Michelle Lyn Sancen
Michelle Lyn Sancen, multi-media service manager and assistant head of circulation at Eugene McDermott Library, died early Monday after a year-long battle with cancer.
She joined The University of Texas at Dallas in 2005 as a library assistant. A year later she took over multimedia services, which checks out videos, DVDs and laptops. Her duties included supervising stacks maintenance operations at the library.
In addition she was active in several library committees and served on the University’s Staff Council and its communications committee. She was a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member at UT Dallas. She also conducted Spanish language tours in the library for incoming freshmen.
In 2011, a committee of her peers chose her as one of two annual recipients of the library’s highest honor – the Ethel Ward-McLemore Award for Library Excellence.
“Michelle will be sorely missed at McDermott Library,” said Dr. Ellen Safley, director of libraries at UT Dallas. “After starting her family, her next goal was to pursue a library degree. She was very dedicated, enthusiastic and customer-service oriented. She worked on the Staff Council because she wanted to make this a better place.”
Sancen, 39, was a native of California. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Davis in 1998. She married Aleksandar Pavic in 2005. They have two sons, Nicola, 4, and Stefan, 9 months.
A memorial service and celebration of Sancen’s life will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday at Aria Cremation Services, 19310 Preston Road in Dallas.