Augustyn departs CSMCE, takes communication expertise to national research laboratory

Lindsay Augustyn | Photo by Rebecca Marie Photography
Lindsay Augustyn | Photo by Rebecca Marie Photography

Lindsay Augustyn, the former associate director of the Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has started a new position at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. Her last day at UNL was March 15.

After 15 years working at the CSMCE, Augustyn is now a professional staff assistant and editor with the Engineering Leadership Council (ELC) and the National Security Education Center at LANL. She is the administrator for the ELC, a group of 40 engineers across LANL.

The ELC works on recruiting, recognition, professional development, mentoring, diversity, innovation, common processes, and infrastructure to promote engineering visibility and quality. In her role, Augustyn builds awareness for the research of the ELC. Like she did at the CSMCE, Augustyn runs the Council's communications, budgets, meetings, seminar series, website, and outreach; recruits external speakers for events; and tracks strategic goals for reports.

Augustyn started at the CSMCE in 2009 as an events support associate, then became the outreach and communications coordinator in 2011. She was promoted to assistant director, then to associate director in 2022. As associate director, Augustyn directed all activities related to the operation of the CSMCE, administering a wide variety of projects, grants, meetings, conferences, graduate education for STEM teachers and other activities in partnership with faculty across UNL. She also developed and implemented a branding and communications plan for the CSMCE and individualized the plan to the needs of each project.

Augustyn was also on the committee that created UNL's Staff Senate, and she helped orchestrate the first UNL All Staff Conference in 2021, for which she won her second College of Arts and Sciences Applause Award (the first being in 2014). Augustyn won the Floyd S. Oldt Award in 2015, which recognizes employees who demonstrate exceptional service and dedication, and served as the chair of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Staff Council from 2019 to 2022. Currently she is on the education fund board of ACES: The Society for Editing and has been a copyediting scholarship judge for ACES since 2016.

"It was bittersweet to leave the CSMCE after building such strong friendships with colleagues and educators across UNL and the state," Augustyn said. "But the experiences and leadership responsibilities I was given by Jim Lewis and Wendy Smith prepared me to take my skills to this next level of national laboratory work. I hope to keep in touch with my Husker community and see how we can develop connections to LANL."

The CSMCE staff congratulate Augustyn as she embarks on her next adventure and express their deep gratitude for the time, energy and expertise she gave to the Center and its partners.