Meet the Project CATalyst Team


Patricia Ainsworth
Kristin Bahn
Marianne Incerpi Brunetto
Martha Cafferky
Patty Dubie
Alena Farrell
Rose Feenan
Aaron Fay
Erin Fitzgerald
Stephanie Glock
Nancy Snow Littlefield
Mary_Ellen_Maille
Ed Malina
Tammy McGinn
Marty McLaughlin
Amy Parry
Cathy Ruley
Diane Russell
Julia Russell
Susan Skalka
Ramani Sunderaju
Ellen Turnbull
Joy Trigg
Don Tripp


Patricia Ainsworth- Project Director

Pat came to Project CATalyst from UVM’s Telecom and Network Services Department where she was the director since 2001.   During that time she oversaw the Trinity infrastructure project, the installation of two Nortel PBX’s, network upgrades at multiple campus locations and the deployment of CatsPAWS wireless data network.  She also reengineered and mechanized work processes, and oversaw the creation of a detailed UVM Infrastructure Standard.  She was instrumental in such innovative projects as the CORS campus mapping project, the 3rd party neutral hosting initiative and the establishment of personal telephone numbers and voicemail service for all students in UVM residence halls.   Pat serves on the UVM ITPC (Information Technology Planning Committee). Pat started work on Project CATalyst during the early planning stages in March, 2004, co-ordinated vendor selection activities and represented UVM at contract negotiations.

Ms. Ainsworth has more than 25 years experience in data communications and information technology at Verizon, Lucent Technologies and Hill Associates.  She has extensive experience in the development, delivery and management of technology training.  Pat has earned degrees in Accounting from New Hampshire College as well as a BA in Financial Management – Economics and a Masters in Policy from SUNY.

Pat lives in Essex Junction with her husband Chef Dennis McAlary and her Jack Russell “Terrorist”, Pistol Pete.  Pat’s son Roger is a Project Manager at Verizon and lives in Portsmouth, NH.

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Kristin Bahn-General Ledger SME

Kristin comes to Project CATalyst from UNC-Chapel Hill. She was working as the Assistant Director of Payroll Services while at UNC. Prior to that, Kristin was in the role of UVM's Manager of General Accounting for almost five years. Her responsibilities have included overseeing payroll tax administration, bank reconciliations, and travel reimbursements.

Kristin has over fifteen years of accounting experience in higher education, healthcare, and retail. She has a Business Administration degree in Accounting from American International College. Kristin is in the process of relocating back to the Essex area with her husband Tim and son Eric. She enjoys spending her free time quilting and gardening.

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Marianne Incerpi Brunetto- Technical Team Lead

Marianne comes to Project CATalyst from University Financial Services (UFS) where she has served as Accounting Information Systems Manager for the past two and a half years.  In this role Marianne provided leadership and technical direction to UFS in the areas of financial software applications, computer hardware, operating systems, networking and server support.  She served as liaison and primary point of contact between UFS and UVM's Computing and Information Technology organization as well as other departments across campus for issues related to financial data and systems. 

Marianne has over sixteen years of diverse technical experience spanning hardware, software and systems including experience in design, implementation and support of technical solutions and management of re-engineering projects. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Clarkson University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Engineering and Global Operations Management.  She lives in Hinesburg, Vermont with her husband, dog, cat and two horses.

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Martha Cafferky-Application & Workflow/Reporting Specialist

Martha comes to Project CATalyst from a position shared between Grant and Contract Accounting and The Office of Sponsored Programs, where she was responsible for business process redesign and applications programming. She has sixteen years of university experience in a wide range of areas including, budgeting, sponsored projects, development and alumni relations, application development, data conversion, and system implementations.
 
After earning a Bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Rhode Island, Martha pursued a certificate in computer programming. Most recently, she has worked towards as masters in Counseling at UVM. 
 
Martha lives in Richmond with her husband Joseph, teenage sons Patrick and Kevin, and pug Ralph. She enjoys reading, camping, skiing, and golf.

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Patty Dubie- Endowment Management SME

Patty joins Project CATalyst from UVM's Office of Treasury Management where she has been working for the past twelve years. Her primary responsibilities include accounting for the University's endowment, currently numbering over 700, with a value of $239 million; preparing reports for the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees; and advising the campus community on policies and procedures relating to the endowment. Patty has also been involved in the daily administration of UVM's operating cash, accounting for and managing compliance issues for bond indebtedness, and other miscellaneous treasury management tasks.

Prior to joining the Treasury Management team, Patty worked in the Student Accounting department at UVM. She holds and associate degree in Accounting form Champlain College.

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Alena Farrell- Interface/Conversion Specialist

Alena cames to Project CATalyst after 5 years of experience working for IBM. Alena provided business analysis, database design, modeling, conversion, development and production support for the following projects; Informational Warehouse integrated and distributed around the world, and Customer support system that handles the IBM sales and service in European (EMEA)countries.

Alena has 20+ years of experience in database administration, software development, and support in various areas. She graduated from Byelorussian State University and has an MS in Computer Science. She also took classes in software engineering at Champlain College. Alena lives in South Burlington with her husband. She enjoys skiing, biking, and tennis. Alena's grown son works for IBM on the NC Project.

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Rose Feenan- Sponsored Projects Team Lead

Rose comes to Project CATalyst with over 18 years of Sponsored Project Administrative experience from both the central and departmental perspectives.   As Administrative Director in UVM’s College of Medicine, Department of Pathology, she was responsible for all administrative aspects of an academic department including teaching, research and public service.  Research initiatives were varied and included over $6 million of direct expense to the department.  Prior to coming to UVM, she was Director of Sponsored Program Administration at World Learning and The School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.  In this capacity, Rose was responsible for managing activities in both the pre-award and post-award areas including a portfolio of over $106 million in sponsored projects from the federal government and private organizations.  Additionally, Rose spent 3 years in the Office of Financial Analysis and Budgeting at UVM where she worked with departments throughout the university as a budget analyst.

Rose has a Business Administration degree in Financial Management from Castleton State College and has taken several MPA courses at UVM.  She is the recipient of the 2004-2005 HERS Management Institute scholarship at Wellesley College.  Rose serves on the International Personnel Advisory Committee.

Rose lives in Richmond, Vermont with her husband Gerry and two children – Sean and Connor. 

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Aaron Fay- PO SME

Aaron has spent the last two years implementing PeopleSoft at IDX. Post-live efforts have been on end user support, system customization, and most recently testing for use in the United Kingdom. Prior to this, Aaron was a Sales Analyst for Equant Corporation, handling large contracts for resale items. Overall, Aaron's experience includes more than six years of purchasing and more than two years of PeopleSoft implementation, and support across several modules.

Aaron lives in Ferrisburg with his girlfriend, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 4 fish, and whatever wildlife chooses to visit at any given moment.

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Erin Fitzgerald- AP/PO Team Lead

Erin came to Project CATalyst from UVM’s Accounts Payable.   She was the manager since 1996, and the program administrator of the University’s purchasing card program.  Her responsibilities included overseeing the disbursement of $184 million annually, and another $4 million in purchasing card transactions.  She was instrumental in developing a financial certification series for training new administrative employee, and taught many of the classes.

Ms. Fitzgerald has twenty years of higher education experience.  In addition to sixteen years at UVM, she has been employed by the University of Oklahoma, Northern Arizona University and the Fred Harvey Company at the Grand Canyon National Park.  Her experience also includes financial analysis and budgeting, payroll and nonresident alien tax issues, and purchasing card implementation.  She has a bachelors of science degree from the University of Vermont.

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Stephanie Glock- Deputy Project Manager

Stephanie came to Project CATalyst from UVM's Development and Alumni Relations. Her responsibilities were mainly dedicated to alumni events, supporting the DAR officers and the Alumni Council.

Prior to UVM, Stephanie worked at Gateway Computers, Inc. as a Corporate Account Manager and managed clients such as United Parcel Service and Hormel Foods. Before Gateway she worked as a Sales Account Manager/Branch Trainer/Recruiter for Ferguson Enterprises, Inc.

Stephanie graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BA in Integrated Strategic Communications which focused on Journalism, Advertising, and Marketing.

She currently resides in Burlington with her husband Andy, Foster the Golden Retriever, Drake the Chocolate Lab, and Franklin the Cat. She spends her free time taking ballet classes, hiking, and skiing.

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Nancy Snow Littlefield-System Administrator

Nancy comes to Project Catalyst after a year and a half at UVM as a CIT/AIS database administrator, and technical support for the Banner Student Information System.  She has played system administrator, customization, upgrade,and conversion roles in PeopleSoft implementations at numerous companies ( including Sylvania, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and The Gartner Group) as an employee, and then as a PeopleSoft consultant with The Hunter Group.  Prior to coming to UVM, she wrote and supported in-house Oracle systems at Sun Microsystems for four years.

Nancy holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.  She lives in Brookfield with her husband Paul, and 2 stubborn Pekingese dogs, Joli and Kati.  Singing (shape-note music, currently) swimming, and reading are her primary interests.

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Mary Ellen Maille- Benefits SME

Mary Ellen comes to Project CATalyst from Fletcher Allen Health Care's Human Resources Department after 17 years of employment. She was a Human Resource Generalist who's responsibilities included employee and labor relations, compensation, and benefits for the Medical Group practices. Mary Ellen was responsible for the Benefit module of Fletcher Allen's original PeopleSoft implementation project.

Mary Ellen graduated from St. Michael's College with a Bachelor's degree in Management and Leadership. She recently retired from the Vermont Army National Guard at the rank of Captain after 20 years of service.

She resides in Colchester with her husband Michael and children Ryan and Julia. In her spare time Mary Ellen enjoys travel and reading.

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Ed Malina- System Administrator

Ed has been a Systems Programmer at UVM in the CIT department for the past 24 years.  He has been the Systems Administrator for the computer systems which run the Banner Student Information System,  Human Resources, Financial, and Telcom Systems.  These systems run on a variety of different Operating Systems including AIX, Solaris, Linux, VM, VSE and Windows.

Ed graduated from Potsdam State College in New York State, with a BA in Computer Science.

He lives in Essex Junction with his wife Ann,  two teenage children, Evan and Claire, and Black Lab, Molly.  In his free time he enjoys being outdoors, camping, skiing, canoeing and hiking . Ed also enjoys yoga.

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Tammy McGinn- Post Award SME

Tammy comes to Project CATalyst from UVM’s Grant and Contract Administrative Services department where she has worked since February 1999.  Tammy’s primary responsibilities in post award administration include ensuring accuracy and integrity of financial data and compliance with University and regulatory provisions; creating new restricted awards; review, analyze and interpret award requirements and budgets; prepare specialized and complex financial reports; provide guidance to faculty and staff in determining allowable expenses on restricted budgets and coordinating grant closeout procedures.  Tammy was also responsible for analyzing cost share requirements for grants to include complex salary cap cost share. 

Tammy lives in Fairfax with her husband John.  She has 2 children, Cassie 19 and John 21, who is a senior here at UVM.   Tammy enjoys golfing, boating and running, and is looking forward to working on the CATalyst team.

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Marty McLaughlin- Application Specialist

Marty comes to Project CATalyst from UVM’s Administrative Information Systems department. Marty provided systems analysis, technical support and application development for Telecommunications and Network Services department, since 1999.

Marty has 20+ years experience in application development and support. Prior to UVM, Marty developed marketing analysis and forecasting applications for direct marketing organizations. In addition, he was a member of the development/support team of General Electric’s Corporate Financial Consolidation and Budgeting system.

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Amy Parry- Time & Labor SME

Amy Parry came to Project CATalyst from her recent position at Twincraft as the Payroll and Benefits Administrator. She has more than 16 years experience in developing, implementing, and managing accounting and payroll systems within government and educational facilities. She has traveled all over New England providing applications support, training, and/or project management for accounting software.

Amy lives in Essex Junction with her two children, Ethan and Jenna. When not watching her children play sports she likes to travel, exercise, and play sports herself.

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Cathy Ruley- Pre Award SME

Cathy will join Project CATalyst in November as Sponsored Projects Pre-Award SME. Cathy has thirteen years of higher education administration experience, including seven years at UVM as Assistant Director in  the Office of Sponsored Programs. Most recently Cathy served as Director of Finance and Administration at Shelburne Museum where she was responsible for financial and administrative operations of the Museum along with oversight of management for admissions, store, and security functions. Prior to that, Cathy worked as a Budget and Management Analyst for the Vermont Department of Finance and Management where she was responsible for budget development and analysis of twenty-six departments and agencies serving the "protection" function of state government with combined budgets that exceeded $100 million. Early in her career she managed the effort reporting system at Boston University and administered federal and foundation grants at the departmental level at Brandeis University.

Cathy has an MBA from Boston University, a Certificate of Accounting from Bentley College and a BA degree in Sociology from the University of New Hampshire. Cathy is delighted to return to the UVM community.

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Diane Russell- Interface/Conversion Specialist

Diane Russell comes to Project CATalyst after 14 years of service in UVM’s Administrative Information System’s department. Diane has been the primary technical support for the University’s Payroll and Human Resource System. She was also responsible for developing an Oracle data warehouse and an online employee benefit statement.

Diane has an MBA and a BS degree from the University of Vermont.

Diane lives in Waterbury with her husband Rich, two wonderful children, Sean and Lynn, and Sam the kitty. She enjoys playing with the kids, exercise, and knitting.

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Julia Russell-Budget Team Lead

Julia joins the Project CATalyst project after nine years working in information technology in UVM’s Office of Financial Analysis & Budgeting.  Most recently, she has been responsible for Bullseye, the university’s new year budget-building system, and Hyperion Strategic Finance, a tool purchased to aid in the university’s strategic financial planning.  Prior to working in the budget office, Julia spent a year working with the Office of Sponsored Programs and Grant & Contract Accounting and twelve years working as a systems analyst in Polaroid’s film manufacturing and purchasing divisions.

Julia has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and math from Dartmouth College, an MBA from Boston University and a recently-completed Ed.D. from UVM.  Her dissertation research focused on supporting women in their pursuit of computer science-based careers.

Julia lives in Charlotte with her husband Charles and three children – Amanda, Katie and Michael.   In her free time, she enjoys running, reading, cooking and tending to the family’s small herd of beef cattle, who are all (unfortunately) named after Harry Potter characters.

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Susan Skalka- Finance Team Lead

Susan has implemented and supported PeopleSoft software for over six years while employed with the public sector group of Andersen Consulting/Accenture, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Philanthropic Organization, and with the software company, IDX. Susan began her career as a software designer and developer before leading a team supporting PeopleSoft Financial and Human Resources applications for a federal agency. In all of her roles, Susan has worked closely with financial department users to translate business needs into effective software solutions.

Susan and her husband Christian Skalka moved from Baltimore to Burlington in the fall of 2002 when Christian accepted a position as an assistant professor in UVM's Computer Science department. Susan has a BA from Macalester College in Math and Philosophy, and an MS in Logic, Computation, and Methodology from Carnegie Mellon University. She's excited to become part of the UVM community.

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Ramani Sunderaju-Reporting Analyst

Ramani comes to Project CATalyst from UVM’s Human Resources Department. She was responsible for evaluating, developing, modifying and/or recommending changes to existing systems and /or procurement and implementation of new systems subject to such analyses.  Prior to that, Ramani was Manager of Payroll and Record Systems for 7 years, with responsibility for UVM’s $180+ million payroll.  Ramani also brings 15 years experience in risk management and internal controls from her positions as Audit Manager at Banknorth Group, Inc. and Audit Supervisor at Chase Manhattan Bank.  Her Audit experience includes being part of several large system implementations and/or conversions.

Ramani has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Osmania University, India, and is currently in the Managing Innovation and Information Technology Master’s program at Champlain College.

Ramani lives in South Burlington and has two sons. Vinay goes to UVM and Sunil attends Fairleigh Dickinson University.


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Ellen Turnbull- Application Specialist

Ellen comes to Project Catalyst from IBM where she spent the last 5 years customizing a central database, re-engineering several legacy systems to work

with in the database. Her primary job responsibilities included gathering requirements, documenting specifications and data rules needed, and implementing the changes.

Ellen has a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University in Math and Computer Science, and a MS in Computer Science with a concentration in Software Engineering from RPI.

She lives in Essex with her husband Scott and three children, Matthew, Katie and Cara. She is active in Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and 4H. In her free time, she
enjoys walking, reading and sewing.

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Joy Trigg- Benefits SME

Joy was Benefits Manager at Banknorth Group where she managed the company's flexible benefit plan including health, dental, life, and disability insurances as well as health and dependent care spending accounts. She also managed the worker's compensation program, and 401(k) and pension plans. During her time at Banknorth, Joy managed a massive conversion of five differing subsidiary-bank benefit plans into a new, common holding company-wide program. Prior to her work at Banknorth, she was Administrative Manager at a local mortgage company where she oversaw Human Resources and Data Operations.

Joy graduated from Trinity College in Burlington with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. She lives in Williston with her husband Ian, and two children, Sophia and Niles.

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Don Tripp- Security Specialist

Don comes to Project CATalyst from UVM’s Administrative Information Systems department. Don has been providing technical support for the University’s Payroll and Human Resource System for the past two years.

Don has 25+ years of experience in computer technology. Prior to UVM, Don worked as a senior consultant, primarily in the financial services industry. He also held senior technical positions at the former Bank of Vermont, where he worked for 15 years. His experience includes application development, systems analysis/design and implementation, project management, process reengineering, security management and numerous conversion projects.

Don lives in Underhill with his wife Lisa. Their four grown children are busy at college and with their careers.

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