[UH-PROMES] PROMES Leadership Transition

[Zerda, Kathy]

Dear PROMES Family,

I am finally able to give you an update on my transition into "civilian life".  As many of you know, I am retiring from the UH at the end of this month.  My last day as PROMES Director is Friday, August 29.

Now the exciting part:  Dr. Diana de la Rosa-Pohl will be the new PROMES Director.  You may know Dr. Diana from her years of teaching in the Honors Engineering Program and the Electrical and Computer Engineering department.  She has participated in many of our activities and is a familiar and friendly face.  She will be occupying my former office in E316 over the next days, so be sure to say hi to her and welcome her when you return to campus.  Mr. Matthews will be assisting Dr. Di as she gets settled, and Mr. Kenneth Garcia will also be working with the PROMES team going forward.

Thanks to all of you who have helped me through the years on many projects and outreach events, as a Peer Mentor, or PAC Leader, or member of one of our student organizations.  Thanks to all of you who have served on the PROMES Steering Committee or have served as Workshop facilitators or assistant facilitators, as camp counselors, or in other amazing ways.  Thanks for allowing me to serve as the official faculty advisor for SWE, MAES, and Phi Sigma Rho and as an unofficial advisor to Triangle, SHPE, NSBE, SASE and EWB.   It has been an honor and a source of pride to have known such wonderful individuals as you are.  I look forward to observing your progress through LinkedIn and the BBC World News (I know you will make the headlines)!

One more thing:
Today is the 33rd anniversary of the birth of my son, Jimmy.  Many of you know that Jimmy passed away about 6 months after I joined PROMES.  The PROMES family was key to supporting me through a very tough time, and as a collective group you have helped me to organize the Annual UH-PROMES Out of the Darkness Campus Walk in partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  Our 6th Annual Campus Walk is planned for April 11, 2015.  The PROMES Team has committed to continuing this philanthropic effort, and since I am an officer of the Board of Directors of the Houston Chapter of the AFSP, I will still be on the planning team of that event.  Please save the date!  Last spring's walk raised over $24,000 for research and education related to mental health and suicide prevention.  We earned more money than any other campus in the nation except for the University of Wisconsin-Madison (they earned about $27,000) and we now have them in our sights.  Let's take the top spot in 2015!

My sincere best wishes to you all!

-kz

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Kathy Zerda, Ph.D., MBA
Director, Program for Mastery in Engineering Studies (PROMES)
E316 Engineering Bldg #2
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4010
kzerda at uh.edu<mailto:kzerda at uh.edu>
Office Phone:  713-743-4224
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