Author: Joyce Meyer,
LSA Dean's Office

Photographer: Esther Eppele, Psychology Department

Linda Bardeleben has been the Key Administrator for the LSA Anthropology Department for the past four years.  Anthropology has 45 faculty, roughly 200 graduate students, 200 concentrators, and 7 staff members, including herself.  In addition to a top-notch dedicated staff, Linda feels Anthropology may have the most fascinating faculty and students at the University.  “With topics ranging from ‘The Anthropology of Humor’ to the ‘Anthropology of Death’ and ‘Bambi, Birkenstocks and Buckshot...’ to ‘Are My Parents Neanderthals?’” quips Linda, “how could you not be fascinated.”

Smooth and efficient, calm and supportive, Linda moved her entire department to new quarters across campus in seven segments, moving faculty and Biological Anthropology labs from NUBS as well as from the LSA Building.  Her department’s praise for her phenomenal job of coordinating everything and everyone has put her in the LSA Spotlight. 

During the move, according to department personnel, no matter how busy she was, Linda always made herself available to the unit’s staff and faculty to carry on “work as usual.”  Her commitment was immense; she was concerned with many details of the rooms in the new building, especially the main office, teaching rooms, and other public spaces.  Her involvement was from the design stage through implementation, and follow-up problem solving.  She helped design the most effective teaching laboratories, and was key in working through how the blueprints would translate into effective space.  In follow-ups, she identified sound problems in one of the teaching rooms, and identified the solution through the use of sound amplification.  Personally, Linda has great appreciation for LSA Facilities’ valuable assistance in the move.

“Simply put, the complex move of the Anthropology Department would have been impossible without the extra effort Linda put into it.  Linda was even seen transporting a chair one day in the back of her convertible,” reports one impressed department colleague.

Linda started her career at the University as a secretary in the Program in Technical Communication at the College of Engineering.  While at the University for 17 years, Linda says she became aware of some of the marvelous opportunities for staff involvement at the University, and was a member of the Commission for Women until she moved to the Dental School.  She spent the next 10 years as the Program Coordinator for Continuing Dental Education, during which she was a co-founder of University Event Planners (UEP), a professional society at the UM.

On a personal note, Linda and her husband, Ed, are building a house on Norvell Lake near the Irish Hills.  When not in the moving mode, Linda enjoys camping, traveling, digital photography and golf.  She is a voracious reader.  Riding motorcycles and cheering on the Michigan Football team are also on her list of enjoyable activities.

Congratulations Linda!