Clare Shinnerl is vice chancellor for UC Davis Finance, Operations and Administration, where she leads more than 1,700 employees who steward campus resources.

Prior to joining UC Davis in 2022, Shinnerl (SHIN-air-el) served as senior associate vice chancellor for Campus Life Services at UC San Francisco. She also previously worked as the chief operating and financial officer, or COO/CFO, for the Pacific Business Group on Health. She’s provided leadership to teams within Stanford University’s School of Engineering, the University of Southern California and UCLA.

She was born in Germany and arrived in California at 18 with one suitcase and a typewriter to start her freshman year at UC San Diego. She and her husband, a fellow Triton, have raised a daughter and son together. She runs religiously and enjoys kickboxing and biking.

Shinnerl has a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Redlands. She is also a LEAN Six Sigma Green Belt and holds certificates in diversity, equity and inclusion from the University of Michigan, design thinking from Stanford, and hotel administration from Cornell University. She has a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego.