“I found a home here” Candace Terhune-Flannery Looks Back Over Two Decades at the School of Social Work

“I found a home here.”

CANDACE TERHUNE-FLANNERY, OUR ASSISTANT DEAN FOR ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATIONS, LOOKS BACK OVER TWO DECADES AT THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

“The leaders at the School of Social Work are invested in the whole school,” says Candace Terhune-Flannery, for more than 20 years our Assistant Dean for Administration and Operations. “It’s about social work, it’s all about social justice. I have always had those beliefs and values, and at the School of Social Work I have really been able to see and participate in the way they interact.”

In March 2022, Candace, a meticulous and dedicated supporter of the School’s Research Office, will retire. Her profound dedication to the school, to social work, to research and to the creation and perfection of administrative systems have made her legendary here. (If you can’t imagine the School without Candace, be assured you don’t have to—yet. She will still put in a few hours a week through the end of next year.) For the research office, Candace reviews project budgets and changes to the distribution of faculty and staff effort on project grants, and ensures that it is all within budgets and that her office is supporting faculty course buyouts and summer funding. Says our current Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Rogério M. Pinto, “Candace has a keen eye for detail and a terrific capacity for developing system to help our grants managers manage pre- and post-awards, and thus support our great productivity.”

Candace came to Ann Arbor from Louisiana as a child. Her father, a construction worker, guessed he would find more work here than at home. He was right. The University of Michigan would become a steady and supportive employer to both father and daughter. Candace’s father, in fact, admired some of the things about the University that Candace admires today. “He always said the University was willing to be innovative in its construction,” she recalls.

Candace began her higher education at the U-M School of Nursing, but after a year went to be with her mother back in Louisiana (her father was working in Alaska by then). She spent time in the U.S. Navy, in cryptographic communications, then returned to U-M for a degree in mathematics and an MBA with a concentration in Information Systems. She was soon employed by U-M as the clinical and finance/IT administrator for the Department of Pediatrics at Michigan Medicine. Her next stop was the College of Engineering, which she enjoyed because it got her involved with students. “I was really into information systems by then,” she says, “and I designed a platform for the College of Engineering distance learning operation. I realized that, whether you are billing patients for services or students for tuition, it’s all information, and we all must share it appropriately.” Soon, though, she decided it was time to be a unit administrator, and she interviewed with then-dean Paula Allen-Meares. “Paula made me feel the importance of the school,” Candace recalls, “and I realized I was really going to be able to make a difference here.”

Today, Candace is responsible for Social Work’s IT, facilities, finance, student administration and all information systems. “I started out wanting to be a nurse, a caregiver,” Candace reflects. “Social work allows me to have that spirit of caretaking in my environment and still do the administrative work at which I excel.” “Excel” might be an understatement. Says Jorge Delva, associate dean of research from 2010 to 2015,

“With her organizational and analytical skills, her incredible work ethic and her attention to detail, Candace created systems that made our Research Office as efficient and effective as it could possibly be. She brings order to chaos, clarity to messiness and a can-do attitude.” “I am a solid support person,” Candace explains. “I provide the School’s leadership with the best information I can so the administration can make the most informed decisions. I want faculty to know they are taken care of. For the Research Office, this means paying them correctly from their projects, getting their proposals submitted on time and not sending money back to the sponsors. My office totally supports research faculty, so they don’t have to think about the financial nuts and bolts of their grants.” Says Robert Taylor, associate dean for research from 2003 to 2010, “Candace is a spectacular administrator. She and her team were responsible for modernizing many of the human resource and management tools in the School of Social Work.” Thinking of the advice she has given mentees over the years, Candace “I want faculty says, “I have always believed it’s good to know they are to do different things and challenge yourself.” Then she laughs and asks, taken care of. “So why have I been in this one place My office totally for 21 years? Well, it’s because I found supports research a home here with the faculty and the faculty, so they mission of the School and have devel oped such wonderful systems, don’t have to think I don’t want to leave them!” about the financial nuts and bolts of But leave them she will—mostly. And what will she do in retirement? their grants.” She and her husband bought a motor coach and plan to visit friends coast to coast, with strategically planned stops at as many national parks as possible. “I wanted to retire while I still had the desire to have fun,” she says. “I want to really enjoy the next chapter in my life.” “Candace’s retirement is a big loss for Michigan Social Work,” says Pinto, “and we will miss her—I certainly will. But it is time for her to devote more time to herself, after all she’s given to us and to the institution.” n