I am delighted to announce the appointment of Mary McNally as Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration in Academic Affairs, effective March 23, 2026.
As Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration in Academic Affairs (AVC- FA), McNally will serve as the chief financial and administrative officer for Academic Affairs, with a dotted line reporting relationship to the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, and will serve as a primary resource consultant for the EVC reporting units in Academic Affairs, including Organizational Transformation. Additionally, she will be responsible for providing high-level strategic direction, leadership, and planning as well as management oversight across the Academic Affairs organization.
McNally has an impressive 23-year tenure in the University of California system, working most recently as the Executive Assistant Dean – Administration in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis – a role she has held for 13 years. In that position, she provided strategic planning and oversight for the business operations of the school which has a budget of $330 million and management of capital projects as large as $60 million. In this role, she also managed the school’s fiscal office, IT unit and dean’s personnel, as well as managing facilities and safety for the school, and interacted on a university level with human resources, finance and academic departments. Prior to this role, she worked as an assistant dean for budget and finance, a chief administrative officer and a contract and grants officer at UC Davis. She has also worked at CalPERS and for the State of California in budget and administrative roles.
McNally earned a Bachelor of Science in agricultural and managerial economics, as well as a master’s and Ph.D. in agricultural economics from UC Davis.
My deepest appreciation goes to Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Budget Operations Mercedes Muñoz and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief of Staff Alison Sanders, who co-chaired the search advisory committee and conducted an inclusive, thorough search, ensuring all voices were heard throughout the selection process. I am also grateful to the members of the search advisory committee for their thoughtful contributions and insights, which have contributed to a successful outcome.
Please join me in warmly welcoming Mary McNally to UC San Diego. Her deep understanding of the strategic, financial, and administrative challenges facing public universities, especially large, public, research-focused universities like UC San Diego, and her collaborative, communicative leadership approach will serve Academic Affairs, and our university, well. I would like to also extend my sincere appreciation to Ahren Crickard and Adam DiProfio for their leadership and fulfilling the duties of the AVC-FA during the search process.
