Staff Spotlight: Claudia McClure
I’ve been with the CEE for 10 years so far. I joined Stanford in 2011 as a Program Coordinator in Bioengineering, and then I moved to Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) in 2013 as Assistant Department Manager and have since transitioned to Finance Manager. Prior to joining Stanford I was a Department Manager at UC Santa Cruz for 6 years. It was my first experience in academia, and because the department was small and new I had a hand in almost every aspect of how it functioned. Before that, I was fortunate enough to spend three years on my sailboat with my husband. We sailed around Mexico, the California Channel Islands, Miami, and the Florida Keys.
In my role as Finance Manager, I support the CEE community—students, staff, and faculty—by managing the full range of day-to-day financial processes that flow through the department. This includes oversight and approval of all individual financial transactions initiated by department members (purchasing and travel card transactions, purchase orders, expense reimbursements, etc.), managing the annual budget cycle—including monitoring, forecasting, and reporting as requested and directed by the DFO and Chair—and interpreting and implementing university financial and travel policies and communicating policy expectations to department members to ensure compliance. Additionally, I provide guidance and training to the department’s administrative staff on the university’s financial and budgeting processes. I answer many questions every day regarding travel and financial policy!
I take pride in how my role supports CEE. I like knowing that my work helps in a small way to support our staff in doing their jobs and assists students and faculty to navigate the financial and administrative processes at Stanford, so they are better able to focus on their learning goals and research.
I enjoy being a part of the CEE community because we have great faculty doing important research that has a huge impact on humanity—it is quite gratifying to be able to contribute to such a world-class organization. I also really enjoy our staff team and feel very lucky to be part of a team that supports one another so generously, and for the camaraderie we share. They make showing up for work every day a pleasure!
As someone who endeavors to practice sustainability and environmentally conscious living, I find it exciting that our department has joined the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. I’m looking forward to being a part of the future challenges we’ll work on together.
