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Community Invited to Retirement Reception for Susan Briggs

June 20, 2018

The University of Montana Western invites the community to attend a retirement reception celebrating the career of Susan Briggs, Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance. The celebration will be held on Monday, June 25, 2018 from 4-7 p.m. in the Model Classroom in Main Hall on the Montana Western campus.

Susan Briggs

Briggs, a Dillon, Mont. native, is retiring at the end of June after 20 years of dedicated and excellent service to the University of Montana Western, and before that, served in Missoula for 13 years at the University of Montana.

While at UM, Briggs worked in several areas of fiscal affairs and became the UM Affiliation liaison on the Banner Finance software system project before returning to her hometown.

Briggs has served as the Vice Chancellor of Administration, Finance and Student Affairs and has been instrumental in securing funding for several construction and renovation projects at UMW as well as her involvement in bringing the Montana Youth Challenge Academy to campus.  She worked closely with architects and contractors in a series of projects including the construction of the Swysgood Technology Center, the addition of elevators in the Business and Technology Building, and the extraordinary 10-year renovation of Main Hall.

She also guided the implementation of several green projects during her career at Montana Western. This included the addition of solar panels on campus, the university’s wood-fired boiler as part of the “Fuels for Schools” grant, and the relocation of the ceramics and glass facilities to a state-of-the-art facility in the Emerick Art Studio.

A passionate gardener, Briggs also oversees the planting and maintenance of UMW’s Ed Cebull Memorial Garden, located in front of the Student Union Building. Ed Cebull, an English professor at the time the SUB was built, originally started the garden which adds a pop of color and beautiful accent to the campus.

Briggs’s family have been passionate supporters of Montana Western for many years. In fact, her father, Carl Davis, was a major supporter of Montana Western and spent many years on the Executive Board.

Bob Briggs, Susan’s husband, worked at Western States Equipment in Missoula, Mont. before coming to Dillon a few months after Susan became the Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance at UMW in 1998. Bob would later work for the Montana State Highway Department out of Dillon.

“It was such an honor to be a steward of Montana Western for a short time in its long history. Working here has been a joy for twenty years,” expressed Briggs.

She has been a member of multiple Montana University System Board of Regents Task Forces and has been recognized many times for her outstanding leadership. She received the “Regents Award for Excellence” in 2012 for her work on the MUS Employee Benefit Plan Committee and the State of Montana’s 2008 “Excellence in Leadership Award” for her work in the public sector. This award honors exemplary leadership by women in the workplace and was sponsored by the Interagency Committee for Change by Women.

In addition to her role in enriching the campus, Briggs has also been a part of several innovative initiatives.

“One of the most exciting changes at Montana Western I was involved in was the implementation of the Experience One program,” said Briggs. “It takes everyone joining together to make things happen.”

Please join us in the celebration of Susan Briggs on Monday, June 25, 2018.  The event is free, and refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact Hillary Lowell by email at [email protected] or call 406-683-7151.

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