Jackie Galzerano, director of financial aid at the University of Tampa, has spent her career making financial aid more accessible for over 11,000 students through thoughtful system design and active collaboration in the Workday Community.
When Jackie Galzerano talks about her career, she starts with a simple truth, “I’ve definitely been with the university for a while.”
Jackie graduated from the University of Tampa, and after a few years “out in the real world,” she returned to take a job as an admissions counselor. She loved the work, but when the travel became too much for a young family, she moved into financial aid—first as a counselor, then into leadership. Today she serves as UTampa’s director of financial aid and functional lead for Workday Student Management, supporting a campus of more than 11,000 students where over 90% receive some form of aid.
It’s a role where “there’s never a dull moment,” she says. And for Jackie, that’s exactly the point.
“There’s always something new and different…a new regulation, a new challenge, a student who comes in with a situation we hadn’t considered before.”
Financial aid is an environment defined by change—new regulations, new student circumstances, new institutional policies, and a steady flow of questions from families trying to make sense of it all. Jackie thrives on that pace.
“I would get bored doing the same thing every day,” she explains. “There’s always something new and different…a new regulation, a new challenge, a student who comes in with a situation we hadn’t considered before.”
Her days start with Workday notifications and scheduled reports that flag students who need attention: an eligibility code update so federal aid will transmit successfully, an appeal needing review, a student who has to be repackaged, or a set of ISSERs waiting to be processed. She extracts data for federal, state, and institutional reporting, builds pivot tables in Excel, and configures the system for upcoming award years—cost of attendance updates, ISSER action items, packaging rules.
One of her current tasks? A business process with “about 250 rows.”
It’s intricate work, and she knows it. But the complexity is never the goal.
Jackie’s aim is always the student on the other side of the screen.
No matter how detailed the work gets, she stays focused on clarity and accessibility.
“It’s a huge responsibility,” she says. “The process is challenging and stressful for students and their families, and I get that perspective too.”
So when she hears repeated questions or confusion from families, she treats that as a signal. Something in the workflow, the instructions, or the communication could be improved—and she finds a way to adjust it.
“I try to see what we can do to make things more clear for our students,” she says. “Maybe the next student doesn’t have to ask the same question.”
Then she smiles, “I fixed that one.”
That mindset—solve it once, make it better for everyone—runs through every part of her work, both at UTampa and in Workday Community.
Jackie’s deep involvement in Workday Community began during UTampa’s Workday Student deployment. Her team encouraged her to explore Community early, searching for solutions, comparing approaches, and asking questions in the financial aid areas.
But it was Brainstorms—Workday’s early enhancement-request forums—that pulled her in fully.
UTampa was among the first institutions to implement Workday Student Financial Aid, which meant they frequently ran into new, unpredictable scenarios. Many didn’t have a clear right answer yet. Brainstorms became the place where Jackie could document those challenges, share what she was seeing, and propose improvements.
“We were trailblazers,” she recalls. “We were learning how the system works and providing feedback to the product team—what’s working and maybe what’s not working so well, or what’s missing.”
“We were learning how the system works and providing feedback to the product team—what’s working and maybe what’s not working so well, or what’s missing.”
It wasn’t theoretical. These were real issues affecting real students.
Brainstorms became an essential bridge between her day-to-day work and the broader higher-ed community. Other schools chimed in. Product managers responded. Functionality evolved.
That collaboration mattered.
“Brainstorms were one of the selling points with Workday,” she says. “The collaboration that occurred around them was really great.”
While Brainstorms eventually evolved into Ideas Model, Jackie continues to participate actively in Community and product areas—especially financial aid, student records, advising, billing, and campus engagement. Financial aid touches nearly every part of the student experience, and UTampa’s early involvement means schools frequently seek her out directly for guidance.
Sometimes the collaboration doesn’t even happen on Community at all.
“People who heard me in a Design Partner Group (DPG) will reach out via email,” she says. “They want to know how we’re doing something or what our best practices are.”
“People who heard me in a Design Partner Group (DPG) will reach out. They want to know how we’re doing something or what our best practices are.”
For Jackie, Community isn’t just a place to contribute, it’s a place to learn.
Her advice for new customers and new financial aid teams is simple. “Get involved. Join every DPG you can. Participate. I feel like I learn something from every interaction.”
She means it literally. Every discussion, every question, every meeting gives her something to think about, either a new way to approach a problem or a confirmation that UTampa is on the right track.
The work also demands certain skills that she sees growing more important every year, like staying organized amid constant requests, and developing critical-thinking skills to break down complicated regulations into logical, actionable steps.
She’s modest about the depth of knowledge she brings to these conversations, but the community notices. Her name comes up repeatedly. People know she’s one of the early experts. And they know she shares what she learns.
When she’s not fixing financial-aid workflows or helping other schools troubleshoot theirs, Jackie likes to keep things just as lively off campus.
She loves cooking and baking, going out to new restaurants, and exploring fresh experiences. “Nothing extreme,” she assures, but she’s always up for something interesting. A spontaneous Saturday drive to Sarasota? Absolutely. A new museum or food scene? Even better.
“I like to try new things,” she says. And that curiosity shows up everywhere—from her Workday configuration work to her weekend plans.
Across her career, Jackie has become the kind of person students may not always meet, but is constantly working to build a more seamless and accessible college life. She is equal parts financial-aid expert, Workday configurator, data analyst, and student advocate. She keeps complicated systems running smoothly so that students and families experience something simple, clear, and kind.
Meredith White, director of Workday Solutions at the University of Tampa, built one of the country's largest regional user groups in the Workday Community through customer collaboration and engagement.
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Meredith White, director of Workday Solutions at the University of Tampa, built one of the country's largest regional user groups in the Workday Community through customer collaboration and engagement.
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