Q: What does a typical day look like for you as a Desktop Support Manager?
A: Our Research Computing and Infrastructure (RCI) team is large but extremely collaborative, which means a solid portion of my day is spent in meetings. I think one of the positives coming out of working in a remote environment was that we were more deliberate in our meeting cadence to ensure we stayed connected and informed. As a member of Desktop Support, we support all LSA staff, faculty, and researchers so I also routinely meet with department stakeholders, such as Chief Admins or Directors, and technology partners across U-M to advocate for these customers. I oversee the Desktop Support teams in the Biological Sciences Building (BSB) and Chemistry shops. I try to take as much administrative work off their plates as possible so they can keep the technology working. This often means I am buried in spreadsheets to help keep us organized, but anyone who has worked with me knows I harbor a not-so-secret love for a well-organized spreadsheet!
Q: Are you working on any interesting projects right now?
A: Interesting is the key word here. I am currently working on a project to clean up and (hopefully) automate pieces of our Asset Management module in TeamDynamix. It is dry work to many, but to have an accurate and efficient inventory for our approximately 10,000 assets is the dream! In the end, the changes our project team makes will help LSA Technology Services better partner with our LSA departments to proactively plan for technology needs in the staff, faculty, and research space.
Q: What’s your background and how does it influence your work here?
A: I have held many jobs over the years, which speaks to my aversion to sameness. Through each of these jobs I learned I am happiest in roles that have a component of unpredictability in the day to day. Desktop Support is just that. Prior to joining LSA, I worked for a software company, Thomson Reuters. I worked in a department that was an unofficial feeder system to other departments within the company. It is where I grew as a project lead and people manager, and without a doubt, was the largest influence on my career as I found my love for growing and developing staff. Being a software company, it moved fast, and our products were constantly improving. I had to let go of my need to have everything perfect, and I gained the ability to act without always knowing the end result. For someone who has a hard time making mistakes, finding a way to comfortably fail faster (and then fixing it!) not only influences my work here but my life as well.
Q: What’s your favorite part of your job?
A: As a lifelong Spartan and proud graduate of MSU, I cannot believe I am about to say this but THE TEAM, THE TEAM, THE TEAM. I love my Desktop Support team, the larger RCI team, and the even larger LSA Technology Services team! Our team over in the BSB and Chemistry shops really went through a tough staffing turnover right before I joined LSA in 2019. The growth I have been a part of—that feeling you get when the team really starts gelling—and the glowing feedback I routinely receive is such a rewarding aspect of this job. I find the changes we are enacting across RCI and the continual breakdown of silos across LSA Technology Services very exciting. Lastly, knowing that the work my team does supports fascinating and impactful research is the cherry on top.
Q: What do you like to do outside of the office?
A: I absolutely love live music, so I frequently go to shows. I have seen one of my long time favorites over 50 times, which is not a lot compared to other fans of the band. I am also fortunate to call Boyne City my second home. Growing up, and still to this day, my family has a cabin there and my aunt, uncle, and cousins have a place just four houses over from us. I lived up there every summer until I was 18. And a silver lining of the pandemic for me was I moved up there for the summer of 2020. I love all the family time and memories made there so you can often find me out on the water of Lake Charlevoix or by our bonfire pit that I built myself.
Q: Finally, share something that people might be surprised to learn about you.
A: I am incredibly silly and incredibly shy; always seriously joking and rambunctiously soft-spoken. There are some days where the shyness wins and some days where the silliness wins. I live for the silly days.
