Lookin’ at U – Sheryl Brietzke

Each Thursday, we randomly feature a medical center employee. This week, we learn more about:

• Name: Sheryl Brietzke
• Hometown: Omaha
• No. of years at UNMC: One year as Kelly Service and five years as UNMC employee.

Tell us a bit about what you do:
I am a dispatcher for the UNMC trouble/help desk. I answer incoming calls for various maintenance issues. Calls can be anything from a room that is too hot or too cold, air flow being too negative or too positive, ceiling/window/roof leaks or entrapments in elevators. The No. 1 goal each day is customer service, and I strive to follow through as I enjoy the dispatcher position.

Tell us of a time you witnessed an example of your favorite brand value at UNMC:
Everyday I witness “working together.” It starts with a caller who calls in a trouble call, and the dispatcher who works with them by asking questions such as “What building are you in?”‘ “What is the room number?” and “What is the issue in the room?” Then it takes the dispatcher to enter all the information and send it off to the proper area where the trouble call will be addressed. Calls also are prioritized according to the need of the call. With the upcoming transition merging UNMC and Nebraska Medicine facilities, “working together” already has begun and will continue to help make the transition a positive goal.

What are your favorite winter activities?
Before moving back to Omaha in 2009, I lived in northern Wisconsin. I loved to snowshoe, cross country ski, four-wheel on the trails and sometimes walk across the frozen lake in town to visit friends out in their heated shack during ice fishing season.

List three things people may not know about you:

• I have two wonderful and successful adult children, an amazing son-in-law, and a 3-year-old granddaughter who calls me by my childhood nickname instead of Grandma — and I love it! Oh, I can’t forget my sweet cat Zoe, too!
• I lived in Puerto Rico with my family during the early 1960s (my father was Air Force), and 50 years later, I took my son there for his 40th birthday. He was surprised that after all those years I was able to drive right to the house my family lived in on base.
• I lived in a small town in Wisconsin (pop. 854) for 10 years before moving back to Omaha. Rib Lake was the town and area both my parents were from originally. I was able to research and find endless genealogy on both my families through court houses, church records and people in the community that knew my parents while they were growing up.