Nancy Majerek and Lenette Votava
Lenette Votava, who handles marketing and communications for the Office of Information Technologies (OIT), grew up in Westchester, Illinois, as the oldest of four siblings. The family moved to South Bend in the summer of 1977, Lenette says. “My dad worked for General Electric and got a new job — the person who was selling appliances to the RV industry was retiring, and dad took the job.”
Lenette graduated from Valparaiso University with a major in journalism and a minor in communications and geography. She worked for 18 years as a marketing and advertising consultant for nonprofits and in the manufacturing and health care industries. She likes her job, because “I’m able to use a broad range of my communications and marketing background to help promote the OIT and its services across campus.” Her responsibilities include informing campus about IT services, providing IT project communication support and coordinating OIT’s participation at various campus and departmental events.
Lenette and Nancy’s parents still live in South Bend; they also have a brother who lives in Warrenville, Illinois, near where they grew up, and a sister (a Notre Dame Law School alumna) who lives in Alexandria, Virginia. Lenette has a wide variety of interests outside work — she worked for years with a local cat rescue group. At the moment she has only three cats — Aiden (a seal point Siamese); Jeremiah (a white-and-black shorthair); and a tiny gray-and-white Persian cat named Violet (a five-pound ball of fluff also known as “Princess Puffytail”). She’s still informally involved in cat rescue and helps people with cat behavior issues. In addition, she’s a gardener (roses), a bird watcher, and a dancer who’s interested in tap and jazz, and often appears in performances of the Elkhart Civic Theatre, most recently “White Christmas” in November. She teaches tap dancing at Flint’s Dance Studio in Mishawaka.
Nancy Majerek, the youngest of the four, graduated from the Mendoza College of Business in 1986 with a finance degree. She worked for 13 years at 1st Source Bank, where she handled Notre Dame’s accounts. Then the University created a new position and needed a treasury person, she says, “and I was excited to accept the job. Now I manage the University’s banking relationships and continue work with the bankers.” She oversees the University’s bank accounts and operating funds including short-term investments and debt. “Treasury Services manages the balance in the University’s bank accounts. We monitor the dollars coming in such as student account payments, donations, ticket sales and department deposits, and the funds going out such as accounts payable, payroll and taxes. It’s like how you manage your personal checkbook, with a few more zeros.”
The University’s international expansion has been interesting, says Nancy, as she works to open bank accounts and facilitate payments and transactions worldwide. Learning the ever-growing compliance requirements that govern movement of funds has been interesting and challenging. She also is involved with special donations and has had to liquidate gemstones, gold bars, Krugerrands, foreign currency and postage stamps.
Nancy and her husband like to travel all over the world to hike, experience other cultures and to scuba dive — recent trips have included Grand Turk, Antarctica, Galapagos and Costa Rica. She has a world map in her office marking both the places they’ve been as well as the places they’d like to go. She’s very active, and has run marathons and triathlons, including two half-Ironmans. Her latest passion, she adds, is paddle boarding — she gives people lessons on at St. Joe Beach on campus, and at Lake Michigan.