Tate Duch and Melissa Rockwell-Hopkins have been named to expanded leadership roles in the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) at Washington University in St. Louis.
Duch is now vice chancellor for enterprise decision support and CAO administration. Rockwell-Hopkins is now vice chancellor for enterprise physical operations, infrastructure, capital programs and real estate. Both positions report to Nichol Luoma, executive vice chancellor for administration and chief administrative officer.
The appointments reflect WashU’s continued work to strengthen operations, infrastructure, long-range planning and strategic decision-making across the university. They are also intended to enhance coordination across areas that support the university’s academic, research, clinical and administrative missions.
“These appointments position WashU to better connect strategy, operations and stewardship across the institution,” Luoma said. “Melissa and Tate each bring deep expertise, sound judgment and an enterprise perspective that will help us support the university’s mission now and for the long term.”
About Duch
Duch’s expanded role will focus on enterprise decision support, integrating strategic analysis, financial strategy and operational insight to support senior decision-making across WashU. He will also continue to oversee day-to-day administrative operations across the CAO portfolio.
Duch has served as associate vice chancellor, head of administrative financial planning and analysis, and special adviser to the CAO. He has played a central role in strengthening enterprise financial insight, board-level analysis and executive decision support across the university.
His work has included complex business case development and review, scenario modeling, financial and operational tradeoff analysis, and long-range planning. Most recently, Duch played a central role in a multi-unit cost review that strengthened financial sustainability and reduced prorations across the institution.
In his new role, Duch will work closely with Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Enterprise Physical Operations and other university units on long-range planning, investment prioritization and enterprise-wide analysis.
About Rockwell-Hopkins
In her new role, Rockwell-Hopkins will lead an enterprise portfolio that brings together responsibility for the university’s physical environment, long-term capital stewardship and real estate strategy. As part of the transition, the real estate team will report directly to Rockwell-Hopkins, integrating real estate strategy within the broader physical operations portfolio.
Rockwell-Hopkins previously led major physical operations and capital planning work for WashU Medicine. Under her leadership, WashU Medicine has delivered more than $2.4 billion in mission-aligned capital projects since 2013, supporting research, education, patient care and campus life. Those projects include the Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building; the Susan and Steven Lipstein BJC Institute of Health vertical expansion; the Gary C. Werths Building at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine; the Mid Campus Center; the Debra and George W. Couch III Biomedical Research Building; and the Child Development Center at the Taylor Avenue Building. Many were carried out in partnership with BJC HealthCare.
Rockwell-Hopkins brings more than 35 years of leadership experience in higher education, healthcare, engineering and hospitality. Her experience includes leadership positions at the University of Houston, The Ohio State University and engineering firm CH2MHILL. She holds degrees in law and justice, human resources, public administration and a doctorate in educational leadership and organizational change from Baylor University.
