Meet Amy Tehan, P&S Council president

P&S Council president Amy Tehan

Position at ISU

Training, document control and records management coordinator, U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory

Years at ISU

Seven, including five years at the Ames Lab.

Describe your work

I have three program areas -- training, document control and records management. Training is mostly focused on health and safety-related issues; we do have some administrative and process training. I coordinate all of that. For the document control, we have very specific requirements regarding policies, procedures, plans, guidelines and things like that. I coordinate that whole program. Records management is pretty self-explanatory -- we have very stringent requirements about maintaining our records.

What one word would you use to describe yourself?

Engaged or passionate.

What interests do you have outside of work?

In the summer time, I play softball and sand volleyball. I like to read, which I do pretty much every day. I ride my bike a lot and run races three to four times a year. I try to catch as much live music as I can.

What strengths do you bring to the council presidency?

I have a real desire to engage P&S staff and build the community. I think maybe we've gotten away from that in past years, or it's just fallen through the cracks. We're trying to get back at that and that's a real passion for me. I'm also very team-oriented. I'm really good at making sure that everyone on the team is engaged and feels like they have ownership and are a part of the process and decisions that are made.

What is your top priority this year?

Making sure that P&S staff are being recognized and highlighted as a vital component of the university, because they are. I think it doesn't get talked about enough.

One of my priorities since I joined the council has been diversity issues, so the creation of the vice president for equity and inclusion last year was a huge step forward in that. I really want to see that role blossom this year.

What challenges face the council this year?

We had a rough transition in council leadership a few years ago and a lot of knowledge about council history was lost. We're still trying to build that back up. It was a challenge last year and it continues to be a challenge to try to rebuild what we had before.

Another challenge that's related to that is that we've lost some of our engagement with P&S staff. From my experience talking with P&S staff, they're oftentimes not aware of what the council does, or how much they do or what they're working on. We need to make sure that P&S staff know what we're doing, that they're informed about our activities and that they have a voice in decisions we're making.

What would you like to tell the staff you represent?

I want to urge P&S staff to get involved, in any way they are comfortable with. I think it changes your perspective on the university. You find out things you had no idea about before. It gives you pride in where you work and you have a stake in what happens and what decisions are being made. It really changes how you look at your job and your career.

We have an incredible community at the university, and P&S staff make up the largest percentage of employees. We really need to take advantage of that and make our voices heard -- to be involved and demonstrate that we care what happens here and that we want to make a difference.