(bright orchestral music)

- Hello, and thank you for tuning in

to "Connections & Directions,"

our University of Michigan's civil

and environmental engineering podcast.

My name is Michele Santillan,

and I am the CEE marketing
communications specialist

and host of this series.

During our podcast,

we are featuring members
of our CEE community

and how their work reflects our mission

of engineers and service to society.

We will be highlighting
our strategic directions

and our commitment to diversity,
equity, and inclusion.

CEE's five strategic directions

are human habitat experience,
shaping resource flows,

adaptation, automation and
smart infrastructure finance.

I'm here today with Joyce Kennedy,

CEE administrative assistant senior.

And welcome, Joyce.

Thank you for joining us, today.

- Thank you for inviting me.

- How long have you worked at U of M

and specifically in CEE?

- So in March of 2023,

I have been at the
university for 13 years,

and in February, it was two years at CEE.

- And what is your role in the department?

- So mainly administrative and
financial, different duties.

I'm in the environmental

and water resources engineering building,

and I mainly support
the faculty and students

on the environmental
and water side of CEE.

I'm on several teams within
CEE and perform various roles.

One of those teams is the purchasing team,

and I order lab supplies.

We process invoices.

Sometimes we need to add
suppliers to the database.

We create requisitions.

We purchase airfare and
conference registration

for faculty and students.

Anything that requires purchasing,

we're usually a part of that.

I'm also on the administrative team,

and we do a lot of different requests.

We handle a lot of different
requests that come in.

You never really know what
is going to come up next.

We do requests for shipping labels,

different conference room observations,

reimbursement request for guests
and visitors and students.

There's also additional ones,

like I do monthly expense reconciliation

and create purchase expense
reports for all of the faculty

that are on the
environmental and water side.

I also handle event coordination

for several annual department events.

Let's see, during the winter term,

I work with the 880 seminar lead

and handle the coordination
for guest speakers

that come in every week
during the winter term.

So approximately about
15 visitors that come in.

And then any other request or assignment

that could come in at any time,

such as working on case books
for promotions and tenure.

So things like that.

So it's a lot of different things.

It's a big variety.

- So sounds like a lot of tasks

that you have that are essential

to keeping the department running.

And how do you see yourself participating

in our strategic directions?

- So I have been on the
Strategic Directions Committee

since I joined CEE,

and although I'm not doing
research for the Directions,

I do feel that I contribute

by using my organizational
skills to successfully plan

and execute our
distinguished lecture series.

- And now that you mentioned that,

can you tell me a little bit
more in an overview fashion

about the strategic directions webinars?

- Sure.

So as far as what my role is for those is,

we would typically try to
schedule five lectures,

and I would handle the
creation of the Zoom webinar,

handle all of the registration for that,

pre-submitted questions.

I work pretty closely with
the speaker and the panelists

and what their role is.

Work on the script.

We usually have some
type of script for that,

just a general format for our webinar,

and we will typically schedule a dry run

to run through that, and then
we have our actual event.

- So it sounds like a lot of
administrative work really

in organizing that and then
doing the follow up too.

So.
- Yes.

- But definitely an important contribution

to the webinar series.

How does our mission

of engineers in service to
society resonate with you?

- I love that phrase.

I really feel that it's a good reminder

that we're performing
research and doing work here

for the betterment of all of us.

- And how do you see DEI
incorporated in the department,

not necessarily to a specific class

or research area, but overall?

- Well, I'm actually on the
DEI committee this past year,

and I was a part

of the Early Career Researcher
Seminar Series subcommittee.

So that was very exciting to work on that.

We just launched that initiative in May,

and I think it's a
really great opportunity

and a mechanism for
underrepresented groups

and early, you know, researchers
to present their work.

So I'm very excited about that.

We had 20 applications that
came back for consideration,

and they're currently all under review,

and we will be doing some virtual seminars

starting in the fall.

So that's great.

- It sounds like an exciting
effort that's underway there.

And what do you enjoy most about your job?

- There were two things

that really attracted me to this position,

and the first one was location.

I worked for the first 11
years at Central campus.

So I was interested in moving away

from Central into North campus.

So that was the one thing.

Then the second thing was
the hours for this position.

It's not a 100% effort, it's 75%.

So I work 30 hours a week.

And I have an hour commute.

So that certainly helps.

During the regular academic year,

I'm able to work, you
know, from 9:00 to 4:00.

And then part of the best thing

is during the summer right now,

I can squeeze all of my
hours into four days,

and so I'm off three days,
and then I work four.

So that's probably the best. (laughs)

That's probably the best thing.

I'm about four years from retirement

so I'm kind of easing into that now.

So I was looking for a position

where I could kind of ease into that.

Also, I've been married for 38 years.

I have four kids, or three
kids and four grandchildren.

So I'm looking forward
to spending, you know,

I can spend a little bit
more quality time with them.

So that's really the best
part about this position.

I mean, I love working here,

and I love working with everybody,

but those were the two things

that really drew me to this position.

- And it sounds like you have a great plan

as you're moving ahead too.
(Joyce laughs)

Is there anything else
that you would like to add?

- Well, I have really
enjoyed working at CEE

and at COE for the last two years.

I really do feel

that they value their
employees and their staff.

So.

And I'm looking forward to
working here until I retire.

So. (laughs)

- Well, thank you

for spending part of
your afternoon with us,

and thank you to our listeners.

(bright orchestral music)

Thank you for listening to
our podcast conversation.

For more information
about CEE at Michigan,

please visit our website at cee.umich.edu.

You can also reach our
YouTube channel and Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
pages from our website.