Katrina Spencer has extensive higher education experience and has been a key member of the financial leadership teams at multiple institutions of higher education, with core responsibility for providing leadership and broad strategic oversight for both the operating budget and capital budget.

Before joining Rice University, Katrina was the Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Colorado University-Boulder. She had direct responsibility for the Budget Office, Controller’s Office, Capital Finance, Finance Policy, and Financial Compliance. Katrina has also held high-level financial roles at the University of Chicago, the University of Connecticut, and UC Berkeley. In these roles, she has been responsible for university-wide resource allocation, budgeting, capital finance, multi-year planning, and strategic initiatives.

Katrina has successfully provided strategic thinking, leadership, and communications to support the financial portfolio. She has a proven track record building inclusive and highly functional teams while collaboratively implementing and moving strategic projects forward, including implementing new budget models, reforming the financing of doctoral education, building stronger data and financial management tools, and implementing a new budget system.

Katrina holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University, where she focused on economics, and a Bachelor’s degree in history from Brigham Young University.