Eppley’s Cindy Plate is Gold U winner

It was supposed to be a temp job.

When Cindy Plate, administrative & faculty support supervisor at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, came to UNMC in 1999, it was for a six-week stint at the College of Nursing — which was just as well, she thought, because the commute was too far.

Seventeen years later, she is the Gold U winner for September.

She’s been at Eppley since 2005. In her current role, where she leads a team of grant specialists in support of the institute’s researchers, she also serves as the coordinator of the Pancreas Cancer Program under Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D.

In his nomination letter, Dr. Hollingsworth credited Plate for her “continued exceptional contributions,” specifically mentioning her work when the institute received funding for the NCI-funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Pancreatic Cancer and the institute’s grants in the Early Detection Research Network.

“Cindy was responsible for assembling these large and complex applications, which require a high degree of specialized skill,” he wrote, adding that her work “significantly raised the profile of our program and the perception of quality at UNMC on a national and international level.”

Today, all of the institute’s grants come through Plate for final review, and she and her team take pride in their part in Eppley’s important research work.

“We want to give them all the support and information and tools available to them to help them be successful researchers,” she said.

But she also feels that the researchers, and the leaders and other personnel of the institute, have supported her, as well.

“Eppley is very supportive, and UNMC offers many opportunities to improve and educate yourself,” she said. “UNMC has kept me interested and educated, and I feel like it’s a big family.”

Plate said she was surprised by the award, not least because her nominators — which included Surinder Batra, Ph.D., chair of biochemistry and molecular biology, Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., the director of Eppley and the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, Dr. Hollingsworth and others — “are very busy people,” she said. “So it was almost surreal when I found out and they surprised me with the news.”

Plate said she’s always felt things happen for a reason — and that six-week temp job certainly did.

“I can’t even imagine another scenario if they would have sent me somewhere else,” she said.