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Jendrowski honored for efforts to benefit UB staff
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
The Professional Staff Senate recently held two major events, and Lani Jendrowski was right in the thick of things. As usual.
Lani Jendrowski's tireless efforts for UB's professional staff have earned her the Professional Staff Senate's Outstanding Service to the PSS Award.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI
Senior counselor for the Educational Opportunity Program, Jendrowski was among the guests of honor at the PSS' Annual Awards Luncheon held on May 17 as first recipient of the Outstanding Service to the Professional Staff Senate (PSS) Award. She earned that award, created to recognize members of the PSS whose service far exceeds the scope of their expected duties, for her work as chair of the PSS Professional Development Committee. So it was no surprise to find her at the Holiday Inn Grand Island last Friday as one of the organizers of "Enjoy the Ride," the latest all-day professional development conference sponsored by the PSS.
Jendrowski is no stranger to a busy schedule. She estimates she has helped organize more than 70 professional development conferences, workshops and other events since she became chair of the Professional Development Committee in 1994.
Jendrowski says she served as a member of the Professional Development Committee for only one term before she was asked to assume the position of chair. Although at the time the committee was meeting, she says it wasn't too active. Soon, however, she spurred the group toward new goals.
"I'm just the kind of person who has to be busy," she says.
The committee has worked hard to have an impact on the professional staff at UB. Jendrowski says she and her 14-member committee try to organize one or two low-cost workshops and a series of free "brown bag" lunchtime sessions each semester, as well as a biennial, all-day professional development conference like "Enjoy the Ride." She says about 100 to 150 people turn out for the workshops and more than 200 regularly attend the conferences.
Jendrowski says she tries to focus on "hot topics" when organizing events. For example, after she became committee chair in the mid-'90s, the swift rise of the Internet put the spotlight on computer proficiency. So one of the first activities she organized was a computer-skills seminar.
Other events have focused on such topics as teamwork; communication via listening, speaking and writing; humor as a means to enhance presentations; and adapting to change in the workplace. Of the speakers Jendrowski has brought to UB, she says she is proudest to have arranged for Betty Siegel, then-president of Kennesaw State University in Georgia, to be the keynote speaker at a professional development conference in 2000.
Even with this year's conference—focused on the promotion of satisfaction in one's life and career—still fresh in attendees' memories, Jendrowski doesn't intend to rest on her laurels. She has started looking for her next speaker and says she wants to present an expert on another prominent issue, such as bullies in the workplace.
In addition to offering professional staff members valuable information, the professional development events offer a chance for staff to socialize and network with colleagues outside the office, she says, noting that programs have been held as such local restaurants as the Dakota Grill and Daffodils.
Jendrowski adds that one of her greatest goals is to ensure that the cost of workshops and conferences remains affordable. Registrants affiliated with UB who signed up for last week's conference at least three weeks in advance paid as little as $35 to attend the event, which featured numerous speakers and workshops, and included breakfast, a lunch buffet and an ice cream break. It was possible to keep the cost low, thanks to $6,000 the Professional Development Committee raised through outside support, she says. Moreover, a sponsorship from Citibank provided for a free 90-minute ride on an 80-foot cruise vessel on the Niagara River for participants following the conference.
Larry Labinski, senior staff assistant, State Purchasing, and chair of the PSS, praised Jendrowski for her talent in finding "interesting and informative speakers that result in self-supporting PSS events."
Jendrowski credits her committee members with much of the success of the Professional Development Committee. Members represent a diverse professional cross-section of UB—with individuals' affiliations ranging from nuclear medicine to judicial affairs to student housing—but whose ambitious "type A" personalities unite them, she says.
In addition to the professional development events, the committee has organized informational tours of UB facilities, among them the Center for Positron Emission Tomography in Parker Hall, South Campus, and the Museum of Neuroanatomy and Toshiba Stroke Research Center, both in the Biomedical Education Building, South Campus.