Focus on Staff with Kelli Moquin

Focus On highlights faculty, staff, students and researchers at the UC Academic Health Center. To suggest someone to be featured, please email uchealthnews@uc.edu.

Kelli Moquin says her role as program coordinator for the UC College of Medicine’s Graduate Program in Cancer and Cell Biology has "been exciting and non-stop from Day One.” She joined UC on New Year’s Eve 2012 and jumped right into the busy trainee recruitment season. 

Detailed process management is Moquin’s forte, however; she has worked in operations management the majority of her career, with a focus on process improvement. She most recently spent 10 years as a regional operations manager for Palm Harbor Homes. Here she tells us why she feels fortunate to have the opportunity to apply her skills at UC. 

What is a typical day like for you? 

"The part of my position that I enjoy the most is assisting the graduate students through the program. By evaluating their current program status and identifying necessary steps to progress them toward the graduation requirements, I can help them to maximize the time they spend in the PhD program.

I truly enjoy the interaction with these young adults and helping to identify opportunities to move them closer to their goals. The graduate recruitment weekend was a very active and exciting time. Helping to review new applicants, arranging a fun and educational visit to UC and interacting with them during their stay was such a joy. I have found that coordinating the Cancer Biology Seminar Series takes a great amount of planning and coordination. This is a responsibility that keeps something on my calendar almost daily!”

What do you enjoy about your job?

"I have always enjoyed making a difference in all of my ventures. I really like that in this particular career, I can make a difference for everyone in which I come into contact. Having a chance to have a positive impact on a person’s career and in turn their personal lives is the best part of this particular position.”

Tell us something people wouldn’t expect about you. 

"Few people know that I have lived in six states and went to three schools in three states my freshmen year in high school. During just my high school career I attended five schools total in five states.  It has made me relatively outgoing!”

Away from work, what keeps you busy?

"My family … I have a new husband, a daughter who is a high school senior, a son who is in eighth grade, three adult stepdaughters, a grandson, two dogs and a cat!  We are the family always concerned with ‘what’s for dinner?’  I love to try cooking something new most weekends and experimenting on my ‘fam,’ as my husband would call it.”

The UC College of Medicine Department of Cancer Biology is part of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Institute, one of four UC and UC Health disease-based institutes.