Dean’s Support Staff Advisory Committee 
In Person Retreat, August 20, 2026, 2:00-3:30pm 

Present: Rachael Vettese, Steven Kaatz, Cassius Hossfeld, Alicia Ferguson, Liz Stanton, Tae Blair, Carol Parker, Supratik Rayamajhi, Bryanna Powers, Heather Soule, Steve Baranski, Kate Taylor

Regrets: Connie Piasecki, Quinn Sawyer, Mar Dunstone, Karla Cody, Francesca Cabeje, Courtney Sourenson, Julie Lowman, Cynthia Vincent

Agenda:

• This is the largest group we’ve had on DSSAC since its conception

2:45 – 3:00pm: Welcome: Interim Dean Supratik Rayamajhi, MD and Faculty Liaison to the Dean, Carol Parker, PhD

• One Team One Health
  • How will college look like consolidated with COM to become School of Medicine
  • We have now come together a lot more than we’ve had in the past
  • Primary Goal is to continue to advocate for CHM’s impact on state of Michigan: need to engage with stakeholders/BO
  • Currently in planning phase
    • Nomination process is university wide for planning committees
  • Goal is to find areas of efficiencies/synergies
  • Final product is years in the making
• Bus Tours continue to showcase the amazing things CHM does throughout the state
• Send emails to support staff to remind them about opportunity and deadline
  • How can support staff support DSSAC? Amplify the mission of the college
  • We need to keep moving forward as a college, even if the college morphs into something else
• Make sure we have job descriptions updated with supervisors, so we understand everything everyone does
• Most of this work will take several years to accomplish
• Broad consensus: Unless we walk out with better situations for faculty, staff, and students or we didn’t achieve our objectives
• Change will be chaotic and confusing
  • We need to make staff feel valued

3:00-3:30pm: Open Discussions

• Upcoming Quarterly Meetings with Interim Dean Supratik, September 24 and December 17th; 2:00-3:00pm
• Monthly meetings, on the fourth Thursday of the month at 2pm, if not available, you can look at minutes. This was decided because it’s when Supratik and Carol are available
• Committee Charges: No longer individual subcommittees, but work as a group to support everyone
  • Communications
    • Med News, Emails to Support Staff, Fliers, Website
    • Work on including historical awardees and historical committee members on the website
  • DSSAC Shout Out Station
    
    • Relatively stable; should just need a few tweaks
    • Whoever is nominated is thrown into a generator to select each quarter
  • Community Service
    • This takes a bit more time, last year it was the ice cream recognition
• Committee Role – Bylaws: 4.4
  • Meet the Chair and Co-Chair, Liz Stanton and Tae Blair
  • Secretary: Rachael Vettese
  • Treasurer: Heather Soule
  • Program Coordinator
  • DSSAC Website Review – Historical Information
    • Bylaws
    • Minutes
• Committee Member | Website
  • Photo, high definition and Short Bio Short bio- Send to Steven Kaatz
  • Website: Steven to update, will review at next meeting with vote
• SharePoint Site https://DSSAC SharePoint ; if you do not have access, please let me know.
  • New Owners: Let Liz know if you are interested!