Kelly Sparks, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Chief Financial Officer
Kelly Sparks is a seasoned finance leader with extensive experience across private, nonprofit, and public sectors. As vice chancellor, Kelly and the finance division will oversee the university’s financial services and controls and provide accurate and timely information and analyses to inform campus decision-making in service of UC Berkeley’s mission of excellent teaching, research, and public service.
Kelly’s diverse professional background—including strategically re-aligning institutional resources at a flagship land-grant institution, building a new university campus, and serving as a senior finance leader in both the non-profit and public sectors—equips her with a unique perspective. She is a strong financial leader, deeply committed to the mission of public higher education and supportive of our strong tradition of shared governance.
Most recently, Kelly has served as the Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Business Officer, Sparks led the turnaround of a $30 million structural budget gap through a comprehensive three-year implementation plan. Working with the university's president and board of trustees, she supported the development of new revenue streams, implemented expense efficiencies, and strategically realigned resources to achieve fiscal sustainability.
In her prior roles, Kelly served as the associate vice president of finance and strategic planning at Oregon State University–Cascades for over nine years. She previously worked in other finance roles within Oregon State University, Peacock Family Services, and Nordstrom. At Nordstrom, Kelly served in two vice president of finance and strategy leadership roles over 10 years, leading both strategic planning and financial planning and analysis functions.
Kelly earned a Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts in East Asian Studies from Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and French Literature with a minor in Japanese from the University of Oregon.
