Clint is eager to contribute to the campus’s ongoing success, and particularly excited about UC Davis’ commitment to sustainability, notably the Big Shift. For the close to 700 staff in UC Davis Facilities Management and campus stakeholders, his approach to leadership is about providing support and improving potential.
Allen Tollefson’s remarkable 25-year journey at UC Davis Facilities Management began when he joined as an assistant superintendent in 1999. He retires on July 1, 2024, as the Facilities leader of the largest UC campus in terms of acreage, keeping our 5,300 acres and 14.6 million square feet of campus facilities safe, clean and operable through severe winter storms, wildfire smoke events, COVID, Picnic Day, and many perfect spring days.
Since the Arboretum and Public Garden department joined Facilities Management in November 2023, we have welcomed many wonderful staff members to the team! One exceptional team member is Kathleen Socolofsky, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. We sat down with Kathleen to learn more about her role and the 26 years she has spent at UC Davis.
Our sheet metal, weld, and machine shop team at Facilities Management works diligently to maintain, build, and install all HVAC systems on campus. These systems are integral to ensuring suitable temperatures for vital research and academics, making their work incredibly important to our campus community. The team has over 250 years of combined experience and is made up of 9 members, listed below:
Supervisor: Al Bacchini
Sheet metal shop: Manuel Preciado, Greg Turben, Ryan Montoya, Chris Meyer, John Eldeen
This month, we are highlighting our newest Facilities Management (FM) communications and marketing intern, Alma Culverwell! Alma is a second-year political science major with a global studies minor and has been working as a communications and marketing intern for FM since the end of April.
Prior to starting at FM, Alma had experience working for UC Davis at the city news desk of the California Aggie Newspaper. She began working at the Cal Aggie in March 2023 and still holds her position as a staff writer.
This quarter, we are excited to highlight Linda Limon Alvarez, one of our exceptional business partners at Facilities Management! Linda serves as a Financial Assistant for Finance, Operations, and Administration (FOA) and has been with Facilities Management (FM) for almost two years. We had the pleasure of sitting down with her to learn more about her role and why she enjoys working here.
In 2016, UC Davis embarked on an ambitious project to enhance the Arboretum Waterway. Following the successful completion of
the first phase, additional funding was secured to continue the improvements. Construction resumed in March 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2026. This massive undertaking aims to significantly enhance campus sustainability, research opportunities, and aesthetics. We sat down with landscape architect Andrew Fulks, who played a major role in launching this project, to learn more about the innovative changes taking place.
This past May, our custodial team hosted a series of employee events in honor of the International Sanitary Supply Association’s International Cleaning Week! The team showcased their spirit throughout the week by dressing up in fun themes and spending time socializing with each other. We sat down with custodial supervisor Jasmine Aranda to learn more about this celebration of team spirit!
Elevators play a vital role in ensuring our campus remains accessible for all students, staff, and visitors. While essential for navigating campus buildings, they often go unnoticed until they stop working. Campus elevator foreman Aimee Spivey knows all about the intricate mechanisms that make these transportation devices function and works daily to make sure that they are operating at the highest level possible. We sat down with Aimee to learn more about a long-term elevator modernization project currently underway on campus.
In the bustling landscape of the University of California, Davis, lies a silent community of guardians—towering sentinels that silently witness the ebb and flow of campus life. These guardians, however, have been given newfound recognition and care through an ambitious project aimed at understanding, mapping, and preserving UC Davis' arboreal riches.
