Sitzabee elevated to vice president for facilities management and planning

Penn State has elevated the associate vice president position for facilities management and planning to a vice presidential post, given the role’s importance to the University, the sizeable budget accountability and comparative positions at other universities. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State has elevated the associate vice president position for facilities management and planning to a vice presidential post, given the role’s importance to the University, the sizeable budget accountability and comparative positions at other universities.   

Effective July 6, in recognition of the growing scope of operations under his purview, William Sitzabee, current AVP for facilities management and planning, will hold the title of vice president. Sitzabee leads Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant (OPP), overseeing nearly 1,500 employees and a $344 million budget. The Physical Plant consists of more than 22,700 acres of land and more than 33 million square feet of buildings across 28 campuses and research centers. The unit consists of nine divisions: Administrative & Financial Services, Buildings & Grounds, Campus Planning & Design, Commonwealth Services, Design & Construction, Energy & Engineering, Environmental Health & Safety, Facilities Resources & Planning, and Work Control. 

“Bill has done an outstanding job leading OPP and executing the University’s $4.7 billion capital plan,” said David Gray, senior vice president for Finance and Business. “As the University prepares to return to campus this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic, the work of our dedicated and professional OPP employees will be more important than ever in protecting the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff. I couldn’t be more confident in Bill as the leader of this unit, particularly at this moment.”  

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Sitzabee has played a key role in the return to campus and community, and general business continuity task groups. As the executive overseeing Environmental Health & Safety (EHS), he is working with a team of experts focused on strategies to clean and disinfect campus facilities and prepare University properties for the return to campus in the fall. 

In his new role, Sitzabee will continue to report to Gray and will join President’s Council, representing OPP and EHS.  

Sitzabee joined Penn State in July 2017 from Cornell University, where he served as associate vice president of Facilities Engineering and Project Administration and interim vice president for Infrastructure, Properties and Planning, overseeing a building portfolio of 15 million square feet, 2,000 campus acres, and an annual operating budget of $200 million. 

For more than two decades, Sitzabee served in the U.S. Air Force as an engineer, reaching the rank of colonel, before bringing his expertise in the areas of planning, design, construction, maintenance, energy management, sustainability and transportation to higher education. As a former deputy commander of the 379th Civil Engineer Squadron in Qatar, Sitzabee developed a highly rated construction safety program and managed 18 million square feet of airfield, more than 100 aircraft and four power plants.  

Prior to joining the Cornell administration, he was a department chair and professor of aerospace studies at Cornell. He also was the director of the engineering management program and an associate professor of civil engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology. 

Sitzabee earned a doctorate in civil engineering from North Carolina State University, a master’s degree in engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Norwich University. He is a certified professional engineer in New York and North Carolina. 

 

Last Updated July 5, 2020