Carnegie Mellon University

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August 14, 2019

An Inclusive Environment Is Worbs’ Business

By Kelly Saavedra

Megan Worbs’ preoccupation with one’s habitat extends from the workspaces at Carnegie Mellon University to the wilderness of the Serengeti.

As business manager for Campus Design and Facilities Development, Worbs handles the financial transactions related to construction projects on campus. She is an expert problem-solver, whether she’s helping a department determine the best way to fund a project, figuring out how a vendor’s payments and invoices will be processed or determining how the university’s portfolio of projects is shaking out with regard to the capital plan.

“The university is in a huge growth period. It’s very fast-paced, and we’re engaged in more projects than we’ve been since the founding of the university,” she said. “It’s really exciting, but it can also be very intense. The people I work with make my job so enjoyable. There’s a sense that we’re all in this together.”

Worbs specializes in creating inclusive environments, a passion that has carried over from her previous work for Human Resources at CMU, where her emphasis was on accessibility and working on behalf of individuals who needed physical or programmatic accommodations. Her most recent efforts toward inclusivity have resulted in getting lactation rooms and all-gender restrooms standards built into the new construction process.

Worbs sees her career as being very much focused around creating an environment in which everyone feels welcome and part of the CMU community.

“I love knowing that my work contributes to building spaces that meet people’s needs and that are changing the world,” she said.

Worbs earned her master’s degree in public management from the Heinz College in 2016. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s College of Business Administration, where she focused in marketing. Both of her parents are CMU alumni, as is her older sister, who at one time worked in Alumni Relations. Worbs and her sister also have coached cheerleading at the university.

When she’s not at work, Worbs enjoys traveling with her husband and immersing herself in habitats and cultures very different from her own. During their honeymoon trip to Tanzania, she and her husband climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and experienced a safari in the Serengeti.

“Going on a safari is something I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” she said. “It was truly an amazing experience to see all of the animals interacting in the wild. Their territory is massive, and it made me feel kind of bad about zoos when I came back.”

Her climb up Mount Kilimanjaro — a seven-day hike that began in the jungle and ended on a glacier — opened her eyes to the ways people can be more responsible as tourists.

“There was a lot of trash on the mountain, which was terribly sad,” she said.

Her favorite adventure was their trip to Cuba, where staying at Airbnbs allowed her to immerse herself in Cuban culture with local artisans and business owners. Listening to them talk about their lives gave her an appreciation for their struggles.

“I think travel is the best thing anybody can do for themselves,” she said.