Staff Profile: Sarah Whyte – 30 years

Sarah Whyte

Sarah Whyte knows a thing or two about quality improvement.

The director of Strategic Planning and Quality Improvement has been on campus in Administration and Business Affairs for 30 years, beginning as a clerical assistant. She worked her way up to assistant to the vice president, later assuming additional responsibility for the division budget, quality improvement program and a variety of special projects and initiatives. 

Currently, she’s planning for the future of the division in alignment with the campus’ Destination 2010 initiative and new Strategic Plan.

“Quality improvement means striving for excellence within our organization,” Whyte says. “We are always looking to improve in three areas: processes, how employees are treated and how customers are treated. Also, as custodians of the University’s financial resources, we focus on proactive communication and relationship building to assist campus business partners with their stewardship responsibilities.

“Destination 2010 calls for the building of a welcoming campus,” she says. “We do this in several ways. By streamlining and automating processes, we can facilitate access to campus services. In working on providing the best customer service, we become ambassadors of the campus. We strive to develop high employee morale to support that.” 

In addition, Whyte chairs two division committees—the Destination 2010 Leadership Council, a strategic planning body comprised of senior managers and staff, and START (Strategy Team: Achieving Results Together), which identifies strategies to strengthen the link between ABA staff and Destination 2010.  “START is essentially a network that spreads news about ABA activities and gathers feedback from staff to help inform decisions,” Whyte says. The team will focus on staff programs, particularly those centered on recognition.

The START staff members help to promote division-wide understanding of ABA’s planning process through a Balanced Scorecard, a strategic framework which organizes the division’s long-term goals into the four major categories that drive success: people, processes, customers, and stewardship and image.

This spring, Whyte will become chair of the California State University’s Quality Improvement Planning Committee, charged with setting the direction for the Quality Improvement Program across the system. 

Whyte was also appointed as a certified reviewer of the Baldridge improvement program of the California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE). CAPE is administered by the California Council for Excellence, a non-profit organization.  CAPE encourages California organizations in all sectors to improve through a performance excellence program named for Malcolm Baldridge, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1981-87. Known for his dedication to quality improvement as a key to the country’s prosperity and strength, Congress named the Baldridge National Quality Award in his honor.

“As a Baldridge examiner, I’m able to evaluate applicants for the quality improvement awards,” Whyte says, “And because of that, I have a wonderful opportunity to learn the best business practices and apply that knowledge to our division’s processes.”