Executive Director of the Global Universal Design Commission & Director of Operations & Business Manager, Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University
Diana FooteExecutive Director of the Global Universal Design Commission & Director of Operations & Business Manager, Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University
Diana has served as Business Manager for the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University since 2008 and as Director of Operations since 2011. In this role, Diana manages the budgets of numerous projects including external grants, contracts, and gifts, as well as the overall departmental budget. In addition to overseeing day-to-day operations, she manages resources for current and future goals of BBI through the development of single and multi-year projections.
A 1991 graduate of SU’s Whitman School of Management, Diana served as an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand LLP (PwC) and Dermody Burke & Brown CPAs LLC where she obtained substantial experience in both the private and public sectors. Diana, a life-long learner, is currently pursuing her MBA (2018) in Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management.
In 2013, Diana began serving as Principal Investigator (PI) of the Appellate Brief Legal Training project, a 5-year, $2.8 million dollar project at BBI. She is also PI of the Onondaga E911 Emergency Communications Policy Review and Oversight Committee (PROC) Governance Group formalization project and Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on the Oswego County Emergency Communications Governance and SOP study project.
In July of 2016, Diana was appointed Executive Director of the Global Universal Design Commission, an organization that promotes the understanding and use of Universal Design (UD) in the development of buildings, products and environments.
A resident of Elbridge for over 20 years, Diana has been an active volunteer in her community through the PTA, PTO, as a Classroom Mom in two schools, and as an assistant Little League Coach. She also took on what she considers to be one of the greatest privileges and responsibilities to her community when elected to the JECSD Board of Education. She served as Vice-President of the Board and as a member of the Audit, Budget, and Policy committees.