Staff Spotlight

  1. February 18, 2013

    Business professor works social entrepreneurship into curriculum

    Michael Gordon has a goal: to “research and teach about solving societal problems through enterprise and to create sustainable, impactful changes in society.” It may sound ambitious, but Gordon is dedicated. As a social entrepreneur and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and professor of business administration at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, he works…
  2. February 11, 2013

    Creativity serves artist, CRLT program assistant

    Placed on top of Jeri Hollister’s kitchen table is a small sculpture, the clay manipulated to create the strong curves of the well-defined muscles on a brown horse. “We had a bottomless sandbox in the backyard when I was a kid, and I used to dig down to the bottom where the soil was more…
  3. February 4, 2013

    Professor uses projectors, electronics to bring art to life

    What moment in the classroom stands out as the most memorable? I was teaching a class on time-based art forms (installation, sound art, performance) and several students from Japan who spoke no English ended up making and presenting amazing art for their final project. It was an incredible testament to the power of visual images…
  4. January 28, 2013

    Facilities coordinator makes teddy bears to preserve memories

    Several years ago, Mary Kay Pauley started sewing teddy bears. At first it was just to keep up her lifelong passion for sewing. But when approached to make a bear out of a newborn baby’s crib sheet, the bears took on an entirely new and greater purpose. Through word of mouth, “Kay’s Bears” has kept…
  5. January 21, 2013

    Epidemiologist connects U-M students, China’s disease prevention centers

    Photo by Scott C. Soderberg, Michigan Photography. Dr. Matthew Boulton doesn’t speak Chinese, but that didn’t stop him from founding the School of Public Health’s China Scholar Exchange Program. At dinner with a former health department colleague in Beijing several years ago, Boulton drew up the outlines for the program on a dinner napkin, and…
  6. January 14, 2013

    Videographer explores LSA through films

    A few weeks ago, Natalie Condon watched as a bat went from specimen to object of display for the Museum of Zoology, filming the whole time. She watched as a museum research assistant disassembled the bat skeleton, cleaned it out and reassembled it; she turned the footage into a time-lapse film. As a videographer for…
  7. December 10, 2012

    Russian plays keep system administrator connected to her homeland

    After moving to the United States more than 18 years ago, Rita Barvinok uses her interest in theater to keep closely connected to her Russian roots. “Some of my friends with little children and I wanted to keep the Russian language alive, and do something educational with our children,” says Barvinok, a system administrator in LSA Biology…
  8. December 3, 2012

    Jazz pianist combines love of music, nature

    Although Ellen Rowe says she was born with perfect pitch, she continues to hone her skills with daily practice at the piano. Primarily self-taught as a child, her high school band director insisted that she take jazz piano lessons in order to play in the jazz ensemble at the school. Without the discipline imposed by…
  9. November 19, 2012

    Athletic trainer gives back to athletes with disabilities at Paralympic Games

    As a former high school athlete and current staff athletic trainer for U-M’s Athletic Department, Jeremy Marra understood that all athletes have to overcome challenges. But until he worked with the Paralympic Games in London this year, he didn’t realize the full scope. “Not to take away from what the Olympians or other athletes do,…
  10. November 12, 2012

    Architecture professor designs for specialized care in hospital setting

    Photo by Eric Bronson, Michigan Photography. Behind every structure, too and space is an architect who designed it, based on the needs of the user. This is the work of U. Sean Vance. Vance has been an assistant professor of architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning since Fall 2010, after teaching…