Talk about growing with the job: when Kati Kronholm started at the University of Oregon, there was no email.
That was 40 years ago. Kronholm joined the UO out of college and as her job in Print Services has evolved, she’s evolved right along with it. Today, as copyright clearance coordinator, she credits professional development as one reason she’s stayed with the university for four decades.
“It was a big deal for me,” Kronholm said, “that I had opportunities to learn and grow.”
Kronholm is among the longest-tenured classified employees and officers of administration recognized this year by Human Resources for their service. The department is celebrating more than 350 people who reached a service milestone in 2025 — any between five and 40 years (the program recognizes service anniversaries in five-year increments).
See Years of Service Honorees with major work anniversaries in 2025.
The importance that the university places on job satisfaction is underscored by the fact that the UO has made the flourishing of staff, faculty and students a strategic priority. The UO is coordinating employee development and engagement opportunities and aligning them with outcomes that create a respectful and inclusive workplace.
At a Jan. 28 brunch for honorees in the Erb Memorial Union, President Karl Scholz, Provost Christopher P. Long and Mark Schmelz, chief human resources officer, chatted with attendees and thanked them for their dedication to the UO.
“The experience, expertise, commitment, stability and adaptability that comes with having employees with long service at the university is an incredible asset,” Schmelz told the audience. “You have a really good blend of experience where you understand the processes, why they were developed, how things work, which enables us to evolve and grow as a university.”
Evolution and growth: honoree Donella-Elizabeth Cleveland has supported both for the Department of Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies over her 25 years at the UO.
The administrative program specialist in the College of Arts and Sciences coordinated much of the work — procedures, personnel searches, events, graduation — as the Ethnic Studies Program grew over time and became the department. She recalled there being just a dozen or so students at commencement in the early days . . . and, years later, seating for 300 and running out of chairs as the department reached its potential.
That sense of purpose has inspired Cleveland over two decades of service to the department.
“It’s almost hard to articulate without tearing up,” she said. “It’s an invaluable thing to me that I’ve been able to have some role in helping IRES along all these years. My mom used to say, ‘You’re not just here to breathe the oxygen. You gotta do something.’ I feel like in some small way I’m helping to make the world a little bit of a better place than it was yesterday.”
Those with decades of service at the UO often attribute their job satisfaction to the company they keep: the coworkers who become close friends, sharing in the celebration of successes and lending support during adversity.
Jamie Hoag Barnett, an associate director of undergraduate advising in the Lundquist College of Business, summed up that sense of camaraderie in a single word: bacon.
Over 20 years at the UO, Barnett attributed job satisfaction to her place among a tight-knit crew of coworkers with a shared sense of purpose — and a shared sense of humor. (It’s an article of faith within the group that to be acceptable, the end-of-year advising awards ceremony must include bacon among the catered offerings.)
“Most of the time, my coworkers and I have had similar goals of supporting students through the craziness of the college years,” Hoag Barnett said. “There’s a passion to connect with students. We know things are changing, things can be challenging, but we’re going to focus on the work.”
Community can be just as important, if not more so, during hard times.
Honoree Deanna Tarango, an accounting specialist with Finance and Administration Shared Services, suffered a brain aneurysm in 2000. After a month off, she was welcomed back by her colleagues in Campus Operations with warmth, understanding and support.
“They treated me with respect and if I started to falter, they helped me,” said Tarango, who has worked at the UO for 40 years. “It was a really emotional time, and I love all of them. It’s good to know people care for you and are there for you.”
—Story and photos by Matt Cooper, University Communications