NEWS AND EVENTS
Upcoming Events
Annual ORED Staff Picnic, Aug. 30
Save the date for this year’s picnic for ORED employees and family members, which will be 4:30-8 p.m. at Antelope Park’s Auld Pavilion. Phat Jack’s will cater. RSVP details are coming soon.
Also, thanks to all who participated in last month’s survey about the picnic. Your feedback is valuable in helping the planning committee put on a successful event!
Welcomes and Farewells
Shelly Cutsor will become director of research finance on Aug. 1. Shelly joined ORED as a student worker in 1997 and has served numerous roles for ORED over the past 20 years. Most recently she was manager of research enterprise business services and has served as acting director of research finance since Jan. 5.
Megan McMasters, events and outreach manager, will bid ORED farewell on Aug. 13 to take a new role as director of operations for the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts. We will miss her skills and expertise and wish her the best in her transition. A search is underway to fill this position.
Nathan Meier, assistant vice chancellor for research, departs ORED Aug. 1. In his 15 years at Nebraska, Nathan has played an instrumental role in helping develop faculty and grow the university’s research portfolio. He is starting a new position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he will be director of research development. His skills and expertise will be missed, and we wish him the best in Birmingham.
Laurie Sampson started July 30 as ORED’s new learning and development coordinator. For the last 14 years, she’s worked in training and professional development roles at Duncan Aviation, Nelnet and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Laurie is looking forward to learning all she can about research and higher education and can’t wait to do amazing things at ORED.
KUDOS TO OUR COLLEAGUES
Becky Freeman, Jenn Klein and Rachel Wenzl, ORED’s IRB staff in Research Compliance Services, went above and beyond during a very busy July. When faced with multiple funding notifications that required IRB approval within three to five days, the team excelled, approving one project for a National Science Foundation award in 24 hours and another for an NIH award in about three days. With more than 130 other protocols currently under review, this was no small feat. The team received several kudos via email from faculty for their excellent work.
Thanks Becky, Jenn and Rachel for your work to strengthen Nebraska Research.
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: MATTHEW DWYER
This month’s featured ORED employee is Matthew Dwyer. If there’s someone you’d like to see highlighted in a future edition, submit your idea here.
What is your title in ORED, and how long have you been part of the team?
Matthew: Proposal development coordinator; 5.5 years.
Explain how your team fits into ORED’s overall mission.
Matthew: The Office of Proposal Development works with faculty, staff and administrators preparing grant applications to external funders. We work with these teams throughout the proposal development process to help them improve the content, organization and visual appeal of their proposal packages, particularly narrative components. We support ORED’s overall mission by helping to improve the competitiveness of Nebraska’s grant applications.
What progress would you like to see ORED and/or OPD make over the next five years?
Matthew: I would love to see different ORED units collaborating even more on projects that cut across our various sets of expertise.
What music is on your iPhone?
Matthew: I am on a bit of a personal mission to discover new types of music, so you will find a mishmash of some pretty random playlists in my Spotify app at the moment. I have been making my way through NPR’s Austin 100, which is a list of 100 songs from musicians in various genres who performed at the most recent South by Southwest music festival. In general though, I’m drawn to alternative pop/rock music, and I love pop music from the ’80s. Given that I was an angsty teenager in the ’00s, you will forever find a healthy spattering of emo music on any device I own.
Where is the best place you’ve traveled to and why?
Matthew: Sweden. I studied abroad at a college right outside of Stockholm while I was in college. It was a beautiful country, and since I was there for five months, I got to know Stockholm pretty well and made a few friends in the process.
If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Matthew: Potatoes, for their unmatched versatility. Mashed, baked, hashed, diced or fried — you can’t go wrong.
WATER COOLER CHAT
Your ORED colleagues scream for ice cream of all different varieties. Check out what everyone’s been snacking on this summer:
Shelly Cutsor, Research Finance and Information Systems: “Homemade strawberry. And the best ice cream I have ever had was from a shop in Huntington Beach, California. I don’t recall the name.”
Concetta DiRusso, Office of the Vice Chancellor: “Currently, I favor coffee, preferably with almonds. The best ice cream shop is Kimball’s (see kimballfarm.com). It was a happy part of my happy summers growing up.”
Joy Eakin, NUtech Ventures: “It’s a tie between cinnamon from Ivanna Cone and lemon custard from the Dairy Store!”
Tiffani Hix, Research Finance and Information Systems: “Cookie dough!”
Jenn Klein, Research Compliance Services: “It’s almost impossible to pick a favorite flavor, but saying Ivanna Cone is my favorite ice cream shop is pretty easy. Such a great place!”
Terri Murray, Sponsored Programs: “Cherry nut is my favorite ice cream flavor; however, my favorite is butterscotch malt from Zesto!”
Ashley Washburn, Research Communications: “When I want to try specialty flavors, the UNL Dairy Store is my go-to place in Lincoln. And, it doesn’t feel like summer until I have a chocolate cone with Krunch Kote at Zesto’s on South Street. I’m still getting over Dairy Queen discontinuing the Snickers Blizzard, which had been my favorite DQ treat since high school.”
Jeanne Wicks, Sponsored Programs: “Pistachio Almond.”
Connie Wieser, Sponsored Programs: “Best ice cream shop: Zesto’s in my hometown of Sidney, Nebraska. Favorite flavor was a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate because that’s all my parents could afford.”
Anonymous: “Espresso chocolate cookie.”
The next edition of OPEN Book will come out Aug. 31, the day before the Huskers’ first game against Akron at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska will play at home seven times during Scott Frost’s first season as head coach. Which of these games are you most looking forward to? Let us know in this month’s multiple choice poll.
THE MONTH IN PICTURES
Aaron Funk, Sponsored Programs, welcomed Ivan Beck Funk on July 23 at 8:02 p.m. He was 6 pounds, 15 ounces and 20.25 inches. Mom and baby are healthy and doing well. Ivan is pictured with Aaron and big sister Polly.
Elijah Luebbe, Sponsored Programs, welcomed his new son on July 4. Everyone is doing great and Je’zyirre (aka J) is a very proud big brother to Za’veon (aka Z), who was born at 6 pounds, 2 ounces and 19.5 inches.
Thanks to all who contributed to this month’s OPEN Book. If you have news you’d like to share in the newsletter, submit it here or send it to Tiffany Lee at tlee9@unl.edu.
