Name: Jane Birch
BYU employee since: 1996
My job at BYU is… assistant director for faculty development at the Faculty Center. We have the wonderful opportunity of helping our amazing BYU faculty become even more amazing.
I’m currently working on… finding ways to better support women faculty and faculty of color. It is so eye-opening and inspiring to learn from their experiences.
I get most excited about my work when… I see faculty feeling even more passionate about BYU and more excited about making their unique contribution.
I’m currently reading… books on non-duality, mindfulness and Eastern forms of spirituality, a big passion of mine, along with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
My advice to incoming freshmen is… make time for learning the things you love the most. Your passions are God-given and will lead you to wonderful places.
The best-kept BYU secret is… our amazing library with so many resources! When I was an undergrad, I thought it would be awesome to live in the library so I could spend even more time among all those books. Now my office is located in the library, and I love it!
I chose to come to BYU because... my passions have always been learning and the gospel, so when I realized I could combine these passions at BYU, BYU became my passion. I LOVE BYU!
On Saturday mornings you’ll find me… engaged in deep spiritual work. I love to meditate and also to contemplate things of great importance.
Three things that are always found in my refrigerator are… Lots of whole fruits, vegetables and leftover starch foods (grains, beans, potatoes etc.). These are the staples of a whole-food, plant-based diet that I got totally hooked on 10 years ago.
You’ll never find me without… a book. I’ve got so many in every nook and cranny of my home that I’ve now migrated to buying new ones for my iPad.
The biggest challenge I’ve faced was... never marrying, but if I had married, I might be saying “being married.” The fact is it is very hard to be a human being. I have so much empathy for and awe of every one of us just getting up every day and putting one foot in front of the other.
