WARWICK, R.I. – After years of shaping policy at Rhode Island’s Office of Management and Budget, Christoph Demers brought his financial expertise to the Community College of Rhode Island. As CCRI’s Chief Financial Officer and a lifelong product of public education, he approaches his role with a clear philosophy: Sustainable finances are what ultimately protect student access and affordability.

Demers is tasked with keeping the college on solid footing amid enrollment shifts and broader higher education headwinds. For him, budgets represent institutional priorities, ensuring resources flow directly to teaching, student support, and major initiatives like the proposed Workforce Innovation Center.

In this edition of Thinkers, Doers & Achievers, Knight Knowledge spoke with Demers to learn more about his career, the nuances of working in finance, and more.

Knight Knowledge: You joined CCRI after a successful career at the State’s budget office. What drew you to CCRI, and what has surprised or impressed you most about the college since you arrived?

Demers: I’ve spent my career in public service, most recently as Chief Budget and Policy Analyst at Rhode Island’s Office of Management and Budget, and before that in Vermont. I’m also a product of the public education system, from kindergarten through graduate school. What drew me here was the mission. CCRI keeps higher education affordable and open to everyone, and it serves the whole state. After years working on statewide budgets, where the impact can feel a step removed, the chance to do finance work that directly benefits Rhode Islanders really appealed to me.

What’s impressed me most is the people. Faculty and staff here have been generous with their time and insight, and they keep students and the college’s mission at the center of every conversation.

Knight Knowledge: Many people think of finance as budgets and spreadsheets, but your work has a direct impact on students. How does the work of your office help support student success?

Demers: Budgets are really about priorities. The budgets we manage might be tracked in spreadsheets, but they represent faculty, advisors, labs and, more generally, the affordability that makes credentials and degrees achievable in the first place. So even the spreadsheets are, at the end of the day, about students. My office can help keep the college on solid footing and help position it for the future. When budgeting, spending, and long-term financial planning are in line with the college’s mission and strategic priorities, we can hold tuition down and put resources toward teaching, student support, and reinvestment.

Knight Knowledge: CCRI has several major initiatives underway, including campus modernization projects, technology investments, and the proposed Workforce Innovation Center. Which project or initiative are you most excited about, and why do you believe it will make a difference for Rhode Island?

Demers: They all matter, but I’ll go with the Workforce Innovation Center. It’s part of the bond package going to voters in November, and if approved, it would expand CCRI’s capacity to train Rhode Islanders for careers in high demand fields, like advanced manufacturing, trades, IT and cybersecurity, transportation and logistics, clean energy, and other emerging sectors.

What I like about it is how directly it connects to people’s lives. I can picture the student who walks into the new building, learns new skills, gets a credential, and walks out into a good job. That’s really exciting.

Knight Knowledge: As CFO, you're responsible for balancing the college's financial health with its mission of affordability and access. How do you approach that challenge, particularly at a time when higher education is facing significant financial pressures?

Demers: I don’t see financial health and affordability and access as competing goals. A college that isn’t financially healthy can’t keep tuition low and can’t give students the support they need. So, in the long run, sustainable finances are what protect affordability and access.

But the pressures are real. Enrollment is down from where it was before the pandemic, and the demographic projections for the Northeast over the next ten years are challenging. In this environment, it’s so important that financial decisions are guided by the college’s mission. The finance team’s job is to make sure we have effective financial systems in place and a clear understanding of where we stand financially. That allows the college to make and execute forward-looking decisions. The way I see it, the finance team is here to help the college stay strong so it can keep creating opportunities for all Rhode Islanders.

Knight Knowledge: When you're not developing budgets for financial reports, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Demers: Wait — there’s a world outside of financial reporting?

I’m a big fan of trying new things and learning about the world. I recently built a web app for planning the kind of independent, local-focused trips I like to take with my family, and I’ll be testing it out on trips across New England this summer.