Davina Desnoes

Davina Desnoes joined UCF’s Administration and Finance Division as senior assistant vice president of budget planning and analysis in January 2025 responsible for the preparation and oversight of the university’s $2.3+ billion operating budget and the development of associated policies and procedures to support strategic resource allocation and planning and effective stewardship of financial resources. She collaborates with the Academic Affairs division on matters of mutual concern and serves as a business owner for Workday’s Financial ERP system and reporting software, Adaptive Planning.

Davina’s prior background includes 14 years at Cornell University where she was initially appointed as university budget director and rapidly advanced to assistant vice president for budget and planning.  She represented Cornell on all budget and related matters with the State University of New York (SUNY), oversaw an all-funds operating budget of $2B, capital budget of $1B and administrative support costs of $500M along with managing provost commitments and other special initiatives. She also served as a senior position planning advisor partnering with Human Resources to think strategically about position management and create dashboards utilizing data from human resources, budget, and financial systems to support decision making and management for $1.3B salary budget.

Preceding her successful career at Cornell, Davina spent 19 years of progressive experience at SUNYs University at Buffalo providing leadership, supervision, and guidance in the areas of administrative operations, budget allocation and planning, contracts and grants administration, and position management. Throughout her long higher education career, she assisted in or led the development of long-term financial strategies and forecasting models/tools, collaborated with other units to improve reporting practices and use of institutional data to support analysis and decision-making in enrollment management, financial aid, facilities, etc., and implemented best practices and internal controls to improve efficiency and compliance with organizational policies related to budgeting and finance.

Davina is committed to the Finance profession and remains active in her field via continuous professional development and active participation in national organizations such as National Association of College University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (NCCI). She is a graduate from the University at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management, and a Master of Education in Educational Administration and Higher Education.