Meet the Speakers

2024 Virtual Workshop | The Three Cs of Higher Education Budgeting: Concepts, Creation & Connections

Dr. Linda Kosten, Vice Provost for Budget, Planning and Administration at University of Denver

Linda Kosten, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice Provost for University Budget, Planning, and Administration at the University of Denver. Dr. Kosten manages the current and multi-year development of the academic budget and oversees the institutional research and analysis office. She also serves as vice-chair of the University’s Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC) and provides coordination and oversight for the University’s 20-some lead business officers. Dr. Kosten combines the work of these offices to provide relevant data for decision making to the leadership of the University serving on the Chancellor’s Cabinet and regularly reporting on key performance indicators (KPIs) and rankings to the Board of Trustees.

Dr. Kosten has served DU for 30 years receiving eight promotions during this time. Since 2006 in budget and planning at the University level. In 2023, Dr. Kosten served as Interim CFO. Prior positions included overseeing budget and planning in arts, humanities, social sciences, as well as housing and student affairs. In both appointments, in addition to overseeing budget, business operations, and human resources functions, she was involved in capital projects for new residence halls and a new performing arts center. She has her PhD and MA in higher education from the University of Denver and her BA in theatre and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dr. Kosten’s book, Decentralized Budgeting and the Academic Dean: Perspectives on the Effectiveness of Responsibility Center Management (2009), explores the effectiveness of RCM from the perspectives of 146 deans at 27 universities. She has consulted with other universities investigating a transition to decentralized budgeting, worked with the Lumina Foundation on investigating the connections between states’ outcomes-based funding policies and responsibility center management, and currently teaches Higher Education Finance in the higher education graduate program at DU.

Dr. Kosten serves on the board of the Western Association of College and University Business Officers (WACUBO) as the chair of the Comprehensive, Doctoral, and Research Institutions Committee (CDRIC), on the board for the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries as treasurer, and is a certified yoga teacher.

Sarah Mangum, Associate Vice Chancellor for Budget and Institutional Analysis, University of California, Davis

Sarah Mangum is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Budget and Institutional Analysis at the University of California, Davis. Sarah leads a team that is responsible for the campus budget, budget process, allocations, budget monitoring, policy analysis, and decision support for campus leaders. Her group is also responsible for overseeing campus student fee processes and policy, budget model allocations, the faculty hiring authorization process, and centrally managed faculty resources.  She also leads the Institutional Analysis team, the central resource for data about UC Davis.  The combined work of these offices support campus leadership in decision making, meeting and monitoring progress toward strategic goals, analyzing trends, and discovering new opportunities.

Prior to coming to UC Davis in 2010, she worked for the State of California for over ten years in similar budget and administrative positions, primarily in the Department of Finance. She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and bachelor’s degrees in Sociology-Organizational Studies and History from UC Davis.

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