As if overseeing facilities operations at seven public universities wasn’t enough on her plate, one year ago, Gretchen Catlin decided to go back to school.
In addition to her duties as the chief facilities and general services officer for the University of Maine System, Catlin is also pursuing a doctorate in Public Policy and Leadership through the University of Southern Maine. Her research is exploring how the condition of university facilities impacts student enrollment and institutional competitiveness.
“It’s a topic I’m deeply passionate about, both professionally and academically,” she says.
Catlin has two more semesters to finish before moving on to her dissertation and research, giving meaning to the belief that you can never stop learning.
“I’m never done,” Catlin says of her continued thirst for accumulating knowledge. “There’s always another layer to dive into, so I could keep on going and going.”
While her family sleeps in on Saturday mornings, Catlin can be found doing homework as early as 5 a.m. When she gets home after a long day at work, she tries to fit in an hour of studies before turning in.
Her boss, Ryan Low, the vice chancellor of Finance Administration and Strategic AI Integration, has the responsibility of signing off on her tuition waivers for the doctorate classes, and remains amazed at how Catlin balances both responsibilities while also having a family.
“I’m so constantly reminded like, ‘Holy Cow, I can’t believe she’s doing this and doing it with her daughter at the same time taking classes,’” Low says. “It’s just really, really impressive.”
When Catlin was an undergraduate student, she worked a summer job for the University of Southern Maine’s facilities department as part of the painting crew doing what they called “summer slammer” projects.
“We painted several campus offices, and the go-to color at the time was called egret, a white color with strong yellow undertones,” she recalls. “I can say with confidence that I’ll never use that color in my home.”
The summer job helped her pay the bills, but it also provided a window into what a potential career in facilities might look like.
“What sticks with me most is the camaraderie of our crew and the appreciation I developed for what it takes to keep a campus running, down to a fresh coat of paint in an office,” she says. “That early experience gave me a real respect for frontline facilities work and helped shape my leadership style today: One that values every role and understands how each task contributes to the greater mission.”
Catlin spent the first two decades of her career in the healthcare industry before moving over to the University of Maine system in 2019 as its director of Risk Management and Real Estate. She says her experiences from that summer job helped prepare her for what would lie ahead in higher education.
“I began connecting those early lessons to the broader responsibilities of mitigating organizational risk,” she says. “I had oversight of workers’ compensation and liability claims, which meant being proactive about safety and root cause analysis. That role showed me how essential preventive maintenance is, not just for aesthetics, but for reducing risk and protecting people and resources. It was a full-circle moment that reaffirmed how facilities decisions impact the entire institution.”
When she moved into her current position in 2022, Catlin’s role evolved to include overseeing capital planning and project management, integrated work management, space management, strategic procurement and real estate property services.
An important goal was accomplished when she helped align the system’s facilities and general services departments to work together as one team.
“We’ve created a culture shift away from silos and toward transparency, partnership and continuous improvement,” she says. “With oversight of such a broad portfolio, we’ve established clearer processes, more strategic and data-informed capital planning and a unified approach to infrastructure investment that reflects the evolving needs of our campuses and communities.”
Maine’s success with facilities stems from the support that Catlin and her colleagues are given from the top. From the campus president and its board of trustees, the facilities team knows that the system leaders are in alignment with what’s best for the students and faculty.
“Aligning so many diverse groups under a shared mission is no small task — it requires patience, diplomacy and a clear vision,” says Joe Moir, the director of Facilities and Regulatory Compliance at the university’s Presque Isle campus who has been with the system for 24 years.
“Gretchen’s ability to do this successfully speaks volumes about her leadership. Each department has its own priorities and challenges and bringing them together around a unified strategic direction takes consistent communication, trust-building and a focus on common goals. Her success in achieving this alignment demonstrates both her strategic insight and her genuine commitment to collaboration for the greater good of the university community.”
AI is one of those technologies in facilities management that is either embraced or greeted with hesitancy; there seems to be little in-between in terms of how or even if it should be used.
Catlin and the University of Maine System have embraced AI and in many ways are on the forefront of how universities are utilizing the technology.
“With AI, we really gave folks a license to experiment,” says Low. “We put together a system task force and set aside some resources so that we could demo these tools and put them into play and really encourage people to jump into the deep end, and Gretchen has done that. They’ve been using it in procurement, risk and facilities.”
Considering her thirst for knowledge, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that Catlin jumped feet first into the AI pool. Since the university system embraced AI, Low’s and Catlin’s roles have expanded to include teaching classes on utilizing AI, including an introductory class she teaches.
Among the unique ways that Maine is utilizing AI is determining what campus areas are more prone to workers sustaining injuries. Facilities also will use AI to develop strategic plans for campus projects by condensing research efforts.
“When we do a capital construction project, it’s not just saying we want to spend $3 million renovating this building, but it’s also only three pages of the history of the building,” Low says. “Here’s all the times it was renovated, here’s the last time we were there. That process, pre-AI, was going through board minutes, and even if they’re organized in a SharePoint or Google Drive, they use the same terms over and over.
“We went from a process of maybe multiple days, certainly multiple hours, in figuring out the history of a construction project to minutes.”
The adoption of AI has helped streamline standard operating procedures across the campuses, but Catlin still encourages the school and her employees to progress cautiously.
“We are aware that this is a new technology; it’s ever evolving, so we’re trying to do it in a way that builds confidence and trust with the tools as well,” Catlin says. “We want people to use it responsibly, and we want people to feel confident when they use it. I always say AI is great, but it doesn’t replace human judgment, so always verify the results that you get.”
During her never-ending quest to keep learning and improving, Catlin realizes being a good leader is a path she cannot travel on her own. During meetings and discussions, whether it’s with senior leadership, students, staff or peers, she makes a point to listen — “really listen” as she emphasizes — to the people around her.
“Gretchen’s greatest strength his hear ability to actively listen and make time for meaningful communication,” says Jessica Howe, a project associate for the system who supports operational and policy initiatives across the facilities and general services departments. “She meets one-on-one with each of her direct reports each week, and she holds monthly one-on-one meetings with campus leaders, including facility directors and chief business officers. It’s clear she values these conversations, using them to gather feedback and take action to ensure that people feel heard and supported.”
Sometimes, those listening sessions take place outside a one-on-one or a staff meeting. Recently, Catlin participated in a focus group at the Portland campus to meet with students about their facilities experiences.
“I feel like it’s something that I wish I could do more of,” she says. “Asking students, ‘Are there facilities that you feel really support your learning in your academic performance? Are there facilities that you feel like are hindering your academic performance?’ It’s just creating more spaces for them to share that feedback.”
Collecting the opinions of stakeholders and others in the system helps keep Catlin focused on the bigger purpose of higher education — to ensure that the students who walk on the campus and attend classes leave with a degree and a memorable experience.
“It's the people that make this work so meaningful,” she says. “I’ve had the privilege of working alongside incredibly dedicated facilities teams, people who take pride in making campuses safe, functional and beautiful. There’s something special about the relationships you build when you’re solving problems together and showing up for each other day in and day out.”
Dave Lubach is chief editor of the facilities market. He has 10 years of experience writing about facility management and maintenance issues.
