On Tuesday, March 28 Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) staff member Brandi Rund was recognized at the Women's History Month Leadership Reception at the IUPUI Campus Center, in Indianapolis. She won in the 2017 Outstanding Women Leader in the category of “staff, newcomer,” which is one of the IUPUI Women’s History Month Leadership Awards. The theme of the program is "Honoring Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business."

Rund’s career at IUPUC began on November 1, 2013, as support team lead in the Office of Information Technology. Rund is well known around campus and credited for her strong work ethic, positive attitude, and contagious smile. In June 2014, she was recognized as IUPUC’s employee of the month. She says, “I like to help people feel valued and promote IUPUC as a welcoming campus.”

As a member of the IUPUC’s Feminist Club Rund supports:

• Showcasing the abilities of women so they can be their best
• Equality for everyone
• Empowering people to have a voice

Her career goal: “Apply my love for technology along with my knowledge of women’s studies in helping each person meet their objectives as a student or in their career,” says Rund. Additionally, she collaborated with women from the various divisions at IUPUC in developing a Woman’s History Month display. Rund says that her goal was not only to inform but also excite individuals about her women on campus campaign. “Ultimately, Rund seeks to, “Boost morale, build friendships, and create synergy among the many internal stakeholders at IUPUC.”

Rund was nominated for the award by Dr. Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick is Director, Office of Student Research and the Associate Professor of English at IUPUC. In support of the nomination, Goodspeed-Chadwick submitted:

Brandi Rund works a full-time job as the IT Support Services Team Lead at IUPUC. But it is for her vision, initiative, and work on behalf of women (and men) on campus, especially female students, staff, and faculty, that make her superlative because while she is an excellent leader in her current role, she has expanded it to embrace the following work:

1) To design and implement feminist programming at IUPUC, in tandem with technology/IT

2) To support women and initiatives that make IUPUC a welcoming campus.

First, Rund has been a valuable and indispensable staff ally to the student-run Feminism Club at IUPUC. With her IT connections, she is able to connect students to her network of people as well as explain how the IT network of services function so that students can optimize event planning and put on significant community events (such as the Take Back the Night march—the first in the 40+ year history of IUPUC). The extra work that “Take Back the Night” caused her was work she did willingly, graciously, and with a sense of immediacy. She cared about the event as much as we all did (I am the faculty advisor of Feminism Club).

Thanks to Rund, we also were able to map our one-mile march efficiently. In no small way, she played an important role in what was, for the students, our campus, and the Columbus and surrounding communities, a big event that was symbolic of IUPUC’s stance on raising awareness about violence against women (and marching against it).

Additionally, Rund has been creating and implementing feminist programming of late and has joined forces with the Feminism Club students and its advisor and the OFW program assistant to produce bigger and better events than what any one entity could produce. For example, Brandi is responsible for earning IUPUC the title of “Data Privacy Champion” by an external entity, and IUPUC is proud of this title/accolade. And yet, true to Rund’s feminist philosophy, she collaborated with Feminism Club, Spectrum (formerly the Gay Straight Alliance), the OFW extension at IUPUC, and the Office of Student Research to allow others to contribute not only their support but also their knowledge and womanpower to the Data Privacy Day event. True to Rund’s nature, she distributed the credit for her impressive event and ensured that others received credit within Inside IU.

For the first time in IUPUC history, Data Privacy Day was something that students, staff, and faculty were discussing and learning about in large numbers because Rund created a social media buzz by creating attractive displays of important information and distributing selfie sticks. This resulted in people coming together to talk about the serious issues related to data privacy, including material related to stalking, dating violence, and domestic violence (as provided by Turning Point Domestic Violence Services). It was a terrific event, one that brought various parties together (students, staff, faculty) at IUPUC.

This upcoming month, during Women’s History Month, Brandi scheduled two different academic sessions dedicated to empowering women in the workplace, and she is focused on forging new partnerships and initiatives on campus to enhance life on campus.