Cavanaugh moves into new senior vice president post

December 8, 2006

Kyle Cavanaugh, the University of Florida’s first vice president for human resources, has been promoted to senior vice president for administration, UF President Bernie Machen announced in a board of trustees meeting on Dec 1.

Cavanaugh will fill one of four newly created senior vice presidential posts, handling joint meetings with the eight vice presidents in nonacademic areas such as finance and athletics. He also will continue his human resources duties until that position may be filled.

Since 2005, Cavanaugh has been responsible for overseeing faculty and staff training, employee and labor relations, recruitment, wage and benefits, retirement and disciplinary action. He was instrumental in implementing new health-care programs for graduate students and for domestic partners of UF employees.

A former associate vice president for human resources at the University of Texas at Austin, Cavanaugh had been at UT Austin since 2000. Before that, he spent two years as associate vice president for human resources at Rice University in Houston. He also was the director of human resources for Vanderbilt University for eight years.

Cavanaugh, 48, earned his bachelor’s degree in special, elementary and early childhood education from Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tenn., in 1980. He holds three master’s degrees: one in special education from the University of Illinois, a second in health promotion and exercise science from Vanderbilt, and a master’s in business administration from Belmont University in Nashville in 1994.