Team,

Congratulations to Armando Allen, who will serve as a Regional Director. His first day with Development is May 6, 2024.

Armando was a running back while at Notre Dame and, upon graduating in 2011, played professionally for the Chicago Bears. After leaving the NFL, he transitioned to an extensive career in coaching, recruiting, and athletic administration for the past 8 years. We are excited to see the impact Armando will have on our team. His experience, skillset, and commitment to the mission of Our Lady’s University will help advance our team’s work and culture.

Armando, his wife, Chaniya, and three boys are happy to return to their “Home Under the Dome.”

Please join me in welcoming Armando and his family to University Relations.

-George

This Monday, the Development Information Technology and Services team will perform an upgrade to asceND.  The V6.26 upgrade should be completed by 8:00 a.m. and will include updates to correct the Profile Picture error (shown below) and gift processing components.

We ask that if you experience any issues prior to that time, please access the system again when the upgrade process is finished.  

Thank you for your patience and support.  

Dear Colleagues,

It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of Bill Doyle’s mother, Ann Doyle (October 29, 1938 – May 1, 2024).

During this difficult time, let us come together to support Bill, Mary Lynn and their family in any way possible.

Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate through this period of grief and loss.

As further information becomes available regarding arrangements, we will be sure to share those details according to Bill’s wishes.

Sincerely,
Nadia Erickson

Friends and Colleagues,

I write to share the bittersweet news that Lin Wang will be leaving Notre Dame on June 30, 2024 to relocate her family to Texas. Lin’s husband, John, was recently appointed dean of libraries at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Fortunately, we expect to see Lin around campus often when she visits her son, Jayden, who will start his first year at Notre Dame in the fall.

Since joining the Storytelling team in 2013, Lin has been the backbone of our operation. She is a masterful executor, a great source of joy, and an irreplaceable friend to all who have worked with her.

During her 11 years with the Department, Lin has brought to life some of our biggest initiatives, including the Sorin: A Notre Dame Day Story play, every occurrence of Notre Dame Day, and all the fundraising collateral we’ve generated for Boldly Notre Dame and For Good.

Please join me in celebrating Lin Wang and thanking her for the lives she has touched through her work at Notre Dame.

Sincerely,
Brandon Tabor

P.S. Our newest teammate, Carol de Lucca, has worked alongside Lin since March 1 and will be the department’s creative project manager moving forward.

Colleagues,

I am both proud and a little sad to share the news that Writer & Editorial Program Manager Allie Griffith will be leaving the Alumni Association as she accepts a new role as Assistant Program Director of Education and Student Formation with the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies (soon to be the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good). In this role, she’ll work with faculty, students, and NDIAS colleagues to evaluate the impact of higher education courses on students’ well-being and holistic development. As part of the University’s Strategic Framework, she’ll be helping to build out programs and research projects around human flourishing to support the framework’s Ethics initiative. Her last day with us will be Friday, May 10. Her role will be posted to jobs.nd.edu in the coming weeks.

Allie joined the team a little less than two years ago after beginning her career in education and, in that time, has blossomed as a writer and storyteller in our efforts to share the incredible stories of ND alumni, parents, and friends. She’s played an integral role in the continued evolution of We Are ND as we explore different ways to tell ND stories (ICYMI: check out her recent work on the story of Keenan Hall roommates forever linked by the gift of a kidney donation); stewarded the Echoes newsletter; and managing the Class Notes process for ND Magazine. More importantly, she’s been a fabulous teammate who’s been willing to jump in wherever she’s needed!

Please join me in congratulating Allie on this excellent opportunity!

Thank you,
Joanne Norell

Happy Birthday to all our UR colleagues celebrating their special day in May! We hope this new year brings you growth and happiness!

5/1— Meredith Sharwarko
5/4— Scott Berry
5/4— Tashana Kenny
5/5— Annalisa Tombelli
5/6— Gasser Abousaif
5/7— Courtney Mattison
5/7— Grace Prosniewski
5/9— Eleanor Hanson
5/9— Barbara Josenhans
5/9— Gavin McGuire
5/12— Mary Prebys
5/13— Thomas Speranza
5/14— Josh Flynt
5/14— Beth Dietz
5/15— Laura Marks
5/17— Jacqueline Clinton
5/17— Krista Ybarra
5/18— Ron Linczer
5/18— Maya Sison
5/19— Lori Rush
5/20— Sarah Kriegshauser
5/21— Isabel Dance
5/21— Kiran Mistry
5/21— Ben Nowalk
5/21— Terrell Robinson
5/22— Andy Mason
5/22— Stephanie Washington
5/24— Beth Graybill
5/26— Kate Mueller
5/26— Bailey Smith
5/28— Steven Horstmann
5/28— Brooke Speer
5/29— Caitlin Hutchison
5/29— Amelia Ruggaber
5/31— Patrick Charles
5/31— Jennifer Powell

Dear UR Family,

I write with the bittersweet news that our beloved colleague, Michael McLaughlin, will be retiring from his role in development at the end of this fiscal year after an esteemed 15 years of service to Our Lady’s University.

Throughout his career at Notre Dame, Michael has served both the university and benefactors in an incredibly thoughtful and caring manner. His passion, commitment, and hard work has resulted in incredible production over multiple campaigns. These gifts include the establishment of the Pulte Institute for Global Development, Smith Center in the Duncan Student Center, Berthiaume Institute of Precision Medicine, Our Lady of the Lake World Peace Plaza, and the William and Mary Anne Smith Ballroom, among others.

Beyond his professional achievements, Michael has been a source of kindness and mentorship to many of us. As he embarks on this new chapter of his life, we are filled with gratitude for his invaluable contributions and wish him nothing but happiness and fulfillment in the years ahead.

In recognition of Michael’s career, we plan to celebrate his retirement before the end of the fiscal year with more details to follow.

Please join us in expressing heartfelt gratitude to Michael and the McLaughlin family (Patty, Tommy, Daisy, and Maggie), for being such a cherished part of the Notre Dame community. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Tim Kelly
Senior Director, South Region

Dearest Colleagues,

It is with bittersweet emotion that I announce the departure of Kevin Frost from the Annual Giving team and the University of Notre Dame.

Kevin has been a valued part of Annual Giving for three years, and we will miss him as a teammate. Kevin has raised $848,639 of unrestricted revenue for Notre Dame and Her students. His kindness, thoughtfulness, and willingness to help any colleague have been an absolute joy.

We wish Kevin the best in the next chapter of his life.

Thank you,

Indi

We are writing with an update regarding space in order to provide some clarity around what spaces are available and how to book these spaces. This map should help you locate where some of these areas are if you are unsure. We also wanted to provide an update regarding some of the new initiatives that are coming as it relates to space. As always, thank you for your patience as we work through these projects. Please don’t hesitate to provide feedback through Leadership is Listening or reach out to Patty Kokesh directly with questions. Now, on to the updates!

• Bookable Hot Desks:

We are excited to announce that desktop reservation is now available for Eddy Street, effective immediately!

You can now easily reserve a hot desk directly from go.nd.edu/ndrtango or via the Tango Reserve by AgilQuest mobile app, giving you the ability to choose the perfect spot, space, and time to optimize your productivity and collaboration. We ask that you do not book a hot desk for more than a week at a time. Please note that conference and huddle rooms are still to be booked via Google Calendar.

To help you get started, we’ve prepared a video guide demonstrating how to use the desktop reservation feature on the website and on the mobile app as well as step-by-step written instructions.

You can access those from the NDR – Tango Reservation folder on the Dev Resources shared drive or click on the links below.

• TangoReserve_Desktop Instructions (including links to videos)

• TangoReserve_Mobile Download Instructions and QR Code Reservations Video

Huge shoutout to Carleen Quinlan, Rose Michalski, Jeff Faust and Linda Klaybor for all of their help on this project.

• Huddle Rooms: 

There are huddle rooms available throughout the office with a mix of reservable and non-reservable options. We ask that no huddle room be used for more than 90 minutes at a time. Here are the locations of these spaces:

• Library Quad contains nine huddle rooms:

  • Non-reservable for use up to 90 minutes: Touchdown Jesus, Victory March, Basilica, 1972

  • Bookable via Google calendar for use up to 90 minutes: Laetare, Leprechaun, Bengal Bouts, Baraka Bouts

  • Training room: Cartier Field is meant to function as a training room and is only bookable through Jerry Barca, Erin Newkirk and Angie Palsak

• North Quad contains two non-reservable huddle rooms for use up to 90 minutes.

• Office #3256 is a non-reservable huddle room for use up to 90 minutes. It is in use on Mondays and Thursdays.

• Office #3242 is a non-reservable huddle room for use up to 90 minutes.

• Coming Soon:

• Spring cleaning followed by a deep cleaning in July. More to come on this soon.

• Clear policies around the booking of the Family Room with an emphasis on trying to keep this space open for casual conversations during core working hours.

• Sister Jean Room reconfiguration.

• A new locker solution for individuals who do not have an assigned spot at Eddy Street that will result in additional collaborative and individual workspaces being opened up near natural lighting.

• A brighter look and feel with some cosmetic updates.

• Better solutions for video meetings in some existing conference rooms.

• Additional Information:

• With a growing workforce, we ask that you be respectful of those around you as it relates to phone conversations, in-person conversations and the playing of music. Please use headphones when possible.

• If you have a trash can in your office area, this should be emptied regularly into one of the communal trash cans as trash pickup in offices is not an available service.

• The Family Room has been reconfigured to look and feel more like a cafe and contains ~20 seats along the perimeter available for quick chats, a lunch meeting or a more informal check-in with a colleague.

• The Chapel Room is the open conference room just north of the Prospect Management and Research area. This conference room is now reservable via Google calendar and contains a TV with AirMedia and enough room for 4-6 individuals.

• If you are looking for the Library or Collateral, both can be found just south of Library Quad.

Thank you!

Brian Diss, Nancy Cole and Patty Kokesh