Melissa Curry named vice president for human resources
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 with UF Human Resources, which began more than 20 years ago, Curry has been dedicated to enhancing and improving the entire scope of the employee journey at UF. 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.
“I’m honored to have been selected to continue to serve the UF community as vice president and to further our mission of prioritizing a culture of care, opportunity and excellence,” said Curry. “As our university enters its next chapter, I’m energized by the possibilities that lie ahead and our work to support the outstanding faculty and staff of this university, both current and future.”
Earlier this year, while serving as interim vice president, Curry announced UFHR’s 2023-24 Strategic Plan, which identified four areas of strategic focus for UFHR: employee experience and belonging; organizational strategy, data and design; top talent attraction and recruitment; and leadership management, development and support.
In addition to Curry, President Sasse announced two further cabinet appointments today: Raymond Sass was named 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. James Wegmann was named vice president for communications to lead UF’s Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing (SCM). Steve Orlando will return to his position as associate vice president for communications and will continue to serve as the university’s spokesman.