The annual holiday party at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology is widely considered to be a must-attend event, and for good reason. All the floors of the main IGB building are beautifully decorated and filled with delectable hors d’oeuvres and delicate pastries, which are often too stunning to eat. The driving force behind this beloved soiree is Darci Edmonson, the Administrative Manager at the IGB.

Edmonson grew up in Champaign and, during high school, was interested in business and administration. Her interest was confirmed when she worked part-time for the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She was a part of the logistics management team. After earning her Associate’s degree at Parkland, Edmonson started looking for positions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“The university was the biggest employer in the area, and it was the place to be,” Edmonson said. “Everyone wanted to work here; they offer great pay, great benefits, and once you got your foot in the door, you could move around within the university trying different things until you found the right fit.”

Over the past three decades, Edmonson has worked in several units at the university, including the Office of Personnel Services, the College of Nursing, the College of Engineering, and the Office of Project Planning and Facility Management. Fortunately for the IGB, Edmonson joined as an administrative aide in the Operations and Facilities office in 2006.

“When I started here, the building didn’t exist—it was a hole in the ground and it was called the Post Genomics Institute. We didn’t even have pencils, pens, or paper. It was cool because we started with just a handful of  people and we had to figure everything out from scratch,” Edmonson reminisced. “I had no idea the IGB would become this big. Looking at where we are today, it’s incredible.”

In her current position, Edmonson supports Subha Srinivasan, the Associate Director for Research and Operations, supervises the theme administrators, and handles all of the larger IGB events.

“I really enjoy working on the events. I like that each one is different, which makes it exciting. We’ve also had events in different cities, including Chicago, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.,” Edmonson said. “I enjoy collaborating with my team.  I’ve worked really hard to build a sense of community and collegiality within the team and I’m very proud of that.  

Surprisingly, Edmonson’s favorite event doesn’t include the IGB at all. “I was asked to be part of the events team supporting President Obama’s speech at Foellinger Auditorium in 2018,” she explained. “I was also on CNN, which was pretty neat!”

Her favorite IGB event is the 2019 Art of Science exhibit that happened on Capitol Hill. “We organized the exhibit when we were doing World of Genomics at the National Academy of Sciences. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because so many people, whom we wouldn’t normally interact with, came to the AoS event.”

Edmonson also played an important role in organizing the 2021 NIH study “Longitudinal assessment of diagnostic test performance over the course of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection,” which showed that the chance of detecting COVID-19 increases with more frequent testing, no matter the type of test. “It was a cool and unique study because we had to quickly build the infrastructure from the ground up. It was incredibly fast paced. I was the busiest I’ve ever been in my career during this study,” Edmonson said.

Some of the challenges that Edmonson has faced at the IGB have been predictable, like creating new policies that didn’t work and needed to be revised and coordinating the COVID-19 study, but some have been unusual. In particular, getting calls at all hours of the day or night about equipment failures, hazardous materials spills, and fire alarms. “When I started working at the IGB in facilities, I was always the bearer of bad news and it was hard going up to people and telling them that they couldn’t do this or that,” Edmonson said.

In her spare time, Edmonson enjoys playing golf, DIY projects, and interior decoration. “I have helped friends redo their office or home spaces,” Edmonson said. “Unfortunately, I'm really good at starting projects, but I get bored easily. I think that's why I like events so much because there's a definitive end and you move on to the next one.  I don’t like repetitive tasks, so working on events is a perfect fit for me.”

Although Edmonson will be retiring this May, she will be helping with the World of Genomics event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in October. She also plans on spending more time with her family and undertaking home improvement projects. “People say that when they retire, they’re busier than ever. I like to keep busy so I'm sure I'll come up with plenty of things to do.  I can’t wait to find out!” Edmonson said with a laugh.