Staff Spotlight

  1. March 31, 2025

    Rackham Institute staffer finds healing by creating art

    Eddie Verdonk, a patient services associate at Mary Rackham Institute, has explored a variety of artistic mediums.

  2. March 17, 2025

    U-M lecturer, staffer win Grammy with reed quintet

    Akropolis, a reed quintet, traces its roots to when its five members were undergraduate students at U-M. Sixteen years later, a piece the quintet recorded won a Grammy.

  3. March 10, 2025

    UM-Dearborn stewardship officer helps rescued bunnies

    Liz Swaynie, the stewardship officer for UM-Dearborn, is on the board of Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary, where she also serves as fundraising chair.

  4. February 17, 2025

    Breaking into song moves this Michigan Medicine staffer

    Christina Fields has a retirement plan. She wants to be a lounge singer. With retirement still years away, however, Fields satisfies her yen for singing with weekly choir practices and semi-annual choral concerts.

  5. February 10, 2025

    Michigan Medicine staffer spins the ‘Wheel of Fortune’

    Jennifer Hawkins, division administrator for Infectious Diseases at Michigan Medicine, recently had the thrill of a lifetime: being a contestant on “Wheel of Fortune.”

  6. February 3, 2025

    Stamps helped Sandra Wiley see herself as an artist

    Sandra Wiley, director of international study programs at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, has been knitting since she was a child and creates all her own clothes.

  7. January 20, 2025

    ICPSR staffer brings joy to others through art

    Kathryn Lavender, a data project manager at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, turned her watercolor paintings of cats into calendars.

  8. December 9, 2024

    Stamps Gallery staffer embraces variety of art-making

    Haley Perkins, public programs and engagement officer at the Stamps Gallery, has been a lifelong artist who comes from a family of creators.

  9. November 25, 2024

    Staffer’s creations delight visitors, celebrate co-workers

    Linda Garcia finds inspiration in the scientists she works among in LSA’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and uses her creativity with quilting and Barbies to show it.

  10. November 18, 2024

    Ross School staffer has plenty to cheer about

    Jennaye Wade, human resources generalist associate at the Ross School, is a full-time volunteer varsity cheer coach and cheer director for the Washtenaw Junior Maize Football and Cheer League.