June 2014
Senate Director to Retire
Martha Kendall Winnacker, the systemwide Academic Senate’s chief of staff for the last six years, will end her tenure as Executive Director later this summer.
Winnacker has served under six Senate chairs and supported the organization through some of the university’s most difficult and challenging times.
A licensed California attorney, Winnacker is known for her legal expertise, a principled, scholarly approach to policy issues, attention to process and strong advocacy for the faculty’s perspective.
“It has been a great privilege to work with the individuals who have played systemwide Senate leadership roles in the past six years,” she said. “My face-to-face interaction with Senate faculty in committees has been enriched by what I’ve learned from historical records documenting the thought that has gone into multiple iterations of the Senate Bylaws and Regulations. Together, those two perspectives have given me enormous respect for Senate processes and the way its structures represent the views of faculty throughout the University. I admire the diligence of its committees and the ways in which the Senate has grappled with thorny issues.”
“In addition, the Senate staff here at UCOP and in the campus Divisions are among the best colleagues I have ever worked with. We are unbelievably fortunate to be able to recruit and retain such smart and dedicated people committed to Senate work.”
Winnacker first came to UCOP in 1989 after a career in non-profit publishing. She ran the Pacific Rim Research Program and the President’s Research Initiative in the Humanities, both launched by President Gardner with new state funds in one of the last periods of “plenty” for the University. After five years of program administration, she migrated to working on copyright and scholarly communication, including participating in the University’s lobbying team for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and staffing copyright and California Digital Library task forces. She co-staffed the 1996 All-University Conference on Teaching and Learning Technologies before becoming deputy to the Associate Vice President for Information Resources and Communications, where she served as chief of staff and was intensely involved in developing the Electronic Communications Policy.
Fascinated by the many legal issues in play, frustrated that University attorneys always had the last word, and inspired by two of her children graduating from college and high school in the Millennium year, she enrolled in law school at Berkeley. She remained at UCOP part-time, working on Clery Act crime reporting compliance, but retired in spring 2002 to embark on a new career in law. Adventures on that path included two stints in Anchorage, first as a clerk on the Alaska Court of Appeals and then as a public defender, six months as a legal aid attorney in San Jose, and a year-and-a-half as a public defender in Contra Costa County.
She returned to UCOP in 2008 as Executive Director of the Academic Senate, having assured the interview committee in June that by September she would be fully familiar with the Senate Bylaws and Regulations. Although it took a lot longer, that learning process led to understanding how thoughtfully the Senate has constructed its governance system over the decades. “Based on that foundation,” she says, “I tried to integrate my knowledge of UCOP, UC, and the law to support the Senate leadership at this challenging time when the University’s need for the Senate’s wisdom is so acute.”
Winnacker obtained her M.A. and J.D. from Berkeley, and two of her children and their spouses are UCSB alumni. After she retires, she says she intends to look for opportunities to use her legal skills on behalf of people who are unable to afford their own lawyers and are not entitled to court-appointed representation, and also to spend as much time as possible with her grandchildren, hiking, reconnecting with former colleagues, and developing her skills as a photographer.
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