Employee Spotlight: Kristen Knight

Rachel Gerner

Kristen Knight is the associate director of contract services for engineering and construction

Kristen Knight's job in Facilities Management gives her a different perspective of the campus than most employees. With the exception of large capital projects, Knight's and her team's work happens behind the scenes. It is not visible to most of the campus community, and that is by design.

"We are not just doing construction. We are doing construction on an active campus of 35,000 people," Knight said. "We work inside buildings that are occupied and on streets where buses run, so everything we do has to be well thought out and planned.

"Our goal is for you to not think about what we are doing here," she continued. "You don't see our power lines because we bury our utiliites, feeding our buildings from a central utility system. We are very conscious about creating a campus environment that is safe and beautiful."

As the associate director of contract services for engineering and construction for Facilities Management, Knight and the team of construction coordinators she oversees are responsible for creating campus utilities and managing construction projects in the least disruptive way possible.

Since she was 15 years old, Knight has wanted to be an architect. She completed her Bachelor of Architecture from the U of A. After graduating, she practiced architecture in the Northwest Arkansas community for over a decade before being selected for the design team that assisted with restoration and addition projects on campus. After her firm closed due to the recession at the end of the project, she was offered an hourly position in the U of A Planning Department. She began working as a construction coordinator within a year and accepted a promotion to her current role in late 2015.

Facilities Management handles multi-year projects, and Knight's team of six construction coordinators is currently managing approximately 200 ongoing projects in design and construction. The members of these teams work tirelessly throughout the year to make the U of A campus continue to function and to look beautiful. With her experience in both the private and public construction sectors, Knight finds that the university environment provides a unique experience that she couldn't find in the private sector.

"We have some of the most important historic buildings in the state of Arkansas on this campus. They are important to our heritage and important to the university," Knight said. "When we are building something, we are building a 100-year building. Where else in your career do you replace the columns of Old Main or carry on the tradition of Senior Walk? Where else could you simultaneously be building research labs, a dining hall and the expansion of Razorback Stadium?"

Knight savors the opportunity to use her role to support her clients' academic work across campus and learn about it in the process.

"I have fantastic, intelligent, well educated clients all over this campus. They know their business; they know what they need, and that is not something readily available outside of this type of higher education environment," she said. "In the last 10 years, I have built great relationships. Getting to know the clients and their needs is an extremely rewarding experience."

Working at the U of A also provides benefits that, according to Knight, are not available in the private sector. Knight loves that her job gives her vacation time that allows her to travel with her family for a couple of weeks each year, and Knight's daughter used the employee dependent tuition discount when she started school this fall.

Knight and her team continue to do work that will be enjoyed for centuries to come. While their goal is to be invisible, their unique perspectives of this historic campus are important to acknowledge.

"From my position, it's like we have our own city. We have our own crews, our own utilities, and it's my job to support the person that's running the heat plant just as much as the dean of a college," Knight said. "This is a complex, fascinating environment to work in."

HR Graduate Assistant Darby Gilliland contributed to this article.

About the Employee Spotlight Series: The employee spotlight series highlights U of A faculty and staff members, the impact they have on campus and the community more broadly, and what makes the university an employer of choice for them individually. Each U of A employee plays a critical role in advancing the 150 Forward strategic priorities: advancing student success, achieving research excellence and enhancing the university's status as an employer of choice. If you have a recommendation of an employee to interview, contact Rachel Gerner at rgerner@uark.edu.