Staff Profiles
Being a 25+ year employee at UT has allowed me to experience several academic units. In all of the departments, it has been a pleasure to work with students and faculty from different regions of the world. The EEB department, however, has been a constant advocate for adding and bringing more diversity to the department, which has resulted in recruitment of some very intelligent (and active) faculty and students. Overall, a great department to be a part of!”
Marva Anderson, Business Manager
“Having worked in higher education for most of my career, I knew that UT has a wonderful reputation for research and education and employees rank the university as one of the best places to work in the state. It is the place I wanted to ‘hang my hat.’
Within our department, there is a variety of collections such as fish and fungi and the greenhouses have a variety of plant species to explore. You can’t get bored with this variety. The 18-acre Biology Field Station, near Gatlinburg, hosts organizations from all over who come for field courses, teaching and research. I learn something every day about the university and hope to continue learning while I have the opportunity to work here.”
Christy Fulscher, Account Specialist II
“I had worked at the university for 22 years, but never in an academic department before given the opportunity to work in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary. I knew this would push me mentally and to continue to learn the other side of how the university functions.
“Working in EEB these past nine years have been fun. The office is small, which makes it easier for communication. The office staff is great and I enjoy the interaction with the grad students and the professors. I think we have a great group of professionals working together in EEB. People may not know that the department has a variety of ‘critters’ like spiders and lizards, but also birds. We also have an amazing fish and herbarium collections.”
Janice Harper, Graduate Secretary/Administrative Specialist III
“Getting a job at the university was something I very much wanted to do. I was fortunate enough that my wealth of experience allowed me the opportunity to obtain a job at UT in the EEB department. I think it is wonderful seeing such a diverse group of people working in our office and in our department. I have been made to feel very welcome here at UT, which is one of the many reasons I chose to work for UT and EEB specifically.
“I think perhaps a lot of people do not know that we have a wonderful summer program for kids with our Kids U Summer camp at UT. My children would have loved to attended something like this when they were younger. Our EEB department is ranked in the top 10% in North America for our research ahead of places such as UCLA and UC San Diego. This allows us to retain a wonderful array of professors and graduate students that work within our department. Our greenhouses are quite amazing, with the recent bloom of the corpse flower being a truly amazing event that was published in many news sources.”
Kassi Shepard, Undergraduate Coordinator