Melissa Curry, who has served as the University of Florida's interim vice president for human resources since July 2022, has been tapped to fill the role permanently, UF President Ben Sasse announced today.
"Melissa brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of transformative leadership, which she demonstrated during her interim tenure," Sasse said. "Her dedication to advancing HR practices, fostering a culture of excellence, and her unwavering commitment to our university's mission make her exceptionally well-suited for this role."
Throughout her career, Curry has been dedicated to enhancing and improving the employee journey at UF. In the early stages of her career in human resources, Curry recognized the significance of addressing the entire scope of an employee's career journey. This encompassed all facets of their professional life, spanning from recruitment and onboarding to ongoing development, engagement, and, ultimately, retirement or departure from the organization.
Evidence of her commitment to this can be seen through the transformation of UF's application and onboarding process, adopted systems and processes to confirm competitive compensation and benefits, the implementation of a comprehensive exit survey, policies designed to foster a culture of care and responsibility, and programs to support and enhance employees physical and mental health.
As vice president, Curry will oversee more than 100 staff members who assist 32,000 full- and part-time employees across 67 counties. She will continue serving on the President's Cabinet and provide leadership across campus, foster strategic collaborations, and build partnerships across academic and administrative units supporting the university's mission and strategic plan. Additionally, Curry will oversee the UF Early Childhood Collaboratory at Baby Gator, a nationally recognized model for early learning and childhood studies. The Collaboratory extends its services to both students and employees through its operation of three on-campus childcare centers.
Curry has worked at UF for more than 24 years and has extensive experience in human resources and business process improvement. She was previously the assistant vice president for human resources, overseeing the areas of Talent Acquisition and Onboarding, Employment Operations and Records, Immigration Services, Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance, Classification and Compensation, Workforce Analytics, and the Office of Strategic Initiatives.
Melissa holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa, a master's degree in educational leadership from UF, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in educational leadership at UF. She is also a Society for Human Resource Management Senior Certified Professional (SPHR-SCP) and a Certified Professional Recruiter (PRC), reflecting her dedication to professional excellence.
In addition, Sasse named Raymond Sass as vice president for innovation and partnerships. In that role, Sass will focus on strategic value creation for the university, at speed, to improve student learning and life-change. He also will work to leverage technology and partnerships to improve measurable outcomes across a wide variety of initiatives.
Sass has two decades' experience in senior strategist roles across government and the private sector. Previously, he was vice president for strategy and founding dean of the MBA program at Midland University, where he led growth and innovation efforts focused on establishing new revenue streams for the university and harnessing technology to improve the quality and efficiency of teaching and learning. There, he launched Nebraska's first hybrid MBA program, establishing an innovation incubator for the school, and doubled the university's annual operating margin within three years. He has also worked to improve healthcare safety and effectiveness and higher ed innovation from senior policy roles inside the federal government. He earned his global MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.
Finally, Sasse named James Wegmann vice president for communications to lead UF's Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing (SCM). Wegmann joins SCM after spending more than a decade as a strategist and communicator in the federal government. During his time in policy, politics, and communications, he's developed a track record of seeing around corners, separating signal from noise, and simplifying complex arguments. His wife, Dr. Hannah Wegmann, is a professor of modern French literature. They have three young children.
Steve Orlando, who has served as interim vice president for strategic communications and marketing since March 2022 and led SCM during the transition from President Kent Fuchs to President Ben Sasse, will return to his position as associate vice president for communications and will continue to serve as the university's spokesman.
