Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and how your path led to where you are today.
I was born and raised on a farm in a small town in Wisconsin, along with my 7 siblings, 4 sisters and 3 brothers. My dad was a carpenter and my mom a stay home mom. When I was 6 years old, we moved to a “big city” of 1500 people.
The first one to go to College, I attended Tech College (MATC) in Milwaukee and then transferred to UW Madison to pursue an electrical engineering program. I later had to drop out of college due to finances, joined the Navy, and served 6 years in the Nuclear Power Program. I then worked for Southern California Edison San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant for 5 years.
My path to UCSC is not that glamorous: My brother-in-law told me about the Power Plant operator position at UCSC. I was surprised to learn that UCSC had a power plant. I applied for the job and joined UCSC in February 1995 as Power Plant Operator in Physical Plant. I have been on campus for 29 years.
As the Director of Physical Plant Services, what is your role, the most rewarding and the most challenging part of your work?
My role is to support the education and research mission of UCSC by providing support to our Grounds, Custodial and Building Utility and Fleet Services teams. My job is to help them provide service to the campus through fiscal and staffing resources, training and mentoring. Sometimes I just provide moral support through listening.
The most rewarding part of the job for me is the daily interactions with our campus community (students, faculty and staff) and knowing that the work is impacting the future in a positive way.
The most challenging part is the lack of resources and knowing that we can’t fix everything and have to pick and choose.
Can you tell us about the Just Transition and Equity committee you are co-chairing. What is the goal and what is your favorite part about it?
I currently co-chair the Decarbonization & Electrification Just Transition and Equity Subcommittee with ileana Brunetti. Our charge is to perform a high level analysis of how decarbonizing and electrifying the campus will impact equity for our campus community and their daily lives here. Also to explore what a just transition looks like in relation to any inequities.
This opportunity gave me a chance to think outside the boundaries of the routine operations and maintenance work I do and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of how others' daily lives can be impacted positively or negatively by change, like (D&E) or any other type of change.
What does sustainability mean to you?
Sustainability means being good stewards with our limited resources to help support the future generations to come. This is accomplished through our daily actions, however small.
In all that I oversee, grounds, custodial and the building utility we have always done projects with sustainability in mind. We take care of the electrical systems and water systems, so we have been involved in water saving projects, energy savings projects, even before the sustainability office existed on our campus.
In Grounds, Julie Sutton takes care of all waste management and leads all of our recycling and composting efforts. In Custodial, the same actions around waste take place inside the buildings, gathering all the waste then moving it outside so Julie’s group can collect it all. So I am involved in all the projects and processes around waste and recycling as well and that is how all my departments tie together around sustainability efforts.
Is there anything else about the work you do, and any significant project from the past you would like to share?
As mentioned, I’ve been involved over the years with many sustainability efforts around water, energy conservation and waste management, working with our great partners in Physical Planning Development and Operations (PPDO), Sustainability Office (SO), College Housing and Educational Services (CHES), and others.
Something from the past, that I think was a big highlight I was involved in (but didn’t manage the project then), was a big effort to convert all of the campus street lighting and a bunch of exterior building and path lighting from incandescent and high pressure sodium to LED. That was a big success early on.
Lastly, what do you do for fun outside of work?
Long walks on West Cliff Drive and spending time with family are my favorites. Super fun watching my little 3 year old grandson also.
