GPI - Ryan Hacker, Associate Vice President of Facilities and Capital Projects
- Dylan Pichnarcik and Kennedy Thompson
- Oct 10
- 3 min read
By Dylan Pichnarcik
Associate Editor
By Kennedy Thompson
Staff Writer
What is your academic and professional background?
I've been in the public sector my whole career. I am trained as an architect. I have an undergrad degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, and my grad degree is in facilities management from Massachusetts Maritime Academy. So two fellow state institutions like here at Framingham. I'm a strong proponent of public higher education. And I am a graduate of two of the state's nine public state universities so definitely a point of pride for me. I know when applying to this position and interviewing here that was something that really resonated and it was certainly a draw for me because of the positive experience that I have had personally in my educational career. So it has definitely been a big part of my reasoning to come here and remain in the public sector. Professionally, I worked for the state for 10-and-a-half years at UMass Chan Medical School as one of their in-house designers and later an architectural and construction project manager. And then for the past two-and-a-half years, I was most recently at the city of Worcester as their assistant director of facilities and capital projects. So, I actually oversaw all of the capital programming directly. It was my main area of focus. But also, we had a department of 206 staff members. ... Worcester was the second largest school district in New England and had 25,000 students, 5,000 staff members, and 4.5 million square feet of space. So, very large buildings of all ranges from stuff 140 years old to the new school that we opened up last year. I have loved the public sector and I’m delighted to keep that trajectory going by being here.
What brought you to Framingham State?
I think the opportunity to stay in the public sector for me was big. I wanted to get back to being on a college campus. I loved my time at UMass Medical. UMass Chan has a relatively small student population [and is a] very big research institution. Often labs would be staffed by post-docs and sometimes students. But I love the energy of a campus and helping students too. I have a job because of the students and the faculty and staff here. We have to deliver the best possible spaces for education and learning. To me, that's really a point of pride.
What issues do you hope to address in your role?
My philosophy is to hit the ground listening. The work of this role is not new to me, this is my professional career. I'm familiar with the work. It's fairly universal across all facilities … every facility has challenges, like today with the roof leaks. So, on my way, I called up Danny [Giard.] I said, “Danny, Hey, Where are the problem spots for inclement weather?” I live out in Worcester and I was driving in torrential rains. I'm going, “OK, there's going to be some issues.” And sure enough, there were. So, some of it's very predictable. There's the operational stuff that we know is going to happen all the time that just is part of the territory. There's some exciting new capital projects like Linsley Hall with the conversion. We're in the Campus Master Plan closing steps that dictate the future of layout and changes on campus that will all be made public and for comment, for faculty, students and community comment. … I want to make sure my department staff has all the tools they need to do their job and to serve the students and campus population. And I will add that I want to ensure that students feel like we're here for them, and to be able to come to us because [students are] my customers. So I want [students] to be happy, whether it's in the dorms or your classroom and learning spaces. We're here to support students.
