Mary L. Tabatcher

Title: Administrative Assistant (Retired)
Dept/Program: Statistics

Biography

I have been fortunate in having an interesting and varied career, beginning in 1968 at (what is now) Bridgestone-Firestone for 13 years -- starting as Secretary in Technical Service until 1974, and then moving to the Industrial Engineering Department as a Product Verification Clerk to audit piecework production.   After a series of promotions, I finished my career at Firestone as Junior Engineer where I supervised industrial engineering projects (time study and piecework rates, workflow, machine capacities and utilizations, manpower efficiency and downtime analysis and represented the company in certain grievance negotiations ).  I also had the pleasure of serving as a company representative on the Suggestion Board where I evaluated suggestion feasibility and ROI.  After taking a career hiatus to raise three children, I returned to work in February 1995, taking a position at The University of Akron as a Research Secretary in Sociology where I assisted Principal Investigators in developing funded research proposals, monitoring grant budgets and handling all the day-to-day operations of running a research operation.  The Institute for Health and Social Policy was formed in 1999 where I was pleased to be involved in supporting the largest single grant the University ever received -- $15M from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the efficacy, delivery and redesign of the curriculum of the national DARE program.  In 2002, I transferred to the Department of Statistics as Administrative Assistant where I handled all the day-to-day operations of running a busy academic department, which included both undergraduate and masters programs in Statistics.  I am pleased to have retired after 20 years from a great institution!