What area do you work in within the VPFA portfolio?
I work in Mail Services within FASS Business Operations.

What is your current position, and what are your job responsibilities?
I am the Mail Services Coordinator. My responsibilities include processing mail and shipments on behalf of campus, providing departments with supplies, keeping the route schedule and university zip + 4 address list up to date, reviewing university carrier account invoices for approval, submitting daily and monthly billing for outbound transactions, keeping our route drivers up to date with department requests and changes, resolving delivery and pick-up issues, and covering routes in the event we are short staffed…just to name a few.

What has been your career path; how did you end up in your current position?
I’ve been working since I was 16. I started out in various restaurants, and in 1998, I decided to register with a temp agency. I secured a position as an Order Expeditor, and it involved international logistics. I moved on to become an Office Manager for a surgeon and decided after nine months that it wasn’t for me, so I went back to my previous company as a Product Development Coordinator. I spent several years doing this, and it just didn’t motivate me the way logistics did. I resigned and registered with another temp agency. I secured a job as an Order Expeditor in military logistics and worked my way up to being the Warehouse and Traffic Manager. I knew then, logistics was where I wanted to be. That company has since relocated to Texas, and after that I worked for a microphone company as the Global Logistics Manager, and in addition to managing our onsite warehouse, I also managed 3PL (third-party logistics) warehouses in other countries as well as in state. When the company was purchased by a corporation, I played a key role in the integration. Instead of accepting another position within the new business model, I opted to take a severance package and relocate to Oregon. When people asked, “What will you do there?” I would say, “I don’t know, I’m thinking about looking at the University of Oregon.” Eight months after moving here, I finished up the integration. I looked at UO’s career page and saw there was a Mail Services Coordinator position. I knew it was meant to be. I applied, and here I am!

What do you like about your current position?
I have a great support system here where I can seek advice when needed while also being given the freedom to bring up my own ideas and act on them. I like that things are ever changing. I’m not sitting at a desk all day, and I’m also not on my feet all day. It’s the perfect mix of performing different tasks throughout each day, and no two days are alike.

Share a little about yourself personally:

• Family – Jimmy and I have been married 22 years. We have four amazing children (three of them are adults): Andrew, Casey, Alyssa and Madison, two dogs, and a cat. We grew up in Southern California and in 2019 we all decided to venture out between Oregon, Tennessee, and Arizona. I have family in Medford, Gold Hill, Springfield, and Salem. When I worked my magic and got Jimmy to agree to moving up here, I let him pick the city, and he chose Springfield. We really had no solid plan: no jobs lined up, no housing, and no friends here. We did not know the area, and we decided to wing it. We stayed in Gold Hill for a few weeks with my dad, then found an apartment and completed the final stage of our move. It was probably the scariest, most challenging, and adventurous thing we’ve ever done, and we couldn’t be happier. We love to go on adventures together with our kids and try to get together as much as possible. We’ve taken them on river floats, guided river rafting on the Rogue, explored several waterfalls, hiking trails, rock slides, drives up the coast, and in turn when we visit them, we do very different activities.

We’ve gone to the Grand Canyon, downtown Nashville, little stops in Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky, etc. We were recently all together for our oldest son’s wedding in March. We have a Tennessee wedding planned in fall 2023. We’re currently in the works of planning a cruise to Cabo San Lucas.

Currently, two of our kids are here with us. In our spare time we like to golf, garden, hike, explore different parts of Oregon, and check out the local breweries.

• Favorite food – I love to cook, so I’m always experimenting with Thai, Italian, and Mexican dishes to make healthier options. It’s hard for me to pick one cuisine because I love variety, and I love a lot of flavor. The spicier the better!
• Best movie you’ve seen – It’s hard to pick just one with so many genres, so I’ll leave you with these: Goodfellas, Dumb and Dumber, Harry Potter movies, and anything with Tom Hanks.

If you could only take three items with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
Music, a fishing pole, and ice cold beer.

How do you want to be remembered?
I want to be remembered as someone who was loyal, who loved and protected her family fiercely, who was a hard worker that had a lot of fun, and as someone who loved animals.

(June 2022)