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Authored by:
Tonya Edvalson
Membership Chair, SRAI
University of Utah
Email:tonya.edvalson@hsc.utah.edu

It’s an honor to highlight Jennifer Easley this month. She is busy working as the current Southern Section President-Elect and the Immediate Past President of the Alabama/Mississippi Chapter. She has been a member of the Membership Committee for two years, also representing the Southern Section. Her experience putting together meetings with the Alabama-Mississippi Chapter will prepare her well for 2019 when she is organizing the Section meeting! Her “day job” is at Mississippi State University as Business Manager II in the Bagley College of Engineering.

Jennifer is finding that losing kids to the college years means that spending the time she has with them along with her husband is more important than ever and cherished. She spends time with her “favorite people” as often as she can. Her love of learning has opened up new doors and because she isn’t busy enough, she has now decided to pursue her PhD. Oh, and she reads books, too, in her spare time.

During her five years in SRAI, she has found that networking has allowed for critical partnerships to take place that led to Mississippi joining the Alabama Chapter. While she feels that Mississippi often gets “a bad rap,” she enjoys the beautiful state with the amazing and cutting-edge research that she observes at its colleges and universities every day. Jennifer has found that the educational opportunities SRAI offers have given her new perspectives in research administration and deepened her knowledge in her career. She has declared herself a “homebody” and appreciates the time volunteering with SRAI. This has given her leadership opportunities and taken her out of her comfort zone. All of this has made her a better employee and leader at work.

Jennifer, thank you so much for your service to SRAI! I know it’s hard to watch those kids go to college, but it looks like your SRAI family is getting some of that nervous time and we appreciate all that you do for us. Good luck with the PhD and we’ll see you at the next meeting. You are going places!