Spotlight
Lehman takes on new challenge
By Laurie
Mellas-Ramirez
Beth
Lehman says her new coworkers in the Department of Earth and
Planetary Sciences are knowledgeable, supportive
and helpful.
Strangely
enough, staff who worked with her regularly while she was an
employment representative for Human Resources use the exact
same adjectives to describe Lehman. Plus one more, shes
fun, said Marketing Specialist Eleanor Sanchez, who nominated
her for this column.
After more
than eight years at Human Resources, Lehman left five months
ago to join E&P as department administrator.
A semester
earlier, fate drew her to take a geology class through the department.
I
had so many rocks in my yard that I wanted identified. I could
either bring them here in a wheelbarrow or bring one at a time
to a class, Lehman said.
Yep, theres
that fun.
It
was hard to leave Human Resources, but it was time for a change
and a new challenge, Lehman said.
Although
some of the duties she had to learn stone cold, her background
in managing information and tasks comes in handy as she helps
set E&P course schedules, assign classrooms, manage payroll
and budget, and handle details for faculty promotion and tenure
and graduation. She works frequently with the Arts and Sciences
and Graduate Studies offices and other campus entities.
I
made so many professional, generous university contacts working
at Human Resources. Its fun to work with people in a whole
new way, Lehman said.
Born in
Pennsylvania, Lehman said she lived back east for much of her
youth and also spent time in California. She graduated from
UNM and also studied for a year in Turkey. While living in Washington,
D.C., she worked at a hospital as director of volunteers.
In Albuquerque,
she has served as a dispute mediator for the courts. She is
also a staff dispute mediator on-call for UNMs Dispute
Resolution Department.
There
is a resolution to everything, she said. I firmly
believe that everything can be settled verbally, although there
are plenty of people who dont agree with me.
Mother
of two grown children, she has one grandson in Florida whom
she adores. Now that her kids have flown the coop, she raises
chickens and sells the eggs each summer.
Lehman
said she loves the university as a workplace. I can get
up from my desk cross-eyed after a long day and walk across
the hall to a world famous museum, she said.
Where
else can you do that?