STAFF PROFILE

Ronald Cisneros

Imagine being an office manager in a world where all the offices are closed.

Ronald Cisneros, office manager for the Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research (PHSR) in the School of Pharmacy, experienced that scenario due to COVID-19.

“It was a crazy time,” he recalls of March 2020, when the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) mandated telework and virtual learning in response to the pandemic. “We were scrambling to get everyone a laptop as quickly as possible, and to get everyone up to speed on Zoom, Webex, and Teams, and with how to access files.

“When you’re on campus, it’s super easy because it just works. We were able to be a lifeline for people struggling to get everything set up to work at home.”

Designated an essential employee, Cisneros visited the office weekly during the telework phase to check in and distribute packages. After 15 months of being in the Saratoga Building largely by himself (“it was eerie; like it had been abandoned overnight”), Cisneros prepared for the return of his colleagues.

“There were a lot of requirements to allowing people back. Training completions. Proof of testing. Daily symptom monitoring. I created a re-occupancy plan for our department. It included a detailed breakdown of square footage of all our spaces, how many people were allowed to be where and on which days. I had a big spreadsheet.”

C. Daniel Mullins, PhD, a professor in PHSR, says Cisneros rose to the challenge. “Ron’s outstanding performance reminds us that you can make everyone else’s job easier and day a bit brighter if you treat everyone with respect and integrity, which are two UMB core values.”

Rising to the occasion during the pandemic wasn’t the first time Cisneros had been cited for extraordinary service. In December 2019, he was UMB’s Employee of the Month for his response to an August rainstorm that flooded PHSR’s offices.

“All of the faculty offices on the east wall of the building were flooded,” Cisneros said at the time. “Half of the carpet was soaked, bookcases against the walls were affected, as were papers, desks, and computers.”

Cisneros found spaces for affected faculty to work and set them up with a computer, working with UMB’s environmental health and safety team to ensure the spaces were free from mold.

Complicating matters, he had only been at UMB for two months at the time. He says that “trial by fire” was beneficial. “I had to find out who all the people were and how the process works for painting, for repairs,” he recalls. “Pieces of the puzzle I wouldn’t have had to figure out so quickly otherwise.”

He's learned from the pandemic as well. “It has forced our team to be more efficient in utilizing the digital tools available to us,” Cisneros says of his “phenomenal” administrative co-workers Michelle Besser and Kasarah Johnson. “Instead of printing something out, I’m more likely to drop an attachment into Teams and share it there. Or rather than waiting for scheduled meetings, now we have a Microsoft Teams chat that’s instantaneous.”

An avid snowboarder who proposed to his new wife on a Canadian ski slope, Cisneros’ roots in customer service date to his years managing a North Face store.

He learned his lessons well, says Mullins. “Ron embraces the spirit of public service, both within PHSR and to those outside UMB with whom we interact,” Mullins says.

Mullins, PHSR, and the School of Pharmacy have impressed Cisneros. “The people are the best thing about working here,” he says. “Everyone is so kind and generous and well intentioned. It’s wonderful to be a part of something that is working toward the betterment of society.” b

Crisis Solver

BY CHRIS ZANG