UCCS hires first compliance director

The former manager of University of Colorado Health’s compliance oversight is the first UCCS campus compliance director and patient privacy officer.

will be responsible for helping ensure UCCS follows applicable state and federal laws for issues such as protecting patient privacy, part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Title IX, which protects against discrimination by gender, and a myriad of laws surrounding Federal student financial aid program and sponsored research.  O’Connor will work in conjunction with the UCCS Compliance Coordination Committee to identify key compliance risks and ways to mitigate those risks.

Charles Sweet, vice chancellor, Strategic Initiatives, announced O’Connor’s appointment.

“I will be meeting with leaders across campus to let them know I’m here to help,” O’Connor said recently. “I am a resource.”

One of her first priorities is to develop a compliance website that will be a resource for faculty, staff, students and volunteers to get answers to key compliance topics.

For 19 years, O’Connor worked at Memorial Hospital/University of Colorado Health in positions that included trauma coordinator assistant, quality research specialist and research compliance manager. Since 2010, she served as compliance oversight manager and was responsible for establishing system-wide policies and procedures, training and education, creating an integrity hotline, and incident tracking and reporting.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Colorado State University and a master’s in biology from UCCS. She has been active in several community and professional organizations including the Trauma Nurses Talk Tough High School Program, Toastmasters, and the Think First Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Prevention Program.

O’Connor can be reached at [email protected] or 255-3837.