In April 2024, Elizabeth Bakanic began working with the Provost’s Office to improve financial reporting, planning and analysis. She brings a wealth of experience from higher education and public finance.
Prior to the Provost’s office, she spent over four years as the Associate Dean for Finance for the College of Arts & Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. She expanded financial support and transparency, guided the College through budget cuts and COVID issues, and revamped critical processes, resources, and decision-making. She additionally served as the Treasurer for the Arts & Sciences Foundation and drove improvements to their budget planning, board communication, and cash management of gifts. Before her time with the College, she started at Carolina in May 2019, working as a Performance and Policy Manager for the Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Budget. She transformed central finance’s data analysis capabilities, improved the budget process, and informed executive decision-making on several campus-wide initiatives. Prior to that, she worked for the University of California System Office, developing both a systemwide financial planning model and working in Institutional Research to improve management and analysis for finance, personnel and contracts and grants data. She also worked at UC Berkeley managing special projects in the campus-wide Budget Office, building forecast models, and redesigning their central allocation tracking and planning.
Prior to entering higher education, Bakanic honed her finance skills at the New Jersey Office of Management and Budget, managing statewide initiatives and analyzing the budgets of large human services departments. In addition, she spent a few years in the NJ State Comptroller’s Office carrying out several performance audits for a variety of state entities and contracts.
Before embarking on her career in public service, Bakanic received her MPA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and her bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina. She completed several internships throughout state and federal government, gaining an abundance of insight into different modes of public management. Originally, she is a native of North Carolina and is happy to live in and serve her home state.