Focus On Staff With Bill Nienaber

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.

If you’ve had a poster printed by the Academic Health Center’s communications services team, you’ve likely met Bill Nienaber. He’s been a part of communications services for more than 20 years—starting in the duplicating services center in 1992.

The senior medical graphic designer originally from Ft. Wright, Ky., took courses at Northern Kentucky University and spent a quarter at UC studying web design, IT and writing.

Got a job for Bill? You can reach him via email at art.design@uc.edu, by phone at 513-558-3264, or just stop by the ground floor (G44) of the Health Professions Building. 

What brought you to UC?

"To be honest, I had been unemployed for close to six months, so when the job at UC Medical Center Duplicating Services (as it was then called) was offered, I accepted pretty quickly. Although the starting pay wasn’t what I’d been used to, the offer of tuition remission for my two sons who were soon to be college-age more than made up for that! Previously, I had worked as service manager for Inacomp Computers and as manager of the Saks Fifth Avenue/Convention Center parking garage.”

What are your responsibilities as Senior Medical Graphic Designer?

"Most of my job involves large-format digital printing. I produce most of those research and case study posters you see around the Academic Health Center, as well as signage and various types of banners and displays. I also have quite a few clients on West Campus, at Cincinnati Children’s, and outside the university. For some reason, I also seem to be the person everyone comes to when they have technical questions!”

What’s the favorite part of your job?

"I know how fake this is going to sound, but I honestly love working with my clients. And I love it when clients look at their finished work and say something like, ‘That looks great!”

If you could offer one piece of advice to clients brining jobs your way, what would it be?

"Please don’t bring me your work at the last minute!” (Don’t procrastinate. There’s a rush charge for last-minute jobs!)

Tell us a bit about what you like to do outside of work.

"Around 11 years ago, my wife and I had the good fortune to buy a house that came with nearly 11 acres of wooded land, so a fair amount of my spare time is spent doing maintenance on that. The upside is that we get to take walks in the woods whenever we like! Other than that, I enjoy reading, listening to music, hanging out with friends and family, and my sad addiction to the internet.”