For Sheryl Gerbracht, a Career that Added Up
By Mark Hersberger
“I loved my spreadsheets!” exclaimed Sheryl Gerbracht while explaining her choice to earn a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and MBA in finance from San Diego State. “I was always pretty good at math. I liked the analysis that took place - looking at sets of data, and the relationships, and determining if they were telling me what I was expecting or wasn’t expecting.”
Sheryl ended up forging a long career in the accounting and finance fields - one that will draw to a close when she retires later this summer from her role as Senior Director of the IT Services Business Office.
The Path to UC San Diego
Starting out, Sheryl joined KPMG, one of the so-called “Big 8” accounting firms at the time. The experience shaped her views on the importance of equality in the workplace, as well as work-life balance.
“When I joined KPMG, there were not that many women there, and only one woman manager,” she remembers. “There were five other women who joined at the same time as me, but that was unusual. You didn’t see a lot of women deciding they were going to spend their careers there. Very quickly I realized there wouldn’t be much of a career path for me, either.”
She caught on with one of the firm’s clients, a bank, and though just 25 at the time, entered a management role. “In that position, I started to learn what it meant to be a people-centered manager,” Sheryl recounts. “I started advocating for flexible work arrangements because I witnessed all that went into people’s lives, from elder care and child care responsibilities to other issues.”
By 1997, Sheryl was working for a medical device company, but looking for a different career path. As it happens, a few of the women she knew from KMPG were already working at UC San Diego. They recommended her to Elazar Harel, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Administrative Computing and Telecommunications, and Sheryl landed the job.
Upon transitioning to higher education, Sheryl described the learning curve as “huge,” saying, “I had a little bit of knowledge in fund accounting, but it was very different from what we did in private industry.”
Different may be an understatement. Early on, Sheryl met Valerie Polichar, who is currently IT Services Senior Director of Academic Technology Services. “I just remember how shocked and horrified Sheryl was at the way the university did business back then,” Valerie recalls. “She kept asking me, ‘Valerie, how can it be this way?’ I knew early on that Sheryl was ideal for the job, though. She had a great sense of humor about all the differences between industry and higher ed, but she was also extremely meticulous, honest and careful about managing finances.”
Sheryl also had to adapt to the university’s decision-making process. Spoiler alert: It was slower. “But the women I knew from KPMG kept saying, ‘Give it time. Give it six months, you’ll get used to it,” Sheryl laughs. “And eventually I did.”
Diving in to NGN
Sheryl had limited knowledge of telecommunications and networking when she arrived at UC San Diego. Nevertheless, her first big project was to help establish the Next Generation Network (NGN) funding model.
At the time, there were multiple telecommunications networks on campus and inconsistent charging mechanisms in the units providing the services. Furthermore, there was little to no money dedicated for burgeoning data networks centrally, with departments needing to make requests for funding and upgrades. In fact, the university overcharged for other services in order to fund the network. The end result of NGN was to establish a singular campus network, and charge departments based on the number of communication users accessing the network in the performance of their job duties.
“We could see what was on the horizon with the growth of the Internet and the need for high-speed communications,” Sheryl explains. “So the NGN model solved a lot of problems and put in place a self-sustaining model to refresh the network in a consistent way.”
She recalls a lot of change management and challenging meetings with faculty and administrators. “But we would not be deterred,” she says. “We just kept going and talking to people and I really believe that our willingness to provide detailed analysis to departments and to hear them out helped us reach our objective.”
Sheryl and Valerie teamed up for dozens of presentations and meetings over several years. Valerie recalls that, through some form of unexplained telepathy, and with no coordination, they ended up wearing matching outfits more often than not for presentations. “It got kind of embarrassing - we looked like we were trying to be twins or something,” Valerie says. “But it was completely inadvertent and I think we were just that synced up and living and breathing it so constantly.”
NGN came to fruition in 2001, is still in existence today, and has served as a model for other universities.
Transforming TPCS
Among other memorable projects that Sheryl recalls are both the transformation of the Torrey Pines Center South (TPCS) offices and Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR). “Remodeling TPCS was a big thing for our organization,” she notes.
For those who need a refresher, the project included gutting the entire third floor and exchanging offices and cubicles for an entirely open concept. “There was a lot of skepticism and uncertainty going in, but I think we changed a lot of hearts and minds. We were worried about people being unhappy, and it really didn’t happen,” Sheryl says.
While the work was being completed, IT Services personnel were dispatched to various temporary work locations. Concurrently, the department adopted more widespread use of remote work and flexible work arrangements. As a result, Sheryl notes that IT Services was able to seamlessly transition to remote work once Covid-19 hit. “We had worked via Zoom. Our managers were already apart from their staff and used to managing this way. So it made our transition much smoother,” Sheryl explains.
Embracing HR and EDI
Later in her IT career, Sheryl took on human resources responsibilities, too. “I’ve really loved a lot of the work I’ve done in HR,” she says. “It’s been rewarding to implement flexible work arrangements and work on our culture.”
Sheryl’s HR duties include Inclusive Excellence, and she headed up efforts to diversify hiring panels, implement implicit bias training, and recruit among under-represented populations. She also served as an equity, diversity and inclusion advisor to VC-CFO Pierre Ouillet, and was chairperson of the VC-CFO committee on inclusive excellence. In 2022, Sheryl was recognized with a UC San Diego Inclusive Excellence Award.
“As the Senior Director of the business office, I spend most of my time working to ensure our staff and students have the financial, human and physical resources they need to effectively do their jobs so we fulfill our mission here at UC San Diego,” Sheryl commented. “Much of my time is spent handling matters of equity, whether it is compensation, classification, access to resources, etc. I believe inclusion promotes belonging, purpose and well being, and all kinds of diversity ignites creativity, problem solving and innovation. I was honored to be recognized by Pierre with the Inclusive Excellence award.”
Impact and Integrity
Alison Kibble Koshi first came to work for Sheryl in 2000, and worked with her for 20 years before transitioning to her current role in IPPS. “When I came into the position, I didn’t know anything about technology or telecommunications,” Alison recalls. “But Sheryl had a lot of confidence in me that I didn’t even have within myself. A lot of whatever I’ve learned in my job, even today, 90% came from Sheryl.”
Alison affirms Sheryl’s commitment to work-life balance. “When something comes up with our families, Sheryl is the first to encourage us to focus on it and not think about ITS,” Alison explains. “And I find that to be really important for work-life balance.”
Valerie and Alison both recognize Sheryl’s financial acumen and commitment to best practices. “Sheryl has some of the highest standards of integrity of anyone I’ve ever met,” says Valerie.
In fact, Sheryl was recognized by the campus in 2018 with a UC San Diego Integrity Award. The nomination included the following statement: “Sheryl is deeply respected and her work is trustworthy and trusted. As a role model, she inspires others (including myself) to strive for her same high level of moral and ethical compass. Over the years I’ve worked with her, I can say she has made me a better person and more dedicated to these values.”
Of Sheryl’s financial acumen, Alison adds, “Most people probably don’t really understand how budgets get made and allocated. Sheryl has done so much to protect the financial resources for IT, but also make sure we’re properly using funds. There’s no magic sauce that happens in the background - it’s due to very savvy financial planning on her part.”
The role comes with high expectations for those who work with and for Sheryl, but there’s also a lighter side. “Maybe most people only see the serious side,” says Alison, “but Sheryl’s got a hidden sense of humor too.”
Future Projects
The time has come, though, for Sheryl to look to her future. She cites both personal and professional reasons for electing to retire now.
Family is very important to Sheryl. In retirement, she’ll look to assist in caring for her elderly parents. She also wants to spend more time with her two daughters - Jillian, 33, a local physical therapy doctor, and Sydney, 31, who works in retail management in Houston.
There will be time for hobbies, too! Sheryl looks forward to traveling, scrapbooking, gardening, and volunteering at her church and with women’s organizations.
“I’m happy with where we are with ESR, and I think the next generation coming through is ready to take over,” Sheryl says to summarize her retirement decision. “I’ve been blessed to work with so many great people, including the staff currently here. I feel like I’ve accomplished what I needed to accomplish and am leaving the organization in a good spot.”