Liz Tierney has seen all sides of the department in her nearly 12 years as an administrative professional. She has supported the clinical and research operations, and for nearly the past five years, she has worked for the department chair and supported the chair’s business office. She also now supports the department administrator, Kirsten Stites.
“I love working for the department,” she said, noting the variety of people and programs. “It’s not the same thing every day. It’s different. It can be challenging, but when something goes right, you feel a great sense of accomplishment.”
One recent accomplishment was earning her Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence, also known as PACE, from the American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP), a national organization. PACE certifies her depth of knowledge, expertise and commitment to her role as an administrative professional.
“We are so proud of Liz on earning this certification as a sign of this significant achievement,” Stites said. “Thank you for your hard work, professionalism and dedication to excellence in the department.”
Tierney said: “There is so much that support staff do that people don’t realize. It’s not just answering phones or scheduling a meeting. You’re coordinating an event or project; you’re wearing so many different hats. You see a potential conflict arising with someone’s schedule and you stave off problems and try to help keep the day going smoothly.”
Her primary responsibility is supporting Dr. Joseph Khoury, the department chair. “Some people call it being a gatekeeper. I have to protect his time. He’s a busy guy; he’s got a lot of pots on the stove. And they’re all usually simmering, if not boiling.”
Tierney, an Iowa native, grew up in Hancock and graduated from Avoca High School. She worked for about 18 years in public relations at the Omaha World-Herald before coming to UNMC.
When she’s not at work, she’s a homebody, devoted to husband and family, two boys and two girls. “My youngest is 17, she’s a junior in high school. My 20-year-old just applied for a pharmacy position here at Nebraska Medicine,” she said, crossing her fingers. One son works in Kansas City, and her oldest son is a drill sergeant in the Army, stationed in Georgia. He and his wife have an infant son, Axel, Tierney’s first grandchild. “He’s a cutie patootie.”
When she gets home from work, she makes a point to stay off most technology. “If the phone rings at home, I don’t answer it. I’m not on the computer. My husband will ask me to help him with something on the computer, and I’ll be ‘you realize I do that all day long?’”
She loves to get outside. “This time of year I love—we plant wildflowers every year. So we’re getting ready to do that again. We have two big flower beds in the front yard. And every weekend we go on walks. We usually do the Bob Kerrey bridge. When the weather gets warmer, there’s a trail in the Loess Hills in Council Bluffs and we’ll go there.”
She used to go riding with her husband on his motorcycle, but a serious crash in 2021 put a stop to that. She suffered a brain injury and other injuries. “That’s another thing I love about this department—they were very kind and patient with me while I healed. It was challenging coming back, because my brain was a little bit scrambled, and I was concerned that maybe I wasn’t going to be able to do the job.”
Tierney had vowed that her motorcycle days were over. But maybe that’s changing. “This past month, I told my husband maybe I want to get back on,” she said. “Because it was fun—we went riding everywhere. He still rides, and I miss that, doing that together. So I’m wanting to do that again this summer.”