Category: New Employees

New Welcome for a Familiar Face

Maureen Anda recently joined the Institute Advancement team as the Alumni Relations Coordinator. Maureen has been working in the Alumni Relations Office since November of 2007 on a temporary assignment with Office Team, Administrative Staffing. During this time, Maureen oversaw a major data project transferring and cross-referencing more than 13,000 paper transcripts into an electronic format, which will eventually lead to the inclusion of thousands of alumni records into Banner. She also worked with data entry and collection, survey development and merchandise sales.  In Maureen’s current position she will be the lead for alumni record management, as well as addressing the development and maintenance of a new alumni online community, among other projects.

Maureen grew up in Granada Hills, the suburbs just north of Los Angeles. She worked in her family’s real estate school, Miller Schools (a private vocational school specializing in real estate education) from 1983 to 1993.

Maureen and her husband Ismael started their own business in 1993; That’s Our Baby Catalog, a mail order catalog that featured infant and toddler products.  They relocated to the Monterey Peninsula in 1997 and she pursued her administrative career working with A.G. Davi Real Estate, in real estate property management, with John J. Eisinger DDS, Inc., as Financial Coordinator in their Orthodontic practice, and with CreekBridge Construction, a developer of quality homes and retail centers, in their Sales and Marketing Department.

Cathy Vincent Returns to MIIS HR

If you didn’t get to say goodbye to Cathy Vincent when she returned to Middlebury in November, don’t worry – now you can say hello!  Cathy will be returning to Monterey, beginning Monday, January 26.

Cathy will continue to co-manage the HR department with Michael Ulibarri, but we have reconfigured their job responsibilities so that each of them will have oversight of specific HR functions.  Michael will continue to serve as the primary point of contact for staff and student HR issues, while Cathy will focus on developing more specialized HR processes and services for faculty.  Cathy will also be the primary liaison with Middlebury HR for integration issues, including our shared HR information systems. Michael will continue to focus on compliance, training and development. Together, they are charged with pursuing the following priorities for strengthening MIIS HR, as we move toward integration with Middlebury:

1. Continue transition of benefits and compensation management to Middlebury;
2. Educate members of the community about important policies and procedures, leading to a culture of cooperation and compliance;
3. Differentiate and improve HR capacity for faculty recruitment and services;
4. Provide orientation opportunities for new faculty and staff that are tailored to the needs of those groups;
5. Develop, collaboratively with Middlebury, “21st century employment practices” that take into account mobility and work-life balance issues.

Welcome to Newcomers, Visitors!

The torch has now been officially passed to our new president, Sunder Ramaswamy! While he has not quite unpacked all his boxes in the president’s office, he is settled in his new home in Monterey with his wife, Varna, and son, Srivats, and they are ready to “be the solution” with all of us at MIIS.

We’re also joined today by Jason Warburg, our new Executive Director of Communications.  Jason comes to us from the Sacramento area, where his career has included communications and public relations for EDFUND, a non-profit organization that administers student loan programs in California. Jason also served as the legislative director and senior policy and communications advisor for California’s Lieutenant Governor for a number of years. He has an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown, and a B.A. in Political Science from UC Davis.

Last, but far from least, we welcome some special visitors from Middlebury:

•    President Ron Liebowitz, his wife, Jessica, and their three children will be with us for the next two weeks, so that Ron can engage in some west coast development activities and attend the MIIS Board meeting.
•    MIIS Trustee and Middlebury Professor Russ Leng has returned, by popular demand, to teach his winter term course on War.
•    Mike Roy, Middlebury’s new Dean of Library and Information Services, will be on campus next week (January 12 and 13), learning about our library and technology resources and exploring possibilities for collaboration and integration.

New Media Development Specialist Joins MIIS Staff

Please join us in welcoming Kristen Byers to the MIIS staff. Kristen will be working with TLC/DMC as a new media development specialist.  Her job is to help MIIS faculty, staff and students tell their stories using digital media. In keeping with the philosophy of TLC/DMC, her role is to work with members of the community to define a project and acquire the necessary skills and tools to achieve the desired outcomes.  She’ll be working closely with the admissions staff to help us make better use of community generated digital media in our marketing efforts.

Kristen graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in professional writing, minors in French and journalism, and specializations in editing and publishing, digital design & technical writing.  She has used her exceptional digital media and design skills in a variety of jobs involving web development, communications, marketing, and online learning.

Stop in at Kade, introduce yourself to Kristen, and bring her your project ideas!  After this week, she’ll be in her own office—Morse A105.

New Faces in Classroom Services, Grounds and Security

A new Classroom Services/Grounds organization has been established, with responsibility for the appearance of the classrooms and common areas, event set-up, and campus landscaping.  Marty Goss, who has been the Security Account Manager on campus for the past 18 months, has been selected as the Classroom Services/Grounds Supervisor. Marty is knowledgeable about Institute facilities and has extensive experience in landscaping.  His office is located in A102 of the Morse Building and he can be reached via e-mail at marty.goss@miis.edu.

Kirk Eckhardt has been hired as the Classroom Services/Grounds Assistant and will report to Marty.  Kirk brings a wealth of experience in landscaping and we are looking forward to the transformation of the campus appearance over the next few months.  Charles Hunter will also become part of this organization and will continue with event set-up and classroom appearance.  A revised Event Request form will be published very soon, and should be routed directly to Marty for action.

Effective today, Monday, October 6, Jeremy VondenBenken will assume the duties of Security Account Manager. Jeremy replaces Marty Goss.  Jeremy has been on the security staff since January and is very familiar with the entire operation and the Institute as a whole.  Jeremy’s office is located in the Business Office and can be reached at x6519 or on his cell phone at 402-2653.

GSIPS Welcomes new Career Development Officer

Please join us in welcoming Ms. Edy Rhodes to the Monterey Institute’s
Career Development Advising Team!

Edy Rhodes, new Career Development Officer for GSIPS, recently earned her
graduate degree from San Francisco State University (SFSU) in Career
Counseling where her intercultural focus was on East Asian international
students.  She had two internships as part of her program, one as a
Graduate Advisor at SFSU Graduate Studies and the other as the Career
Counselor Intern at the Stanford Career Development Center, where she met
with graduate and undergraduates students and led a Career Development
Group for the spouses of international students.  She has a BA in the
Creative Arts and loves to sing.  She has worked in administration and
management in the private and non-profit sectors locally, on the East
Coast and in the Caribbean where she resided for 7 years.  She is excited
about joining the GSIPS team and working with Monterey Institute students
on reaching their career development goals.

Edy’s office is located in McCone 218, and her extension is x4627. Please
feel free to stop by and introduce yourself!

(Thanks to Jen Hambleton for contributing this item.)

New Faces

Welcome to the following staff members who are new to the Institute as of this summer…

  • • Nina Dutra, Dean’s Assistant, FGSIB
  • • Robert Horgan, Enrollment Manager
  • • Patricia Lewis, Deputy Director of CNS
  • • Florence Lu, Coordinator of Student Services
  • • Deborah Ortega, Office Services Assistant
  • • Shawna Routh, Administrative Assistant, Student Affairs

And a couple of more familiar faces…

We’re pleased to have Tate Miller back on staff after a year away. He recently started a new position as Director of International Program Development, in the Provost’s office.

Sarah Springer, who has been an adjunct faculty member and consultant for a number of years, has joined the regular staff as a CALL specialist with GSLEL and instructional designer working with the Teaching and Learning Collaborative.

MIIS@Work invites each of our new colleagues to comment on this post, telling us all a little bit about themselves and their new roles.   And we invite the rest of you to mention any other new colleagues we may have missed.

(If you’ve never posted a comment on a blog, it’s easy!  See the About page for some help.)