Candace Shaffer’s commitment to improving the well-being of others is at the core of her professional successes, as well as her personal motivation. In 2014, she began her career in benefits at Purdue University. From 2017 to 2023, she served as senior director of benefits, leading the university’s benefit team and was responsible for the overall strategic and financial approach to Purdue University’s and Purdue University Global’s benefit packages.

Today, in her role as Associate Vice President (AVP), Benefits & Payroll, she provides visionary, strategic leadership to plan, develop, maintain and enhance the university’s comprehensive benefits package and payroll processes. Advancing the University’s time, pay and benefit strategy, including developing, implementing and monitoring quality and compliance standards and customer service expectations while meeting financial expectations and overseeing continuous improvement initiatives also fall to her as AVP. Furthermore, she is responsible for generating new ideas, leading and persuading others to reach consensus to drive alignment across different areas, including oversight of personnel appointment processing, timekeeping, payroll processing and accounting, employment verification, payroll tax services, HR service center, benefit administration and benefit data processing for the entire Purdue University system.   

 As a result of Shaffer’s dedication to overall health and well-being, Purdue was named the 2023 Healthiest Employer in Indiana, Rank 1 for employers with 5k+ employees. Additionally, she received the following awards:

• 2023 Healthcare Innovation Award (Employers’ Forum of Indiana)
• 2023 Hoosier Health and Well-Being Workplace Champion (Wellness Council of Indiana)

Prior to coming to Purdue University, Candace worked in the early care and education profession with several years focusing on children and families at risk, supporting early childhood programs on quality of care and planning statewide early education conferences for professionals. With her education and previous work experience being child development and family studies, her first introduction to benefits from an employer’s perspective was when she came to work at Purdue in 2014 as the worksite health and childcare specialist. Once she joined the team, she became more involved in benefit and team projects, leading to being given the opportunity to serve as interim associate director, ultimately leading to her current position as senior director of benefits where she leads a team focused on helping the Purdue community thrive.

Candace earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in child development and family studies from Purdue University. Awarded with Employee Benefits News ‘Benefits Leadership in Healthcare’ in 2018, Candace’s focus on overall employee wellness – behavioral, financial, physical, social and work-life – continues to bring new opportunities to the table, not only for the employee population but also the university.