Grace Crickette's job is not one for the faint of heart. As chief risk officer of the University of California, she is responsible for identifying, assessing and managing an eye-popping array of risks confronting the vast institution.

Crickette oversees risks at the university's 10 campuses in California, two other campuses in Washington and Mexico City, more than a dozen medical facilities and five medical centers nationwide, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, numerous international research facilities, the Lick and Keck observatories in California and Hawaii, respectively, and the world's largest fleet of maritime research vessels.

She also manages risks confronting the state's agricultural and natural resources programs and keeps watch over the university's patents, of which it has more than any other organization. Then there are the hazards facing UC's 180,000 employees and 250,000 students within the state, the 2,500 students and faculty on average that are traveling overseas, and the hundreds of thousands of patients served each year at its medical facilities.