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

Kite will shut off the water to the Eddy Street offices (both 2nd and 3rd floors) on Wednesday, May 1st, from 8:00 PM to 12:00 AM to repair a water pipe.

If you have any questions, please contact Lana Taylor or Laura Waltz.
Thanks!

Lana & Laura

Dear Colleagues,

I’m excited to share with you that Justin Siler has been hired as Clubs Program Manager at the Alumni Association. His official start date is May 1st.

Justin is a proud member of the ND Class of 2011 and went on to graduate from Northwestern University with a Master of Science in Higher Education Administration & Policy in 2018.

As an undergraduate at ND, Justin worked as a campus tour guide within the Visitors’ Center, where he developed a passion for serving the Notre Dame community. After graduating from ND, he moved to Chicago and worked at Ipsos, a global market research firm, where he was a Senior Account Manager. Since earning his master’s degree and beginning his career in higher education, Justin has served as the Director of Affinity Programs at the UCLA Alumni Association, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement at the IU School of Nursing, and Policy Analyst at the IU Public Policy Institute.

Outside of work, Justin enjoys traveling, hiking, and following ND football. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, Lauren (class of 2012), daughter, Maya (class of 2043), and Australian Cattle Dog, Sydney, who never goes anywhere without her ND collar.

Please help me welcome Justin to the team!

Sincerely,
Abbey

Please join me in congratulating Isabel, Austin, and big sister Lillie on the arrival of baby August Miller Dance! August was born on April 17th at 10:29 pm at 6Lbs 13 oz, 19 inches. Both mom and baby are doing great!

Anita

UR Family,

For 52 long years, Colombia was in turmoil due to a protracted civil war between the Colombian government and the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). When the warring sides signed the historic Colombian peace accord in 2016, Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies became responsible for verifying and monitoring its implementation—making Notre Dame the first and only university in the world to play such a direct role in maintaining peace.

In the 11th episode of For Good, Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Professor of the Practice and Director of the Kroc Institute’s Peace Accords Matrix, explains how Notre Dame has become an internationally recognized leader in peacebuilding around the world, how she addressed the U.N. Security Council on resolving disputes peacefully, and how her team is preparing a peace accord to end armed conflict in the Philippines.

Watch on YouTube →

Listen on Spotify →

– Brandon Tabor

The effort to become more global is as important for the next generation at Notre Dame as the effort to develop research was in the last. Every part of the University, in collaboration with Notre Dame Global (formerly Notre Dame International), will contribute to a more global Notre Dame.  

With this, we are launching a new council this fall – the Advisory Council for Notre Dame Worldwide – dedicated to supporting the global aspirations of Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework (pp. 22-26) and the specific objectives defined in the University’s forthcoming global strategy report. 

This council is unique in that it will offer broad access to academic leaders across the University. Support through this council will be vital to the success of integrating and implementing this global strategy and the University’s overall mission to be a force for good in the world.

Objectives of the Advisory Council for Notre Dame Worldwide:

• To promote the funding priorities for NDG, the international priorities of the Office of Financial Aid, and other global priorities of the University.
• To enhance the relationships of leading NDG and international financial aid donors with the University’s President, Provost and Executive Vice President.
• To increase our presence internationally through undergraduate student experiences, international student presence on campus, graduate exchanges, and increased research and programming, particularly in the Global South. 
• To convene leaders from across the University, showcasing multidisciplinary, global initiatives. 

With the creation of this new council, and the goal to grow beyond a regional focus, we have dissolved the Latin American & Caribbean AC. Four members from the LACAC have been invited to serve as inaugural members of this new council. The remaining members will be retired from the AC program and their leadership and service will be acknowledged by Fr. Jenkins.

Michael Pippenger, Vice President & Associate Provost for Internationalization, will serve as the AC leader for Notre Dame Worldwide. Caitlyn Clinton is the Academic Advancement partner for ND Worldwide.

If you have questions about this new council, or anything Advisory Council-related, contact Betsy Quinn at bquinn7@nd.edu.

To learn more about the rebrand of Notre Dame Global, read the recent news release here.