Stephanie is the Senior Director of Operations & Outreach for the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability & Energy
How long have you been at the university and what’s your current role?
Wow, I started at NU in the fall of 2000—so I’m celebrating 25 years this year! I have served in various roles, but I am now the Senior Director of Operations and Outreach at the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
While I’ve only been in this role for 4 months, I can say without a doubt that I already love the people I work with! The Trienens staff, our affiliated teaching and research faculty, our industry partners, the students in our MSES program—they’re all terrific! Super committed to the Institute and its mission, with tremendous knowledge, professionalism, and care. I feel fortunate to have such great colleagues, especially in these times when academic research and concern for the environment are under assault.
What’s your secret talent?
After college, I moved home to Tucson, Arizona, where I worked and studied at the Center for Creative Photography (which houses the archives of many well-known photographers like Ansel Adams) with the goal of learning everything I possibly could about photography. In those days, we used film cameras and darkrooms and, because these photographers’ negatives are basically priceless, I learned to make large format copy negatives of the original photographs and then develop black and white copy prints for book or magazine publication. My talent was in making the copy print as close to the original as possible, and in so doing, I learned the difference between printing an Ansel Adams photograph vs one by Edward Weston, or Alfred Stieglitz, etc. It’s both a technical and artistic skill.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I really enjoy gardening. My house in south Evanston was built in 1912 and was owned by an Italian professor and her husband for 40 years before I bought it in 2021. Over those decades, they cultivated an amazing Italianate garden that I felt sure I was going to completely ruin out of lack of knowledge in the first year. But gardening is like cooking—you learn by doing—and now, like cooking, it is one of my favorite things to do!
What is your idea of a relaxing day?
A day where you don’t have any plans but just go with the flow. Now that it’s summer, I love waking up on a Saturday and riding my bike to the farmers’ market. Maybe from there, I’d come home for lunch, or pack a few things to take to the beach, where I’d meet up with some friends for a couple of hours. As the day winds down, we head home for a nice dinner and some wine on my deck overlooking the garden.
For people looking to try out something new (food, TV shows, places, etc.), what would you recommend?
I can’t believe they’ve been open for about a year—and in my neighborhood, no less — but I just discovered LRB—Lefty’s Righteous Bagels — on Chicago Avenue this past weekend. They make Montreal-style bagels, which means they are hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, and then baked in a wood-burning oven for perfect balance of crust and chew. So good!