“I love working for the University of Michigan,” says De Bora McIntosh (left), administrative coordinator at UMS Housing Bureau for Seniors, shown here with Mrs. Shali Dai whom she tutored at the Turner Senior Resource Center as preparation for Mrs. Dai obtaining her U.S. citizenship.

Actively and Passionately Engaged

By Danielle Clair, HR Communications intern.

De Bora McIntosh has a lot of energy. As an Administrative Coordinator at UMH Housing Bureau for Seniors, she handles business operations for her office which helps seniors throughout Washtenaw County live in appropriate and affordable housing. But she also wears a lot of other hats:  volunteering as a literacy volunteer and English as a second language tutor, serving as a VOICES of the Staff Alumni Team volunteer, acting as a MHealthy Wellness Champion, facilitating the Ann Arbor Reads program at the Turner Senior Resource Center, and is a very active board member of the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library.

An Ann Arbor resident with a background in adult education and counseling, De Bora says she set her sights on working at U-M nine years ago and spent 18 months in a variety of temporary positions before hiring in to her current staff position in 2004. “I love working for the University of Michigan,” she says, “I have been very active in promoting it and I work hard to protect and defend its programs.”

De Bora began serving as a Voices of the Staff volunteer in 2005, when the program (which seeks to promote employee engagement by giving staff members a forum for sharing ideas about campus community issues) was first introduced. After serving for two years as a member of the VOICES Health & Wellness Team, she volunteered to continue as a member of the VOICES Career Development Team. De Bora says she finds great personal satisfaction in interacting with staff members from all over the University on VOICES. She explains her involvement with VOICES and other volunteer initiatives, thus: “Your work occupies a significant portion of your time, so you deserve to be happy in what you do.”

In addition to her campus activism, De Bora is also an enthusiastic supporter, user, and occasional contributor to the Uniquely Michigan web site. Thanks to her efforts, the web site now includes a list of campus area services available for older adults.  De Bora admits to a particular fondness for Uniquely Michigan’s “Deals” page, which describes Discounts & Perks and Campus Shopping venues. De Bora says the Uniquely Michigan web site helped to make her aware of discounts available to U-M staff, students and faculty on new car purchases, car rentals and other discount purchasing benefits negotiated by the MCard office, a division of the Treasurer’s Office.

"Take time to cruise around the Uniquely Michigan web site,” she advises. “There's a lot of good and useful information there. After reading the list of discounted products and services listed on the “Deals” page, it might encourage you to do what I do when I make purchases or eat at restaurants — Ask the merchant: 'Do you give a U-M discount?' Sometimes the answer is 'yes' even though the vendor may not be listed."