Pam
Tazik
arrived this fall as the new research administrative manager at the Gates
Center. One of four siblings, Pam grew
up in Auburn, NY, near the Finger Lakes of Central New York. At 19 she had several years of college under
her belt when she decided that she was “all done with school” and would move to
Florida. Evidently, all it took was
waitressing for a few months to change her mind about the merits of academia.
She proceeded to earn her BS and MS in Biology from Clarion University of
Pennsylvania and has spent the last 25 years working in University
settings. In May 2012, she ended her 14
years of service to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson,
MS, the last seven years as director of sponsored programs in the Office of
Research. An article describing her
legacy states,
From
a decentralized universe of grants, contracts and proposals in the University
of Mississippi Medical Center’s research enterprise, Pam Tazik
created order and a one-stop shop for faculty members to get the forms and
assistance they need.
Not
a bad reputation to carry with her to Colorado—on her first venture west of the
Mississippi!
Over
the years, Pam and her husband have lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois and
Mississippi, as Pam’s husband pursued his profession as an ecologist in an R
& D lab working for the Army Corps of Engineers. And a year ago he was recruited to Colorado
to work for the National Ecological Observation Network (NEON Inc.). He and others are involved in a NSF-funded
30-year project to gather and provide ecological data on the impacts of climate
change, land use change and invasive species on natural resources and
biodiversity.
Newly
installed at the Gates Center, Pam with her long experience working with
university faculty members has well-earned perspective, and she is tremendously
impressed with all she sees going on at the Gates Center. Day-to-day, Pam maintains accounts on 40 to
50 people, which adds up to a tremendous amount of grant activity. She says:
The
stem cell investigators here are heavily and actively engaged in their
research, the number of ongoing projects and multiple awards is impressive, and
the diversity of funding is indicative of their overall effectiveness and
strength.
Also
impressive to Pam are the number of trainees at the Center—post doctoral and
pre doctoral candidates, who are supported by a critical mass of faculty
investigators and mentors. Pam feels
that what we have created at Gates is an ideal environment for advancing
science and cultivating our next generation of researchers. She points out that National Institute of
Health literature is replete with concern as to who will fill the shoes of our
scientific giants. With a Center such as
ours at Gates, she is not worried in the least!
Pam
and her husband have two children: a 28-year-old son working at Vanderbilt, who
has started his masters in administration with an emphasis on health care and a
24-year-old daughter, who is working toward her PhD in chemistry. When not at the Gates Center, Pam has a long
list of places to visit and things to do in Colorado in addition to following
her passion for flowering plants and gardening—both outside and in. If she’s ever able to extract herself from
academia, she’ll definitely have her hands in the dirt!