Sidetrack Leads to Success
WHEN SHE headed off to college in the early '80s, Lisa Hoover knew exactly where her studies would take her.
"I wanted to be a TV news anchor," says Hoover, director of Bucknell University's Office of Publications, Print and Mail. "That's what I thought I was going to do. But I got sidetracked." That sidetrack has led to a rewarding graphic arts career and brought her to the director's chair at the nation's largest private liberal arts university, located in Lewisburg, Pa.
Lewisburg is also Hoover's hometown ("I didn't get very far," she laughs). After high school, she ventured to Harrisburg, Pa., to attend Central Penn College. There, she studied mass media and earned an associate degree. Before the TV stations could snap her up, though, life showed her a different path.
"I had a job offer as a typesetter as soon as I graduated," Hoover says. So in 1986 she joined the in-plant at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. There she did typesetting on a Compugraphic typesetter and pasted up galleys for weekly publications and brochures.
After two years there, she took another typesetting job at Phase One Marketing & Design, in Sunbury, Pa.
"That was just about the time desktop publishing was starting," she recalls. Hoover plunged right into the world of QuarkXPress. "I jumped on that and learned how to do full page layout." Eventually she moved into a supervisory role.
"Then I saw an opening at Bucknell," she says.
So after 11 years at Phase One, she joined the university as a prepress technician in 1999 and moved home to Lewisburg. There she handled scanning, color correction and film stripping. When the assistant director position opened up two years later, she applied and got the job.
Working with Director Jim Muchler, Hoover was instrumental in selecting and installing the in-plant's first computer-to-plate device, an A.B.Dick 2340. At the same time she helped the shop install its first production digital color printer, a Xerox DocuColor 2045. This device changed the in-plant's direction.
"We took a lot of our two-color work that we were doing on the press and converted that into full color work," she says. The shop would produce four-color versions to show customers and offer to upgrade their two-color jobs to four-color for the same price. It worked, and jobs began to migrate to digital.
Hoover also took it upon herself to learn the variable data software that had come with the Xerox machine so the in-plant could offer variable data printing of letters and certificates.
In 2005, the in-plant became part of Bucknell's Communications Division. This was a big boost for the operation, which was given responsibility for all university publications. During this time, Hoover was attending night school at Bucknell, in pursuit of her Bachelors Degree in Communication Studies. In 2007, after eight years of evening classes, she graduated.
A Major Digital Upgrade
Two years later, Muchler retired, and Hoover was promoted to director of the 24-employee operation. One of her first moves was to upgrade all of the shop's digital equipment. She added a Xerox Color 800 digital press and a Nuvera 100. The 800 improved the in-plant's color quality tremendously. She also oversaw the installation of new scoring equipment and implemented a package tracking system for student mail.
After watching some of the in-plant's business dry up during the recession, Hoover is pleased to observe that some of those jobs are now coming back.
"People have realized that you can't just send an e-mail...because people don't read it," she says. She has researched response rates to e-mail and print campaigns to show customers that printed solicitations bring better results.
The shop is preparing to install a new inserting machine and to implement the EFI PrintSmith Site e-commerce solution for online ordering. What's more, the in-plant is working on its FSC certification through the new InGreen group FSC certification program for in-plants.
A big supporter of the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP), Hoover is hosting the conference this month, and looks forward to showing off her in-plant and campus to managers from around the world.
When she's not at work, Hoover, a self-described "hockey mom," enjoys spending time with her family, which includes two sons, one of whom is now in college.IPG
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
