Christine Packard joined the University of Massachusetts (UMass) in August 2019 to serve in the University’s first position fully dedicated to enterprise risk management (ERM). In her role as Assistant Vice President for ERM, Ms. Packard is responsible for the systemwide enterprise risk management program, working with the five UMass campuses to ensure the identification, assessment, and mitigation of systemwide risks. She has focused the UMass systemwide ERM program not only to understand what risks UMass faces as a public institution of higher education, but also to create transparency on how and how well the University is mitigating these risks.
Ms. Packard led the creation of MATRX©, the University’s award-winning risk mitigation assessment tool. The implementation of MATRX© has enabled the University to better understand the impact ongoing mitigation strategies have in reducing the University’s risk exposure and is fostering a culture of risk-awareness.
Prior to joining UMass, Ms. Packard spent more than 15 years in the field of emergency management, most recently serving as the Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.