Administration and Finance Leadership

Vice Dean, Administration and Finance

Renee received a Master of Public Administration degree with a concentration in nonprofit management in 2015 from USC. In addition, she completed the prestigious H.E.R.S Institute in Higher Education Leadership Development in 2016. She has 13 years of experience in higher education administration, she began her USC career in Dornsife in 2011, before that she worked at California State University Long Beach. She also spent many years working in both primary/secondary education and corporate environments.

In her current position, she oversees the administration and finance of USC Dornsife. The areas for which she is responsible are operations, finance, research, faculty affairs, diversity, human resources, technology Services, architectural and facility services. She and her team of outstanding individuals have a strong focus on improvements in efficient processes and customer service to ensure our academic and research mission continually progresses upward.

Contact: (213) 740-8400 | reneeper@usc.edu

Director of Research Administration

Monica Bolden has over 30 years in research and clinical trial administration.  She started her research administration career at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio at the early stages of fuel cell research.  She has over five years experience in a sponsored programs office similar to the USC DCG dept.

Prior to joining USC, she worked UCLA as the CFO for the Chemistry Biochemistry department processing grants, contracts as well as gifts and endowments.

Contact: (213) 740-4944 |  mbolden@usc.edu

Executive Director of Business Operations

Ramiro Euyoque Jr. is the executive director of business operations at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Before joining USC Dornsife, Ramiro was the associate dean for business services at Loyola Marymount University, School of Education (LMU SOE) and was responsible for budget and finance, strategic planning, human resources, risk management, and enrollment management.

Prior to LMU, Ramiro was the director of operations at St. Anne School, a private PK-8 school in Orange County, CA. Ramiro was responsible for capital projects planning, business continuity planning, renovations, maintenance, and campus security.

Ramiro also spent 3+ years at Cisco Systems as a planning analyst and a Financial analyst and, began his working career as a mechanical engineer for a private engineering firm, designing and building machinery for the roll-forming industry.

Ramiro earned an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Loyola Marymount University.

Contact: (213) 764‑7979 | ramiro.euyoque@usc.edu

Associate Dean for College Facility Planning, Design, and Operations

As Program Director for Architectural Services at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Science, Alfonso D’Onofrio and his team design, develop and manage the academic, research, and administrative space program within the Dornsife space portfolio.  Responsibilities include coordinating with various Dornsife constituents, assessing their needs, and representing them in interactions with USC’s Capital Construction & Facilities Management Services to execute relevant capital projects.  By both engaging in long term planning and assisting with executing immediate projects, Architectural services help ensure Dornsife facilities are adequately set up to support the academic and research programs of today and tomorrow.  He has been at USC since May 2019.

Before joining USC, he has held similar roles at other educational institutions including New York University and Chadwick School, and has worked at architectural firms including Gensler and Richard Meier & Partners on institutional projects at Vassar, NYU, and Yale.

Contact: (213) 740-0892 | adonofri@usc.edu

Associate Dean, Academic Culture and Well-being

Dr. Quade French is a licensed clinical psychologist who has served in numerous leadership roles at USC.  In his current role with USC Dornsife, he is driven by the belief that the achievement of the academic mission is only possible when we take care of the people who comprise the academic community.

He assists senior leadership, faculty, and staff in identifying individual, interpersonal, and systemic barriers to achieving the academic mission.  Dr. French centers relationship-building and perspective-taking as foundational to any meaningful change.

He guides leadership, faculty, staff, and students to emphasize humility over hubris in the pursuit of equity, curiosity over certainty as they work to build an inclusive community, and courage over fear to cultivate a positive culture at USC Dornsife.

He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where his research focused on the racial and ethnic identity development of transracially adopted people as well as the study of adoptive family systems. He has served as adjunct faculty in the USC Rossier School of Education graduate programs.

Contact: (213) 740‑4950 | qfrench@usc.edu

Associate Dean, Director of Faculty Affairs

Lisa Itagaki is currently the associate dean, director of faculty affairs in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Her team of six manages the hiring, onboarding, promotions, retentions, retirements, administrative appointments, endowed appointments, leaves, teaching loads, performance evaluations, annual merit raises, visas, payroll, and records, etc., of the roughly 1,000 tenured, tenure-track, research, teaching, and practice faculty and 100 postdoctoral teaching fellows and visiting scholars across Dornsife. Lisa has worked in USC Dornsife Faculty Affairs for over 13 years, having started in January 2010, and was previously a director of postdoctoral and visiting scholar services at UCLA Graduate Division and a former associate curator of collections at the Japanese American National Museum in Downtown LA. She holds an MA in Asian American Studies from UCLA as well as a BA in American History and African History from the University of California, San Diego.

Contact: (213) 740‑4954 | litagaki@dornsife.usc.edu

Associate Dean for Human Resources

Jeff and his team of human resource experts provide USC Dornsife with support for all aspects of the employee life cycle. From recruitment through exit strategy, the human resources team guides, coaches and consults with USC Dornsife employees at every stage.

Prior to joining USC, Jeff gained extensive experience leading organizational change and growth. He first joined the university as the human resources manager for USC Libraries before moving to USC Dornsife. Bringing a wealth of experience from private and public institutions of higher education, private industry and government agencies, Jeff uses his insights and professional experience to positively impact the USC Dornsife workforce.

Jeff is a graduate of Illinois State University (B.S.) and Michigan State University with dual master’s degrees in adult education and higher education administration. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards and community advisory councils.

Contact: (213) 740-8273 | jeffredj@dornsife.usc.edu

Associate Dean and Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer

John has 25 years of experience as an information technology professional. In his current role, John leads the USC Dornsife Technology Services team, which oversees teaching, research and administrative IT support for over 4,000 USC Dornsife faculty, students and staff. John joined USC Dornsife as IT director in 2004 to build a formal and comprehensive IT support team. With a focus on customer service and an entrepreneurial approach, he has built a world-class department supporting help desk operations, research computing, distance learning, technology enhanced learning, application development, web development and infrastructure management.

In 2007, John received the inaugural USC Dornsife Staff Achievement Award. John’s management and technical specialties include team building, setting IT vision, leadership, cross-unit collaboration, project management, technology innovation, web development, application development, distance learning, and network and system design.

Prior to USC, John worked for 15 years in the entertainment industry as IT director for Mole-Richardson Company, an 87-year-old Hollywood movie lighting company. He is a graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business.

Contact: (213) 740-8113 | jrparker@dornsife.usc.edu

Executive Director, Decision Support

Eric’s research experience spans more than 18 years in both academic and industry settings. Among his accomplishments is the development and commercialization of medical devices and clinical research software with a focus on improving health outcomes. Eric completed his biomedical engineering degree at the University of Miami and initiated his career designing and commercializing implantable medical devices at Johnson and Johnson.

After seven years, he transitioned into the clinical research sector, working in both operations and informatics (e.g., electronic medical records, clinical research management systems, biorepositories. Most recently, he has run a consulting practice within a clinical research software company. Eric joined USC Dornsife in March 2017.

Contact: (213) 740-0753 | ericp@usc.edu

Executive Director of Finance

Taisha Wright has over 10 years of experience in higher education, which includes both the for-profit and not-for-profit education sectors.  Taisha has a proven track record of providing in-depth reviews of operations and financial analysis in order to find solutions that improve operational efficiencies, workflow, and morale with a positive budget impact. Taisha has been with the Dornsife Business Office since May 2016 and currently serves as the Executive Director of Finance.  Taisha also represents USC Dornsife on many USC-wide committees and workgroups across campus.    

Taisha is a first generation college graduate.  She received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 2007 and an executive MBA in 2021, both from USC Marshall School of Business.

Contact: (213) 821‑5582 | taishawr@usc.edu