The Dean's Office provides support to CBS faculty, staff and students through Advancement and Communications efforts, Finance, Facilities, Human Resources and Research and Learning Technologies.
ADMINISTRATION
Andrea Backes
Chief Administrative Officer
bayso001@umn.edu | 612-624-3207
Andrea is responsible for creation and oversight of the collegiate budget in addition to CBS Human Resources. Additionally, she analyzes financial, student, space and human resources data to inform strategic decision making. Contact Andrea with questions about budget issues and data requests.
Anna Cullen
Executive Assistant to the Dean
culle128@umn.edu | 612-624-7747
Anna is executive assistant to the dean and is responsible for administrative support to the Dean and Associate Deans, as well as management of front office staff and operations. Contact Anna with questions about the dean's calendar, scheduling appointments and administrative questions.
Kristal Leebrick
Executive Office & Administrative Assistant
kleebric@umn.edu | 612-624-2244
Kristal is executive office and administrative assistant to David Greenstein, associate dean for research; Clarence Lehman, general advisor to the dean; John Ward, associate dean for undergraduate education; and Marlene Zuk, associate dean for faculty affairs.
ADVANCEMENT
Reede Webster
Chief Advancement Officer
webst033@umn.edu | 612-624-9460
Reede oversees the College's Advancement Team, which includes alumni and external relations, development and communications and marketing. He works with donors and alumni to cultivate support for the College. Please contact Reede if you would like to discuss giving options, scholarship and fellowship support, or engagement opportunities.
Stephanie Xenos
Director of Marketing, Communications and External Relations
sxenos@umn.edu | 612-624-8723
Stephanie manages the college's communications and marketing efforts. She works closely with units and departments to develop print and digital communications, and develop strategic communications and marketing plans. Contact Stephanie about new research and story ideas for collegiate publications; branding guidelines; news releases and media relations; videography, photography and creative resources.
John Curry
Development Officer
jcurry@umn.edu | 612-624-4770
John oversees programs and pathways for alumni, friends and donor participation that provide tangible benefits and advance the goals of the College of Biological Sciences. Feel free to contact John regarding alumni and giving opportunities.
Lance Janssen
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
ljanssen@umn.edu | 612-624-0774
Lance provides communications and marketing support for a range of initiatives with a focus on student recruitment and college-wide events. Contact Lance for help with student-focused marketing materials; undergraduate student features; web analytics and metrics; social media.
Keegan Carda
Advancement Associate
kcarda@umn.edu | 612-625-7705
Keegan supports the College’s advancement efforts through donor stewardship and event planning. He works to build long term relationships with friends of the College and ensure donor and alumni recognition and engagement. Contact Keegan regarding donor stewardship, engagement opportunities and giving opportunities.
Claire Wilson
Content Strategist Associate
clairew@umn.edu | 612-625-2247
Claire focuses on developing stories to highlight the work of CBS faculty, post docs, and students. She also helps maintain the College’s website pages and social media. Contact Claire with any website updates, additions to the wall monitor slides, or other communications needs.
FACILITIES
Christina Kramer
Facilities Manager
clkramer@umn.edu | 612-624-2918
Christina oversees CBS’ diverse portfolio of facilities, including administrative, office, teaching, and research spaces. She works with CBS Departments to develop collegiate policies and procedures regarding facilities. Additionally, she advocates on behalf of CBS faculty, researchers, and administrators by acting as the CBS liaison to UMN Facilities Management. Christina represents the college during major renovation projects within CBS spaces. Please contact Christina with autoclave issues on the St. Paul campus.
FINANCE
Juli Pelletier
Finance Manager/Cluster Director
pelle003@umn.edu | 612-624-8728
Juli serves as cluster director for the CBS St. Paul campus departments and as finance team manager. Please contact Juli for help with policy and budget issues.
Amy Angel
Accountant
angel188@umn.edu | 612-301-1147
Amy is responsible for setting up and maintaining BioTechnology Institute non-sponsored accounts. This includes internal faculty awards, sales accounts, graduate student spending accounts, and UROP awards for BTI. She also reconciles procurement cards for BTI. Contact Amy with questions regarding non-sponsored account set up and balances, procurement cards and department deposits for BTI.
Kay Biermaier
Accountant
bierm003@umn.edu | 612-625-6756
Kay serves as a procurement specialist, receiving and reviewing requests for changes to or cancellation of orders, overseeing CPS and amendment processes and controls, and processing receiving information for assets. Additionally, Kay processes journal entries for the CBS cluster, handles expense reimbursements and departmental deposits. Contact Kay with questions regarding procurement requests, errors, expeditions; expense reimbursements; historical salary adjustments.
Janet Hopkins
Executive Accounts Specialist
vanre001@umn.edu | 612-624-3648
Janet processes invoices for the college. Additionally, she can assist with purchase requisitions as needed. Contact Janet with questions regarding billing invoices; requisitions.
Lori Nicol
Accountant II
l-nico@umn.edu | 612-625-2781
Lori serves faculty in pre-award, and post-award grant management assisting in grant proposal preparation to grant close-out. Additionally Lori assists in faculty and graduate student payroll, effort certification and Check requests for REU’s and other participant payments. Contact Lori with questions regarding grant proposal preparation; status of grant and grant management; close-out of grants at project end; effort certification; REU/participant payments.
Shelly Rorer
Accountant
rore0004@umn.edu | 612-624-9509
Shelly is responsible for setting up and maintaining EEB & Plant Biology non-sponsored accounts. This includes internal faculty awards, sales accounts, graduate student spending accounts, and UROP awards. She also reconciles procurement cards for both departments. Contact Shelly with questions regarding non-sponsored account set up and balances; procurement cards.
Launa Shun
Accountant II
shunx001@umn.edu | 612-624-6761
Launa serves as the departmental grant administrator for the Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. She is responsible for both the pre-award and post-award duties associated with sponsored projects. This includes assisting faculty, staff and students with proposal preparation, management of grants received and the close out of those grants. Contact Launa with questions regarding proposal preparation (budgets, PRF routing, submission, etc.); status of grant (account setup, account balance, encumbrances, etc.); grant management issues (re-budgeting, requests to SPA or to the funding agency, interpretation of agency and University policies, etc.); close-out of grant; effort certification; document approvals (Financial).
HUMAN RESOURCES
Rachel Roach
HR Consultant
kala0056@umn.edu | 612-624-4506
Rachel is responsible for managing the HR functions of the College such as employee/labor relations, workforce planning, guidelines for compensation, conflict management, and performance management. She is available for consultation and training regarding HR policy, procedure, best practices and will, in consultation with the college/department administration, initiate and implement operational improvements and developmental training.
Kelsey Cook
HR Generalist
cookx632@umn.edu | 612-626-5455
Kelsey welcomes all new CBS employees to the College with an orientation session. In addition, Kelsey is the initial contact for staff regarding general HR questions. She advises hiring supervisors on recruitment and hiring procedures and best practices, assists in the coordination of leave requests, and helps assure compliance with University HR and payroll policy.
RESEARCH & LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES
Michael Waltonen
Director of Technology
waltonen@umn.edu | 612-625-0961
Mike leads the Research & Learning Technology group. He works with faculty and leadership to ensure his team maintains a relevant service portfolio.
Kalli Binkowski
Academic Technology Coordinator
kbink@umn.edu | 612-624-0641
Kalli works with instructors to support their course technology needs, anticipate and explore how technology should be applied to CBS instructional practices and strategies, and manage learning technology projects. Contact Kalli about technology projects; adapting curriculum to use new technology; or coordinating University resources for instructional projects.
Tom Kautz
Technical Analyst
tjkautz@umn.edu | 612-626-8126
Tom works with faculty and staff to define and manage technology projects for research, teaching, or administrative activities. He also manages functionality and design changes to the college website. Contact Tom with questions about technology projects, the CBS website, and using drones for research.
Chris Lee
Developer
chrislee@umn.edu | 612 626-9641
Chris manages web development, the CBS website back end, projects involving Drupal and workflogen projects. He also helps with research hardware support. Contact Chris for assistance with web development, the CBS website or managing workflow projects.
Evan Peterson
Instructional Technologist
evanp@umn.edu | 612-301-1879
Evan provides support and guidance on the use of technology in CBS courses and creation of surveys. Contact Evan for help with using learning technologies such as Moodle, student polling (e.g. iClicker, Tophat), or multimedia; finding learning technology for a course; or using University survey tools.
Vlad Vladykin
Software Developer
vladykin@umn.edu | 612 301-1558
Vlad works with faculty and staff to design, implement and troubleshoot software solutions for various research projects. He also manages several databases.
Rachel Swansen
Technologist
swansen@umn.edu | 612 301-1283
Rachel works with faculty and staff to provide technical support for their research equipment and other general technology needs. Contact her if you need assistance with or advice about your research equipment. Rachel can also point you in the right direction if you are unsure of which member of our team can help you with your latest technology projects or issues.