative Staff Assistant 1
- Christopher Landers, Contracts Administrator/Asset Manager
- Jocelyn Lavier, Office Assistant 2 (Calculations)
- RaeAnne Pisa, Office Assistant 2 (Calculations)
Q: What are the benefits of the new e-procurement purchasing process (OakMart)?
Virginia Frost: To expedite the purchasing process electronically without the use of paper Purchase
Request forms. Purchase Requests would be submitted online, approvals would be provided
electronically, and end-users can see the status of their orders in the portal. At
this time, OakMart is still in the implementation phase, and we are eagerly looking
forward to training the campus community on the system.
Q: Payroll is one of the first offices people interact with when they come to ESF. How do you welcome people through the payroll process?
Brenda Beach: Once we have employees on the payroll, the next step is to set up their online or paper timesheet and send a payroll schedule that informs employees of when timesheets are due and when the pay period will pay.
Gidget Baum: The nice part about the process is that it’s online, but if people have questions, we’re still available if folks need support through the process.
Q: We understand being a calculations administrative assistant comes with a somewhat
unique perk? Tell us about that.
RaeAnne Pisa: I have the pleasant job of distributing student and employee refunds. So people are
usually pretty happy and excited when they come into my office. It fuels me up and
keeps me going throughout the day.
Q: How are travel opportunities integrated into an ESF employee’s experience?
Kristina Hart: ESF is very supportive of conference travel for faculty, staff, and students. It’s
a great way to network, share, and learn about new experiences with a wide variety
of other researchers and campuses.
Q: Tell us how financial analysts help make ESF a better place to work and learn.
Ryan Dromgoole: Financial analysts bear a lot of back-end work that doesn’t often get seen. The positive
of that is it enables the team to be more focused on customer service for both students
and employees.
Q: What should ESF employees know about property control?
Christopher Landers: If it is purchased with anything from taxpayer dollars, it needs to be tracked—anything
of “high value” over $5,000 and anything that is “high value” but also portable/easily
lost or stolen.
Q: Why is accounts payable (AP) important to ESF employees?
Jocelyn Lavier: AP keeps ESF in good standing with vendors by making sure payments are processed
on time. It’s an important job for maintaining excellent community relations.
Sandra Hirschman: I maintain the same important community relations, but for our research department. Plus, I am back-up for Kristina Hart who coordinates the travel plans from start to finish and I reimburse travel vouchers. This role ensures our research runs smoothly with all of our external partners.