College of Arts and Sciences

A UB staff member since 1992, Teresa Metz worked in central UBIT before moving to the College of Arts and Sciences, where she now serves as an associate director of educational technology. In this role, she has demonstrated exemplary technical and management skills that have advanced the college’s instructional capabilities including coordinating IT equipment needs for new faculty and staff, facilitating IT resources for faculty projects, and guiding her staff.  She is praised for ensuring that faculty and staff are equipped to provide UB students with the best education possible. Metz is dedicated to anticipating the college’s needs and staying current on higher education technological advances. She is instrumental in everything from managing day-to-day IT service operations to forming and managing a cohesive IT support team.

University Communications

Cory Nealon is a director of media relations in University Communications. A highly skilled communicator, he has been instrumental in increasing media outreach, building trust with faculty and mentoring other UB communicators. As a result, his work has advanced the university’s reputation with national and global news outlets and elevated day-to-day communications practices at UB. He has been a significant driver in the appearance of UB faculty experts in notable media outlets and played an integral role in the development of university communications for Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2022 visit to campus. He was also an active participant in UB’s crisis communications team during the Covid-19 pandemic and continues to serve on the UB Alert team.

University Facilities

Rekha Prativadi is a project manager for Design and Construction in University Facilities. In this role, she serves as the main point of contact for projects, determining the scope of the work, ensuring building code compliance, identifying program needs, developing ideas to reduce project costs, assisting in design and confirming that projects meet the accessibility guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since 2001, she has worked on more than 375 rehabilitation projects, repair maintenance and capital improvement projects across all three UB campuses. Throughout her career, she has executed many enhancements to UB’s learning landscape—including alcoves, lounges and study areas—which encourage collaboration and the exchange of ideas.

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Sara Robinson is the director of undergraduate advisement and recruitment and the senior academic advisor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her responsibilities include advising 400 pre-pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences students on academic guidelines, university policies, admission requirements and transitional life issues. She also maintains the UB Learns pre-pharmacy advising portal, coordinates combined-degree programs with other schools, recruits faculty to mentor first-year students and helps organize open house events. Robinson is credited with revamping many of the pharmacy school’s recruitment activities by prioritizing individualized information sessions and transforming the pharmacy open house sessions to include more experiential and academic engagement activities.

Department of Biological Sciences

Shanna Snider is an instructional support technician in the Department of Biological Sciences. In this capacity, she ensures laboratory classes are prepared for instruction, oversees teaching assistants and students using advanced laboratory equipment, and works with faculty on developing new experiments for their courses. Praised for her attention to detail and time-management skills, she ensures all her tasks are performed in exemplary fashion. In preparation for labs, she creates solutions, runs tests and meticulously sets everything up, including cell cultures for time-dependent observations and measurements. In addition, to enable students to successfully run multiple, complex experiments on the same day, she provides expertly streamlined notes and visuals for teaching assistants.

Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation

Carol Van Zile-Tamsen, PhD, is the associate vice provost and director of the Office of Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching Transformation (CATT). In this role, she has shepherded numerous initiatives, including the transition from the Blackboard learning management system to Brightspace. With her team, she provided extensive instructional support for UB faculty in the form of online trainings, workshops, tutorials and consultations to coordinate this university-wide changeover. Drawing upon her vast experience in academic assessment, she has twice been selected to help lead UB’s preparation for reaccreditation. In 2014 and 2024, she served as a co-chair of UB’s Middle States Reaccreditation Steering Committee.

Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation

Mark Woodard is a senior programmer analyst serving as the learning management system (LMS) administrator for the Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation (CATT). His responsibilities include leading the operation of, and support for, UB’s centrally supported LMS, UB Learns. He collaborates with UBIT, Institutional Analysis, University Libraries and the Office of Records and Registration to ensure an accessible and effective LMS experience for students and employees. Woodard has led the operational and technical support efforts for the recent, successful LMS transition from the Blackboard platform to Brightspace. He is praised for his broad impact on the university and for demonstrating excellent technical, problem-solving and customer service skills.