Comprising more than 100 acres and 77 buildings with a wide variety of renovation and construction projects at any time, Temple’s Main Campus is a small city.

But most of us don’t think about all that surrounds us each day—and it’s Joe Monahan, Temple’s new associate vice president of facilities and operations, who’s in charge of keeping it that way.

Monahan recently joined the leadership team of Temple’s Facilities Management division, which impacts every corner of the university.

Monahan is a trained engineer with extensive experience in higher education in Greater Philadelphia. He joined Temple’s staff in December from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, where he most recently served as assistant vice president of facilities planning and construction.

A self-described “get-it-done person,” Monahan said he takes a team-oriented approach to projects and thrives on challenges.

“I really missed the city of Philadelphia and the construction environment here,” Monahan said. “Temple is hot right now, and I think the university can use someone of my caliber and expertise to help take it where it needs to go.”

Gennaro J. Leva, Temple’s vice president for planning and capital projects, said Monahan’s technical expertise in the infrastructure of universities, as well as his commitment to sustainability, will be great assets to Temple. Monahan will collaborate closely with Temple’s Project Delivery Group, which manages the planning, design and construction of capital projects.

“I have known Joe for a very long time,” Leva said. “He has been mentored by the best and has become a tremendous leader. He is a man of high integrity, and I am confident he will do great things at Temple.”

At Rowan, Monahan was responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in construction projects, campus master planning on four campuses, infrastructure, space management, sustainability, operations, grounds and more.

Before Monahan joined Rowan in October 2011, he served in a variety of positions at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked for more than a decade. At Penn, Monahan was involved in the master planning of infrastructure and served as the lead counselor to university leadership on all aspects of facilities operations related to engineering and energy use.

He also led a comprehensive and successful pilot study to reduce energy use of laboratory and ventilation equipment. In recognition of that pioneering initiative, Monahan won the 2010–2011 Energy Engineer Award from the Greater Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers.