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Profile: Debra Gula

By FRED W. WRIGHT JR.
Published May 22, 2006

PREVIOUS POSITION: Director, finance and business services, University of South Florida, Lakeland

Debra Gula has a new office, but she still sees herself as a road warrior, commuting to the Tampa campus instead of the Lakeland campus from her home in Winter Haven.

As a person who has worked with numbers throughout her career, Gula quickly notes her commute is "60 minutes on a good day, 90 on a bad one."

Her job requires Gula, 54, to keep track of other numbers, everything from internal controls and audits to compliance with external auditors on the state and federal level. "We also perform management advisory services," she said.

Her role is to certify the university's cash-collection sites, whether the money is generated by parking fees, tuition payments or computer store purchases, for example, on all four university campuses, including St. Petersburg and Sarasota.

"It's not really all about numbers," Gula said. "It's all about risk, risk being identified as anything that might prevent the university from achieving its goals and missions."

Gula's career has progressed from auditing to working for museums to higher education, a path she said seems to fit her skills.

"What I found was I really like the organizations or institutions that are making a difference in people's lives," she said. "I think this (position) is perfect. What a wonderful way to make a difference for students in our community. It's a personal value I get out of my work life. Number crunching in and of itself needs something more."

It helps that Gula has earned two academic degrees at USF.

Born in Texarkana, Ark., Gula grew up in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. Her father was in the oil business.

She earned a bachelor's degree in accounting at USF in 1980 and obtained her CPA a year later. Gula recently completed her master's degree at USF, receiving the degree in management last year.

Her career began as a public accountant in Lakeland in 1980, first for a CPA firm, next for Polk Museum of Art, then for a construction company. Gula moved to Austin, Texas, where she worked for the Austin Museum of Art as director of finance and administrator until 1998. She then was chief financial officer for Hydrolab Corp. in Austin until 2001, when she moved to Winter Haven to work for Polk Community College. In 2003, Gula joined the University of South Florida in 2003 in Lakeland as director of finance and business services.

She and her husband, David, live on a lake in Winter Haven, so they do a lot of boating, she said. The Gulas have three adult children and seven grandchildren.

They also are "avid Bulls fans," attending all home football games and last season's bowl game in Charlotte, N.C., on New Year's Eve. "We were a small group, but we were loud," she said. "We were green and loud."

- FRED W. WRIGHT JR., Times correspondent

[Last modified May 22, 2006, 08:25:02]