I write to share that after 10 years of service to the University as the Associate Vice President of University Planning, Design and Construction, Master Planner, and Chief Architect, Laura Cruickshank, FAIA, AUA has informed me that she will retire effective February 1, 2024.
Laura joined the University in 2013 and has served as the primary authority overseeing the planning and development of facilities, grounds and infrastructure at the University and our regional campuses. She has led the University’s growth, ensuring that our campuses are coherent, attractive and useful spaces that enhance our strategic intellectual endeavors and meet our highest academic ideals. Her focus on the needs of our community, environmental sustainability, historical preservation, energy efficiency, and interdisciplinary collaboration have been invaluable in the construction of projects on the Storrs and Regional campuses. Laura’s hard work, talent, and leadership were essential in the management of the Unviersity’s $2.5 billion Capital Improvement Plan, UCONN 2000 and Next Generation CT programs for the Storrs and Regional Campuses and the Law School.
Laura’s service was distinguished by the completion of the comprehensive Campus Master Plan 2015-2035, a Science Needs Assessment, the restoration of the Hartford Times building which is now home to the University’s Hartford Campus, and the design and construction of the new Innovation Partnership Building, Engineering and Science Building, Werth Residence Hall, and the Northwest Science Quad on the Storrs campus. In October 2023, Laura was inducted into the CT Women’s Hall of Fame in recognition of her decades long career as a “Woman Who Builds”.
Please join me in thanking Laura for her dedicated service to the University of Connecticut and in wishing her well in her retirement.
Jeffrey P. Geoghegan, CPA
Executive Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer
For more information, contact: Debbie Carone at cfo@uconn.edu