“In my time working with Margaret, she taught me a lot about food service as well as the retail environment, and I was able to use that knowledge in my role in ways that help the college as a whole. Even when very busy, Margaret gets things done. She is an uber-professional who will be straight up with you and help you achieve your goals, making the people she works with at your institution, able to shine.”
Rich Seggerman
Vice President of Finance
“I was on the search committee when Margaret was hired, and worked with her in food service for over 10 years. She was an action-oriented director who took all options into consideration when dealing with them. She followed up and was consistent in implementing policies. Margaret had difficult conversations when necessary, included staff in becoming informed on an issue, and left people with a clear understand of what should be done and why. She was easy to talk with and sincerely interested in the people around her. She is excellent at consulting and carefully making improvements. All our restaurants thrived while she was here”
Beth Englebrecht
Retail supervisor involved in retail operations and board plan meal transfer.
"Margaret was the best teacher I could have had when entering the event and food service industry. Her insight into business operations on every level was inspiring and educational. She taught me how to deal with challenging situations and now, I often ask myself, "what would Margaret do?" when implementing business practices and policies in my own successful full-time business."
Sarah Miller
Owner-Skate City, Rice Lake, WI; former catering and event planner.
“I worked with Margaret for over 20 years and reported to her for 5. She recruited me to be a retail dining manager in a food service that was being remodeled and although it was a scary job transition, I did it-she’s persuasive. Margaret can explain complicated ideas to people in all positions, and is a great trainer. I know-she taught me many skills.
Margaret is smart, clever, and makes me laugh even when times are tough. I think that’s because while she is very serious about her work, she doesn’t take herself too seriously. She’s calm and focused when things are stressful, which is helpful to getting through things and it will serve her well as a business consultant. I think people who have worked for her will say she’s tough and has high expectations-that’s true too. Don’t we all really want to do the best we can? Margaret will be a great adviser and food service consultant for you-she’s been doing it her whole career.”
Carolyn M. Young
Unit manager board plan dining and multiple retail dining units in a student center.
“I have known Margaret for over 25 years and worked with her on several projects. We organized and implemented a traveling regional training program for front line staff, and served as operational consultants together. She is easy to work with, handles unexpected situations well and has solid answers to solve problems. I enjoy working with her and you will too.”
Terry D. Waltersdorf, FMP
Certified Serve Safe Instructor/Proctor, Executive Director of Dining, National Association Leader
“In addition to overseeing the office business, I was Margaret's personal assistant. Our office is busy with cash handling, board plan implementation, tracking staff hours, student training, and handling all technology programs used by the department. It is also the office that customers and staff come to for assistance. She knew the processes of how things worked, was good at trouble-shooting and was able analyze what we were doing in the context of future issues-the 'what ifs'. That last part was probably the most important.
Margaret trusted me to do what was needed and listened carefully when there were issues. She involved me at the ground floor of ideas. While she was trusting, she did take time to follow up to make sure things were right. She helped to make work enjoyable but never lost track of what we were there to do. She personally encouraged me to return to school for an advanced degree even though she knew I could easily leave my position once it was attained. ”
Courtney Wilson
Business Office Assistant
"Margaret and I worked together for almost 10 years. I learned something new from her each and every day, and she was a pleasure to work with. She has an excellent grasp of the big-picture along with a terrific eye for detail. She involved her staff in planning and decision making, knew each of them personally and wanted the best for each of them professionally. Margaret has a shrewd business sense which was a great benefit to our institution during strategic and long-range planning, and with the budgeting process. She is an ethical and honest leader who would be an asset for any organization to work with."
Jean Buckingham
Events Manager for the campus, including camp and conference directing, ticket office and campus information desk managing, and campus-wide operational calendar coordination.
“I have known and worked with Margaret for over 25 years. We worked together for over 10 years and part of that time she was my immediate supervisor. Margaret is great at developing venue concepts and seeing them through to opening. She was instrumental in developing our catering business. She has a critical eye for detail and is particular about how things look. Food HAS to look and taste good. Those high standards helped make us good. Things could get tense here-we had a lot going on. Margaret had a way of helping people get through the tough times. If people got upset, she didn’t ignore that, but helped re-think the approach so things could go better and people wouldn’t stress out. She listens and digs in to solve problems.”
Carol Fletcher, FMP, MBA
Assistant Director of Dining
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