March 2025
Stephanie Lee
Administrative Assistant, Program in Technical Communication
Tell us about your work role? What’s a typical day to day like?
My role is Senior Administrative Assistant in the Program in Technical Communication. There really is no typical day for me. I provide administrative support to 38 faculty, so every day can bring a new task or problem. I am currently finishing up our TechComm Writing Contest, which we run every year, and planning the event we hold to celebrate everyone who participated in the contest.
What’s the best thing you like about your job?
I love being able to collaborate with different departments and meeting new people. Having resources all across campus is a wondrous thing. I love supporting faculty. It makes every day at TechComm that much more enjoyable.
Tell us a bit about you?
I have been at the University of Michigan for almost 20 years (next January!). I was born and raised in Ypsilanti, MI, but have lived in Whitmore Lake, MI, for the last 16 years. I graduated from Baker College with an associate’s degree. I have been married to my husband for 17 years, and we have 3 daughters and 2 grandsons. We have one cat named Oscar.
Left: Stephanie’s family – husband Patrick, daughters Maddie, 15 and Abbie, 11 (not shown: Valerie, 25). Right: Stephanie’s grandsons – River, 2 years and Parker, 4 months
How about hobbies, activities outside of work?
Outside of work, I love to read, bake, travel, and being my children’s chauffeur (kidding!). You can also catch me trying to teach my 15-year-old to drive (it explains my gray hair). I also have an 11-year-old daughter with whom I like to play games and complete puzzles with on the weekends. On Sundays, you will find me snuggled up with my two grandsons.
2024 Girls’ trip to Chicago. My husband is a truck driver and doesn’t always get to travel with us but we try to make this an annual event!
Advice to others who may be new to their role in the College?
Never be afraid to ask questions or reach out for support! Interact with your colleagues and the UM at large. Attend any and all events so you can meet new people and make new connections.
February 2025
Blake DesRosiers
Lab Technician, Wilson Student Team Project Center
Tell us about your work role? What’s a typical day to day like?
My typical day starts with emails, grading our pencil holder projects (something students have to complete to gain access to the tools and equipment in the Wilson Center), and figuring out what the students did the night before. Once the shop opens it’s go time, I am signing students in and out of equipment. I help students with our pencil holder project or any other project that is going on in the shop. I order supplies for the shop, manage the hazardous waste, run trainings, fix equipment and help over in our sister shop in the Ford Robotics Building’s Makerspace.
Left: A successful pencil project. Center: Blake in a blacksmithing shop with a Witcher Wall hanger he made in his Internship. Right: Blake at the second annual pumpkin chunkin competition put on by one of the project teams in his shop M-Fab.
What’s the best thing you like about your job?
Being able to help people and seeing when they finally understand. Being able to teach people and see the “Ah-Ha” moment happen in real time is magical. It is very satisfying as a teacher to see when they finally understand what you’re trying to show them.
Tell us a bit about you?
I am from Dexter MI just west of Ann Arbor. In high school I learned to weld at Saline through the consortium program. Through that I began making metal art, from twisted wire trees to copper roses. Following my passion for welding I ended up at Ferris State University for my Welding Engineering degree and this is also where I found my passion for teaching. Now you can find me working at the Wilson Center.
Blake working with a student a the Wilson Center
How about hobbies, activities outside of work?
In my free time I like to make sculptures out of copper, along with my wire trees and metal flowers. On the weekends you can find me splitting my time between blacksmithing and playing video games. There are times where I’m not in my own shop but I am teaching blacksmithing or how to make my copper roses at a folk school in Ypsilanti.
Blake’s copper work.
Advice to others who may be new to their role in the College?
The best advice I can give to someone new to the college is ask questions. There is a lot going on at the university and it might seem daunting at first but if you ask questions you’ll start to understand the ongoings of the university piece by piece.
Blake in his element at the Wilson Center.
January 2025
Jenn Carlson
Multidisciplinary Design Program (MDP) Sponsored Projects Program Manager
Tell us about your work role? What’s a typical day to day like?
As the program manager for the sponsored projects in MDP, I am responsible for about two dozen corporate sponsored student projects each calendar year. I don’t have a single typical day – I have about 4. Each spring it is my responsibility to find sponsors for a new set of projects for the following year. This includes reaching out to current and past sponsors as well as networking to find new people willing to commit to provide time and money to support our students and includes project scoping in diverse fields as well as supporting contract negotiations. This transitions in the summer to developing materials and strategies to recruit students for the teams. In the fall I shift focus to recruiting the students and planning and executing our on campus project fair, but the current year students return and I also hold assignment office hours and support curriculum and grading. Fall is a very busy time of year for me and all of MDP! Once the current year teams are wrapping up in the fall, the MDP team and I plan and execute our annual kick off dinner event on the first day of class in January where we host over 200 students, faculty, and sponsors. Winter is the “slow” season in MDP where I can just focus on the current students, visit team meetings, hold office hours, and do some grading. But as the winter semester winds down, it’s time to start all over again!
Left: September Project Fair. Right: January Kick Off.
What’s the best thing you like about your job?
The best thing about my job is getting to work with students! I spent 23 years in the automotive industry in all facets of automotive seating, but I’m the rare unicorn engineer who loves working with people so that was always something that I felt was missing. I love getting to coach and guide students, and I really feed off their energy. And even after almost six years here, it doesn’t always seem real that I get to work at my alma mater!
Tell us a bit about you?
I’m a Michigander through and through. I was born in Detroit and raised in the suburbs. I attended Michigan and then never left the Ann Arbor area. I got my undergrad degree in Mechanical Engineering, and got an MBA at the business school at night (back before it was called Ross!) while working at Johnson Controls in automotive seating. As an undergrad, I played the trombone in the Michigan Marching Band (MMB) where I met my husband (also trombone). We have 2 kids – a daughter at Grand Valley studying Natural Resource Management, and a son here at Michigan studying Materials Science Engineering and also playing the trombone in the marching band!
My family is always up for adventure. This past December we tried curling!
How about hobbies, activities outside of work?
I love to cook, ski, read, watch sports (Go Blue!), knit and crochet, and I have recently rediscovered my love for playing music! I currently play trombone in both the UofM alumni concert band which practices once a week and puts on a concert at the end of the winter and fall terms, and the alumni pep band which plays at basketball and hockey games when the students are on break, and at some other sporting events as well.
My mom and sisters and I at Camp Michigania Nov 2023. We are all wearing leg warmers I knit!
Advice to others who may be new to their role in the College?
Meet all the people and try all the things! There is so much that the College and even the greater University have to offer. My philosophy is to meet as many people as I can and try as many things as possible and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Everyone is really helpful!
Throwback pic to my days in the MMB! The backwards hat means we won the game!
November 2024
Theo Landman
ENGR 101 Course Coordinator, First Year Program (FYP)
Tell us about your work role? What’s a typical day to day like?
As the course coordinator for the class ENGR 101, primarily my responsibilities concern the maintenance and delivery of the class. In this role, I am responsible for many of the day-to-day operations of the course. These include publishing course materials like labs and projects, updating the class website weekly with new content, preparing course grade pushes, and processing data for the cheat checking team. Though I am not in a primarily student facing role, I am involved in course student support. I handle regrades, extensions, and attendance, among other aspects of course logistics. I also work on course administration improvement, like building programs to schedule our labs and update post-semester grade changes. I am also beginning to get involved in educational research– I am currently working on a research project regarding our implementation of a data-driven approach to scheduling office hours.
What’s the best thing you like about your job?
While I was in school, I experienced personal and health difficulties that interfered with my studies. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to work with student support to help students in similar situations succeed. I enjoy working on course development and projects like the office hours scheduling paper because I know that my work toward these goals will make students’ experience in the course better. I work with an amazing group of faculty and staff and working with them to deliver this course has been excellent. I also enjoy being able to learn and work with new tools and technologies as part of my role.
Tell us a bit about you?
Originally, I am from Canton, Michigan, a town perhaps most notable for housing Michigan’s only IKEA store. I have lived in Ann Arbor since 2017 when I started undergrad at the University of Michigan, completing a Bachelor’s degree in both Physics and Mathematics in 2022. I love living in Ann Arbor; I’m a big enjoyer of walkable cities and a plentitude of queer spaces. I also have a lovely eleven year old cat named Lily who is the light of my life.
How about hobbies, activities outside of work?
I have a wide variety of interests! I enjoy gardening, painting, playing video games and TTRPGs with my friends, cooking, reading, and making silly physics models on my computer. I enjoy most forms of crafting (knitting, sewing, sculpting among many others) and usually have at least one project going at any given time. I love live music (a lot of pop punk and indie music) and usually always have at least one concert lined up to attend. I am president of a house in a housing cooperative and one of my favorite things to do is making dinner for everyone and taking the time to hang out and ask everyone about their day.
Advice to others who may be new to their role in the College?
There are so many resources and so much information available to you– don’t be afraid to ask questions and use it! Take advantage of opportunities to volunteer at events because it’s a great way to get to know people you work with and even people in other departments you would never have met otherwise.
October 2024
Diane Saran
Assistant Director, International Programs in Engineering (IPE)
Tell us about your work role? What’s a typical day to day like?
My role as the Assistant Director is essential director of operations in IPE. IPE is a student services office that creates education abroad opportunities for College of Engineering students and serves them from their interests in going abroad to when they return back from their international experience. I ensure that the many moving parts of our office, marketing, advising, billing, enrollment, assessment run smoothly. I work closely with the Director of IPE to implement our office goals as well as creating and implementing new programs with other staff members. My goal is to always assist the team in creating programs for students seeking to fulfill both the College of Engineering mission- People First engineering and IPE’s goals of appreciation of world’s cultures and the respect for diversity.
A typical day at IPE is never the same, which is what I love about what we do. We send students abroad in the Winter and Spring/summer semesters so depending on the time of year I might be overseeing new program development, assisting our advising team in overseeing logistically planning for our Winter semester programs, or planning our study abroad fair with our marketing team, or tabling at a campus event, and then talking with a partner in Spain about one our exchange programs! My day always includes keeping our multiple team members informed, motivated and feeling appreciated!
What’s the best thing you like about your job?
To get to do what I am passionate about- to create cross-cultural experiences for engineering students. Engineering students, or STEM students, have typically not always been able to easily study abroad. Helping them find the path to have a global educational experience outside the U.S. prior to working as an engineer has been my passion for a number of years. At IPE we share a passion for helping these students. We see that people first engineering also includes an appreciation of many other cultures, other ways of thinking about solving engineering problems.
Tell us a bit about you?
Originally I am from Buffalo, New York. I attended St. Bonaventure University and worked for a bit after school and traveled for fun and decided to join the Peace Corps. I was in Romania as an environmental volunteer! When I came home to Buffalo I became passionate about assisting internationals coming to the U.S., and began a position assisting international students at the State University of New York at Buffalo. I soon began graduate school and earned my PhD in Education, Leadership and Policy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. My research focus was on international students’ national and gender identity formations.
Life took me to Pittsburgh, where I met my husband and I began my journey assisting engineering students at the University of Pittsburgh to study abroad! While in Pittsburgh/and then in Michigan my husband (Vivek) and I had two amazing children Pax (now 9) and Beatrix (soon to be 6).
They both love soccer, and our 1 year old golden retriever Daisy. They share our passion for traveling and learning about cultures. We are teaching them as much as possible about caring for the earth and respecting differences. When I am not ensuring my kids are getting from A to B or finishing homework, my hobbies include yoga, traveling, biking, attending UM games or other sport activities.
Left: Picture of my husband and kids and Daisy when she was about 4 months old. Right: Another picture of our adventures in Spain at the Guggenheim in Bilbao.
Advice to others who may be new to their role in the College?
For those that are new. Make sure to attend as many events as you can in-person and get to know people in-person. Ask people for lunch and take advantage of opportunities to connect with others with the College of Engineering or even the larger UM community as so many colleagues share our passion to help students be the best version of themselves and it’s nice to learn from others how their offices are doing what they do. And in those connections, you might find a kindred spirit!
September 2024
Michael Dailey
Associate Director, Engineering Honors & Engagement Programs Office (H&E)
Tell us about your work role? What’s a typical day to day like?
As the Associate Director in the College of Engineering Honors & Engagement Programs Office (H&E), I am responsible for overseeing the daily operations of our office. While each day brings new challenges and opportunities, you may find me engaged in meetings with staff and colleagues across the College, teaching a class, facilitating a workshop, or meeting with students. I frequently collaborate with groups such as the Immersed Working Group and the Michigan Engineering Student Staff Training Group to ensure our students are trained and ready to engage with experiential learning opportunities. Whether I am facilitating an engineering leadership information session or meeting with a student preparing to lead our Alternative Spring Break experience, my aim is always to contribute to the common good that the College of Engineering is known for.
What’s the best thing you like about your job?
The best part of my job is undoubtedly the people I work with – both colleagues and students. I find that the College attracts an exceptionally talented group of individuals who are passionate about their work. I am constantly in awe of our students – the challenges they take on, their creative problem solving skills, and their drive to be well-rounded engineers. I really resonate with the mission, vision and values of the College of Engineering. I find the collaborative environment that’s been created here nurtures professional growth and fosters a strong sense of community.
Tell us a bit about you?
I am originally from Troy, Michigan, and I completed my BBA in HR Management from Eastern Michigan University, followed by an MA in Higher Education Administration from Sam Houston State University. After earning my undergraduate degree, I moved to Houston, Texas to work as a corporate trainer. Realizing quickly that my true passion lay in higher education, I began taking graduate coursework in higher education, while working as an advisor at a community college. Upon completing my MA, I returned to Michigan and joined the University of Michigan in the same office I currently work. My background in academic advising, teaching, recruiting, student life programming, and leadership education perfectly aligns with my current role, which I truly enjoy. I live in Ypsilanti with my partner, Devon, and our cat, Pax. Living close to my family, including my siblings and fantastic nieces, Ellie and Lucy, is a great joy for me.
Mike with nieces Ellie (left) and Lucy (right)
How about hobbies, activities outside of work?
Outside of work, I have a variety of interests that keep me balanced. I play viola in the Dexter Community Orchestra and enjoy activities like board games and running. Travel is another passion of mine – recently, I visited friends in Melbourne, Australia, with additional stops in Fiji and New Zealand. I’m also actively involved in my church choir as a baritone. Weekends often find me at Vault of Midnight exploring new board games or enjoying time with friends at breweries and wineries.
Advice to others who may be new to their role in the College?
For those who are new to their role in the College of Engineering, my advice would be to actively seek out connections with your colleagues. The College of Engineering is filled with talented, supportive individuals who are eager to help. Don’t hesitate to ask questions or seek mentorship; the community here is incredibly supportive and ready to assist you in your professional journey.