Center Administrator
Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development

First UTSW job: Senior Financial Analyst in the Medical Service, Research and Development Plan (MSRDP) in 1993.

Best part about my job: Working daily with everyone on the McDermott Center Administration team and supporting the research performed by our faculty and staff.

How co-workers describe me: Knowledgeable, problem-solver, dependable, fair, and approachable.

Best UTSW memory: In July 1994, I left MSRDP after almost two years to work with incoming McDermott Center Director Glen Evans as his Administrator. He brought one of only a handful of large National Institutes of Health grants to sequence and map the human genome. The grant funded a Genome Science and Technology Center to sequence and map chromosome 11. Our 60 faculty and staff working on this project were the first occupants of the Hamon Biomedical Research Building in spring 1995. This grant lasted almost six years and project funding was scaled back as the Human Genome Project was winding down nationally. Helen Hobbs, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, took over as Director in 2000 and it has been a privilege to work under her leadership the last 24 years.

Hobbies: Spending time with family and friends; travel.

Surprising fact: The McDermott Center’s Sequencing Core was the first core on campus to generate automated online income-driven repayments (IDRs) for billing our campus customers beginning around 2000. Using data files generated by our core Laboratory Information System, my IT staff and I worked with a team led by Pat Eddington on an interface process to autogenerate IDRs and validate valid billing accounts.

Final note: I value the professional relationships and friendships with my peers in the Basic Sciences and other departments. I encourage my staff to cultivate a network of their peers they can discuss issues with, as I believe it is key to being successful here at UT Southwestern.