Staff profile

Lisa Zovar (right) keeps the students on track. (29K JPG)

When you consider that one of Lisa Zovar's favorite pastimes is hosting dinner parties for as many as 60 friends, it's no wonder that students feel especially welcome in her corner of the IE main office.

Gregarious and efficient, Zovar has been the department's student status examiner since January. A conversation with her is punctuated by student interruptions and telephone calls — all of which she handles without missing a beat.

"I keep the students on track," she explains. It's a job that entails everything from providing students the materials they need to apply for school to making sure they have completed the coursework they need to graduate. "My goal is to help them be successful at this," she says, meaning navigating college's administrative aspects. "I've had a couple of students tell me, 'You make this so easy.' Well, it should be."

Zovar knows the names of at least 300 students and says they know they can contact her for anything. And she enjoys their diversity. "It's a lot of fun to experience the students from all of the other countries," she says. "It's amazing the things they can teach you about thinking outside the box. They've got an entirely different box, so listening to them takes us outside ours."

While the students are Zovar's focus, she also responds to in-person, phone and E-mail queries about the department; and schedules all IE courses with rooms, dates and times.

Originally from Cincinnati, Zovar has held a variety of jobs, including a stint at the Grand Canyon and eight years in sales and management for paint company Sherwin Williams. She's lived in Idaho; here in Madison and nearby in Watertown; in Flint and Bay City, Michigan; and in Columbus, Ohio, where she was when she reconnected with Ray, an old friend who became her husband six months later.

The two bought a 1960s ranch house south of Madison in the town of Dunn, and recently completed what Zovar calls a massive remodeling project to accommodate all of their friends. "Our usual thing is eight-person dinner parties, but we can have as many as 60 people in our house," she says.

And it follows that she likes to cook. Her tastes run toward simple gourmet — uncomplicated offerings made with unusual ingredients, such as mashed potatoes with boursin cheese. "I can cook for 100. Actually, when I cook for 50, I manage to cook for 100," she laughs.

Zovar, who also loves to spend time with her beagle-Norwegian elkhound mix, Chewy, received her bachelor's degree in general studies this year. Years earlier, she'd taken 170 credits in interior design, architecture, business, real estate, soil science, land resources and art, among others. Her newly earned degree wrapped them, administratively, together.

But though she knows a little about a lot, she admits that her strong suit, not surprisingly, is people. "I can read people. I can communicate with people. I can develop a rapport with people," she says. "And I think those are some of the major skills that make me successful in this position. So I'm here — and I like it a lot."