For the past 17 years, Brenda Marker has been part of the team that keeps campus buildings looking their best.
The Gibbon native started her UNK career as a custodial lead in 2007. Since then, she’s advanced to custodial supervisor and her current position of custodial manager with UNK Facilities Management and Planning.
Tell us about your role as custodial manager:
My job is constantly changing, from managing the challenges of the pandemic and adding unique buildings such as the tennis center at University Village and Wellness Center to using robotic scrubbers and vacuums. I also assist the facilities departments with challenges they encounter in their day-to-day jobs. I strive to effectively provide a safe, clean and sanitary environment for the campus community to live, learn and work.
Where is your favorite place on campus?
I enjoy the West Center coffee shop lounge because it is cozy and has a feeling of home.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve experienced while cleaning a building?
I was waxing the entrances to the elevator at night in Bruner Hall. I was the only person in the building as I was taking the elevator from floor to floor waxing myself back into the elevator. The elevator dinged and I could hear the door opening. I thought, “Oh no, someone just walked across my freshly waxed floor.” Then I heard the elevator ding and the doors open again. So, I thought again that someone for sure has walked on my waxed floor and put footprints on it. I then went floor to floor to see the damage and couldn’t find a single print.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
There is not just one rewarding experience. It is rewarding knowing that I have made a difference in the day of a student or campus community member.
Share a fun fact about yourself:
I love to fish, hike and explore. I also like to spend time with my husband Ray and two kids. My daughter Katie lives in Washington, and my son Kevin and his fiancée Alissa and my two grandpups, Louis and Stanley, live in New Hampshire.
