Debby Zumbach is the associate vice president of Finance and Operations and director of Parking and Transportation/Business Services at the University of Iowa. Zumbach oversees twelve major units on campus: Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Travel, Printing and Mailing Services, Campus Mail, Central Receiving, General Stores, Risk Management, Parking and Transportation, Finance and Business Information Systems, UI Laundry, and University Shared Services.  

Zumbach has been at the University of Iowa since 1992 in various positions, including as the first woman director of Purchasing at the University of Iowa and in the Big Ten. During her time as the director, she converted the paper-based transaction process to a 100% automated EPR system with workflow approvals.  She created the first strategic sourcing unit to create master agreements across campus and the regent institutions, leading to significant savings on purchases. Zumbach played a part in many successes, including implementing Shared Services which created savings by reducing resource need by 26%, designing and implementing travel software solution ProTrav, partnering with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) to provide free parking to patients, and more. She also successfully modified and implemented ProTrav@UNI, a version of the system for the University of Northern Iowa. Most recently, as the Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT) financial and administrative chief, Zumbach lead our campus through the pandemic by working to acquire necessary supplies for campus and UIHC.   

Born and raised in Iowa, Zumbach earned a master’s degree in accounting and bachelor’s degrees in accounting and management information systems from the University of Iowa in 1989. She is a first-generation University of Iowa graduate. Zumbach is currently a member of the Amazon Business Higher Education Customer Advisory Board and previously served as president of the CIC Purchasing Consortium.