President Joel Seligman appointed Lamar Murphy as his deputy last Friday to aid in coordinating his administrative activities.
“Murphy will be the ‘quarterback’ of a good deal that goes on in my office, including coordinating preparation for key meetings and events and follow-through after meetings and events,” Seligman said.
Seligman already has a deputy, Lynne Davidson, but in January she will be taking on a demanding additional role as Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity.
“This is a President who has a very fast pace and with Lynne’s role changing, there was a need for an additional person at the senior staff level to help coordinate everything,” Murphy said.
Murphy and Davidson will work together, with Davidson focused primarily on academic functions and Murphy on the administrative side.
“My biggest goal is to work with the President’s office staff and the campus leadership to organize things as efficiently as possible, and to support the President’s priorities,” Murphy said. “He has an ambitious set of goals for the University, and it is going to take a lot of people working very hard together over a long period of time to accomplish them. I will be involved in making sure that the flow of work is smooth and that communications are effective.”
For the last 10 years, Murphy has been an associate or assistant Dean in the graduate schools at the University of Illinois and Ohio State University. She was also executive assistant to the president of the Illinois Institute of Technology and has had considerable experience as a management consultant.
“I picked her because she was highly recommended by three university presidents who had worked with her,” Seligman said.
Murphy has been at UR for three months as a management consultant, looking at how everything is currently working and finding out whether there were ways to make things more administratively efficient.
“I was really pleased when I came here,” Murphy said. “It’s a terrific office staff with a lot of energy, professionalism and a high commitment to the University.”
Murphy is very excited to get started. She has learned a lot from Davidson, Seligman and the rest of the staff in the Office of the President.
“President Seligman cares so passionately about the University; he has an ambitious set of goals, and the opportunity to be part of his team is really exciting,” Murphy said. “In addition, this is a terrific university. There are a lot of terrific people here, and I am excited to be a part of the team to support the president.” Paret is a member of the class of 2008.
