A university committee is seeking comments as part of a regular performance review of Vice President for Facilities, John Noonan. Reviews of senior administrators are typically conducted in the fourth year of a five-year term, and the results complied in a confidential report. This will be the second such review for Noonan, who has served in his current post since 2011.

Executive Vice President Tallman Trask asked Scott Gibson, Executive Vice Dean for Administration in the School of Medicine, to chair the committee.  Other members are: Kristen Brown (Communications), John Clements (Finance), Anna Gassman-Pines (Sanford School of Public Policy), Ava Vinesett (Dance) and Joyce Williams (Human Resources).

Noonan joined Duke in 2005 as associate vice president for facilities. In 2011, he was promoted to vice president for facilities, where he oversees a workforce of approximately 600 people and an array of functions, including physical plant, planning, design and construction, engineering, utilities, energy, landscape and housekeeping.  

During Noonan’s past five years at Duke, he has managed the campus facilities that have increased building space by 18 percent, representing an addition of 3.1 million gross square feet. Amidst this building growth, Noonan has worked with the Campus Sustainability Committee to reduce source energy consumption on campus by three percent normalized and water consumption by 32 percent.

In addition, greenhouse gas emissions attributable to campus energy use are down 33 percent while building an additional chilled water facility, implementing energy conservation projects, developing new green building standards for Duke and creating a new campus water reclamation pond. He has also worked to improve facilities safety and risk management. Noonan continues to improve the facilities’ organizational units to be more productive and provide the needed services to Duke’s campus.  

An important part of the review process is the gathering of opinions from the university’s many constituencies. Comments on performance and suggestions for the future are important to the committee’s work. Communication should include the nature of interactions with Noonan and his team so that the committee can best understand the context of the comments. 

The committee will discuss responses and a summary will be included in the written report to the executive vice president. The committee will hold all communications in strict confidence.

Comments should be submitted by April 24, 2020. Please send any communications to:

Scott Gibson, Chair

Noonan Review Committee

Box 2927

Durham, North Carolina 27710

admin-review@duke.edu