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The Athletics Department has dubbed them M&M. Well, the candy can take care of your craving for chocolate, but Melissa Gilchrist and Millie McAnly in Accounts Payable take care of Kentucky State University’s bills.

This duo – Gilchrist is the accounts payable manager and McAnly is an accountant – ensure that KSU coaches have money for food and hotels when the teams travel. They process financial aid refunds in conjunction with the bursar. They make sure staff and faculty get travel reimbursement checks. And when the science department orders a bunch of dead frogs for dissection, they pay for those.

“We want to make things run smoothly for everybody,” McAnly says. “We want faculty and staff to have what they need so the students can have what they need.”

Gilchrist and McAnly, who are KSU alumni, are adamant about their office running efficiently so students don’t experience delays on their end. Both say they understand firsthand the stresses and frustrations of being a student.

“They shouldn’t have to worry about this side of it,” Gilchrist says. “They should worry about their education.”

Gilchrist, who has been employed with KSU for almost seven years, has an associate degree as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration from KSU. McAnly, who has been with the university almost five years, has a bachelor’s degree in public administration from KSU and is currently working on her master’s degree.

It’s not uncommon to hear laughter from their cubicles in the Academic Services Building. McAnly will tell you their doors never close, and it’s not because they don’t have any. McAnly and Gilchrist say they have a lot of fun in their jobs while taking their roles in advancing the university very seriously.

“I care about the people I work with,” Gilchrist says. “I’m with these people more than I am with my own family. It has to be personal. I want the university to be better.”

McAnly says they always answer the phones and are always ready to assist anyone in the campus community with the protocols of the Accounts Payable Office. McAnly and Gilchrist say they often point students, faculty and staff in the right direction when they come to them with problems that do not pertain to their office.

“We like being able to help people and talk to people,” Gilchrist says. “We have never met a stranger.”