DePaul named Tonya Baez as associate vice president of risk management in fall 2021. (DePaul University/Randall Spriggs)This fall, DePaul named Tonya Baez as its associate vice president of risk management. A new role at the university, Baez will oversee the university's risk management organization, comprised of internal audit, compliance and enterprise risk management.
“As the risk landscape grows ever-more complex, we believe the university can better meet its needs by aligning the risk-related efforts in a unit," Baez says. “I look forward to continuing to help members of the campus community manage and mitigate risks across a broad spectrum, from reputation and financial to technology and security."
As part of this fall's reorganization, insurance and environmental health and safety moved to the Office of the Treasurer at the beginning of October. This new organizational structure creates the opportunity to maximize organization knowledge, break down information silos and combine data to avoid compliance issues and ensure proper risk identification.
As AVP of risk management, Baez will provide oversight to help ensure the administration, faculty and staff maintain a culture of ethics, compliance and shared responsibility to support DePaul's strategic direction and mission.
“With this new structure, we hope to provide more education and support for the university to further embed risk management into everything we do," Baez says. “Our goal is to maintain and sustain the university well into the future."
A member of the university community for nearly 10 years, Baez is a certified public accountant, certified internal auditor and certified fraud examiner. Baez is also certified in risk management assurance. Before officially joining DePaul as an internal audit manager, she served on an advisory committee for the internal audit program in the Driehaus College of Business. Most recently, Baez served as the internal audit director and served as the interim treasurer for the university last year .
“Tonya has more than 25 years of experience and a range of industry perspectives that will help her as a leader and key advisor at DePaul on enterprise risks, code of conduct, internal audit, and ethics and compliance matters," says Sherri Sidler, executive vice president for the university. “I am grateful for her leadership and expertise in this new role."
Rachel Wojnicki is an editor of Newsline and the internal communications manager for University Marketing and Communications.