Real People Profiles: Lisa M. Gray

Mon, 17 May 2010 13:26:00 -0400
real-people-profiles

I’m asking some of the people you might encounter on the UMBC campus, including students, faculty and staff, to answer a few questions about themselves and their experiences. These are their responses.

Name: Lisa M. Gray

Hometown: Phoenix, IL & Richmond, VA

Q: How long have you been at UMBC?

A: Almost 4 years

Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?

A: I help people see, affirm, learn about and respect themselves and others.

Q: What aspect of your UMBC role(s) do you enjoy most?

A: Working with students, staff, faculty and community partners to actively support, advocate for, and champion program, initiatives, and causes that break down barriers to achieving human equality, liberty and justice on and off-campus.

Q: What is the most important or memorable thing you learned in college/have learned at UMBC?

A: The importance of building and maintaining authentic, healthy and mutually supportive relationships with secure people of honor, integrity and good will. Those types of "spirit-feeding" relationships have kept me clear, centered, and grounded in what's lasting and truly important. They also have helped me to learn from and weather the ups and downs that inevitably come with success and failure. Believing that everyone on the planet can choose to be loving people of honor, integrity and good will continues to drive me in my life and my work..

Q: Complete this sentence: “I am a big fan of __________”

A: My daughter, Mia--The future President Obama, Maya Angelou, MichaelJackson and Mother Theresa Quadruple Threat!!; Warm, friendly people, chocolate!, manicures/pedicures, massages, facials, good food, traveling (anywhere), movies/theatre/live music. Oh, and did I say chocolate? :)

Q: Do you have any UMBC stories, little-known facts about UMBC, favorite spots on campus, or anything else you’d like to share?

A: When he was a boy growing up in Birmingham, AL, Dr. Hrabowski lived on the same street as my Great Grandma Rosa. Soon after moving to Maryland several years ago, I met him after she sent me a newspaper clipping with a note attached saying that I should meet Freeman Hrabowski, a man who worked at "some university in Maryland." I was shocked to learn he was the President of UMBC. I was even more shocked when I mentioned Grandma Rosa to him and he remembered her! Grandma Rosa passed away a couple of years before I started working at UMBC. I'm sure she would've been proud and happy to know that I work here with the nice, smart young man that used to live in her neighborhood back in Birmingham!