O’Connor named first compliance director at UCCS
Deborah O’Connor, former manager of University of Colorado Health’s compliance oversight, has been named the first UCCS campus compliance director and patient privacy officer.
O’Connor will be responsible for helping ensure UCCS follows applicable state and federal laws for issues such as protecting patient privacy, part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Title IX, which protects against discrimination by gender, and myriad laws surrounding federal student financial aid programs and sponsored research. O’Connor will work in conjunction with the UCCS Compliance Coordination Committee to identify key compliance risks and ways to mitigate those risks.
One of her first priorities is to develop a compliance website that will be a resource for faculty, staff, students and volunteers to get answers to key compliance topics.
For 19 years, O’Connor worked at Memorial Hospital/University of Colorado Health in positions that included trauma coordinator assistant, quality research specialist and research compliance manager. Since 2010, she served as compliance oversight manager and was responsible for establishing systemwide policies and procedures, training and education, creating an integrity hotline, and incident tracking and reporting.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Colorado State University and a master’s in biology from UCCS. She has been active in several community and professional organizations including the Trauma Nurses Talk Tough High School Program, Toastmasters, and the Think First Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Prevention Program.