School of Health & Wellbeing

Robertson Centre for Biostatistic's Elaine Rodgers tells us what she enjoys about her varied administrative role, the occasional frustrations, and the spirit of adventure for which she's known outside of work...

Tell us a bit about what you do in IHW

Since 2009 I have been a projects administrator within the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics (RCB). I have had two children along the way and now work part-time. I came from an administrative role in the health and safety field but had a background degree in biochemistry/pharmacology and wanted to be able to use some of that experience. Therefore over the years I have become more involved in our medical coding alongside the data managers. I also work closely with project managers to assist with various tasks, including creating and maintaining study CRFs (case report forms). Many of my other duties are almost all of an HR nature – assisting with recruitment and induction of staff, organising training and maintaining training records etc.

What do you enjoy about your role?

I enjoy the variation of tasks. As a small team we are afforded our own areas of expertise as well as jumping in to assist with whatever may be required. Being given freedom and independence in your day-to-day work is fantastic. But I also really enjoy the social aspect – which has unfortunately been scuppered over the past two years! I miss daily interactions with everyone.

What are the challenges?

The nature of my admin-type duties means often having to "chase" up on other people for information or responses. Sometimes this can be tricky and I often feel like a messenger of doom.

Also being part-time, while having its benefits, also poses some challenges in that there is generally always a sense of "catching up". However, the team around me are brilliant at assisting.

What is the best thing about working in IHW?

Although we have our own little RCB family, it is comforting being part of such a supportive wider group within the university. Makes it feel less like we are an island. I enjoy the collaborations across IHW as a whole and I have found everyone I have encountered to be extremely helpful, friendly and welcoming. Everyone is really great at helping each other out. There have also been some pretty fantastic IHW Admin Away Days!

Tell us something we might not know about you

Tricky one…I don’t really feel like I have any hidden talents! In my younger years I was a very good lawn bowler – not exactly very cool but it definitely became a bit trendier after my time so maybe I helped it along.

I’ve had a few near death experiences over the past decade or so. Including (1) Slipping down the gap between train and platform on to tracks when a train was about to depart! (2) While scuba diving in Turkey I made the mistake of smiling and let in too much water that I couldn’t expel – hubby managed to shove me to the surface while almost drowning himself in the process! (3) Almost disappearing down a sinkhole on the Athabasca Glacier in Canada – I think that was the scariest!

I have been known to be a bit of a thrillseeker though with feats such as skydiving, bungee jumping the Victoria Falls Bridge, white water rafting the Zambezi and diving with great white sharks…so I suppose I should count myself lucky to still be here writing these words!!!

When or where are you happiest?

Definitely most content settled in the comfort of home, snuggled up on the sofa in front of the fire with my family watching a movie (bonus if there’s red wine and chocolate too!)

But happiest, could be bopping along to some live music at a gig or having cocktails and giggles with girlfriends or on a big rollercoaster or travelling to some place I have never been before! I can find happiness in a lot of situations.

Any secret – or not so secret! – ambitions?

I don’t think so. Apparently when I was a toddler I am told I dressed up and believed I was Batfink! However, the superhero thing kind of lost momentum…

I don’t have any qualifications or even a particular talent but I do enjoy capturing photos as memories – mostly because I have such a bad memory! But I’d love to have a photography studio and capture this for others too.

Do you have a favourite quote or saying, or mantra by which you try to live your life?

It’s not really a saying but "don’t worry about what other people think, it’s what you think that matters" – trying to help my kids navigate their way through school, I am trying to instill this in them too as it’s all too easy to be hurt by others' words. As I have gotten older, I try not to let others opinions/views influence me as much and that will hopefully filter down to my children as well so they can be confident and content.

If you would like to appear in "Five minutes with...", do please get in touch (jane.goodfellow@glasgow.ac.uk)! We aim to alternate professional services and research/teaching staff profiles, and feature colleagues from across a wide range of roles and grades within our institute. 

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First published: 21 September 2020