Dianne Fox Wins Staff Excellence Award

Dianne Fox’s Staff Excellence award came as a pleasant surprise. Fox, who has been working for the Robert H. Smith School of Business for four and a half years, is the coordinator for the Logistics, Business and Public Policy (LBPP) department. “As coordinator, you support all the faculty, help them get their job done, whatever that takes,” says Fox, who loves working with faculty and students in the department. "I can't say enough about how collegial the logistics faculty are. It makes my job easy to work in such a positive environment."

As a coordinator, Fox’s job includes both daily work and big projects that change depending on the day and the season. In the fall, she helps plan the Industry Day, the department’s premier career event; in the spring, she manages the department’s scholarships and application process. The latter can be particularly rewarding. “Last year, every student that applied got a scholarship…I’ve received e-mails [from students]…saying ‘Thank you so much for pushing me to apply,’” says Fox. This summer, she is helping to create the new Web site for the Supply Chain Management major. Fox is also organizing the cross-disciplinary seminar series, in which speakers from other schools come and talk to the faculty at Maryland, and working with the Maryland Book Exchange to make sure there are enough textbooks for the students.

Fox describes herself as someone who likes keeping her job interesting and working with other departments at the University of Maryland. In fact, one of her best experiences at Maryland was when she was on the search committee for the Smith School’s new dean. “Everyone was giving their perspective on what was important, and I’ve never had such a wonderful overview of the business school and where they wanted to go,” says Fox.

Fox has lived in Maryland for about 23 years, but she grew up in Covina in southern California, and got a business degree from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. Does she miss California? “Not at all,” she responds, laughing. “I just really love being in Maryland.”

Both of Fox's children are proud Terps. Fox's son Lee received a double degree from the Smith School in 2008 in marketing and IT and is now a business engineer travelling around the U.S. setting up networks for Cicso Systems. Her daughter Lauren is a senior vocal performance major focused on opera -- she was part of the choir that sang the anthem for President Obama's rally on health care reform on campus in September 2009.

As evidenced by the herb garden growing in her office, Fox also loves gardening. “It’s my passion,” says Fox. “I didn’t know anything about gardening, but one day I stuck a hyacinth bean seed in a pot and these big purple leaves and purple pods and flowers came out.” Her enthusiasm for gardening and plants only bloomed from there. Besides maintaining a small but “jungle”-like garden at home (including cannas, her personal favorite), Fox also previously worked at the University of Maryland Home and Garden Information Center, located in Ellicott City.

Today Fox is enjoys seeing students bloom. Working more with undergraduate students is what Fox likes most. When she went on a student trip to Fort Lauderdale, she was “struck with how poised and professional our students are…it was really impressive.” Fox looks forward to many more years with the Smith School, helping students learn and grow.

Megan Cooley-Klein, Special Correspondent, Office of Marketing Communications