Lindsey Sobkowski

Following a long and rewarding career at Oakland University, Professor Elizabeth Talbert is preparing for her final weeks on campus. 

“I feel like sometimes you have to close a door and make space, and then something will appear,” Talbert said. “I know myself, and I’m purpose-driven, you know? I know that I’ll stay involved, but I feel like there’s something else, but I have no idea what it is.”

Talbert’s background is in student affairs. Her career began in Ohio, receiving an M.A. degree from Bowling Green University.

“I started out as a college administrator, so I went to graduate school in Bowling Green, and then I worked at the University of Hartford as an associate director of housing,” Talbert said.

After giving birth to her first child, Talbert and her family returned to Rochester. Talbert then began looking for job openings at OU. She began working on campus as the assistant director of student activities. 

From there, Talbert became the director of orientation for 10 years and later worked in the admissions office. 

“OU hired me back to go to the orientation office for a couple of months just to be a steady presence and make sure the budget was in order,” Talbert said. “Dawn Aubry was there, and she was in the first group of student leaders I hired, and I kind of got them situated.”

While Talbert was getting situated in her new position, she was approached by David Lau, who believed Talbert would be a wonderful addition to the communications department. 

After moving to the communications department, she began teaching leadership, organizational communication and women in leadership.

“About halfway through the semester, he [Lau] said, you know, it feels like it’s going pretty well. Do you want to do two classes next semester?” Talbert said. “I was like, this is great because what I discovered, I loved being director of orientation, I’ll tell you that, but, in the classroom, it was like, I felt I was always just supposed to be there like I loved it.” 

Falling in love with teaching was not a part of Talbert’s plan, but the profession had weaseled its way into her heart. 

Along with her special lecturer position, Talbert has acquired quite a list of personal accomplishments. 

On campus, she is a founding member of OU’s Women in Philanthropy Initiative, a group of women who donate their time and money to Oakland and decide where on campus their pooled funds should go. The group has provided financial support to the OU Student Farm and some community gardens in Pontiac at the Bernstein Health Clinic.

“I like the idea of getting with like-minded women, “Talbert said. “Some are alumni, and some are just friends of the campus that want to support the campus. And just being able to direct where that money goes in a meaningful way. It’s just been a cool thing, and I think that that’s something that I’ll stay involved with.”

Not only is Talbert fully immersed in campus life at OU, but she is also very involved in the Rochester community. 

One of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of her life, Talbert says, was being a trustee and president of Rochester Community Schools’ Board of Education, where she was a member for 10 years. Along with this, she is the vice chair of the Community Foundation of Rochester. 

“The idea is we [the Community Foundation] really work to help projects within the community. So we have ties to anything you can think of that a community does. We do things with the hospital or through each city’s mayor’s office,” Talbert said. “But the idea is I was raised in a small town, and I just think this is just in my DNA to give back, right? You try to make a place better in the ways that you can.”

Professor Talbert’s presence and her decades of dedication to not only her students but to OU’s campus will be appreciated and remembered for years to come.