She is the Vice Director for Operations and the Head of Secretariat at the Centre for Translational Medicine, who, with her team, manages the affairs of the CTM, handling everything that is essential for the smooth operation of the Centre. In April, Judit Zentai was named Staff Member of the Month.
Judit Zentai has been working as Head of Secretariat at the CTM since July 2023 and as Deputy Director of Operations since March 2024. “The role of the Secretariat is to provide administrative support to the CTM Directorates. Our work supports the activities of Director Péter Hegyi and General Vice Director Gábor Varga, and the efforts of the Vice Directors, including Andrea Harnos, who coordinates the statistician team, Szilard Vancsa, who is responsible for education and recruitment, and Rita Nagy for integrity and retention. There is another vice director, Dora Czapari, who deals with network and communication. She is on maternity leave now, and I am substituting for her.” Besides educational matters, Judit and her group are currently in charge of HR, finance and international cooperation. They are also responsible for event organization, such as conducting progress reports and complex exams, organizing social events, and managing external and internal communication. Judit and her colleagues also keep contact with the Doctoral School of Semmelweis University.
“Since the Centre’s system is rather flexible, it is not easy to integrate it into the long-established structure and bureaucracy of the university. Therefore, it is important to build and maintain good relationships with the various departments and councils of the university, this is the key to effective work.” Occasionally, students also contact the Secretariat with questions, especially at the time of enrollment, at the beginning of semesters, and at course registration periods. Interest is heightened at these times because CTM offers many programs that attract students’ interest.
In the office, Judit heads a five-member secretariat, plus two colleagues in charge of event organization and communication, and a senior international expert. “We handle our tasks as a team, there are hardly any tasks that can be done alone. For example, the secretary responsible for student affairs currently organizes complex exams, but the event organization is done by the event coordinator. Meanwhile, the students’ application for the complex exam is mainly controlled by the SMSs and the statisticians. This shows how complex and multi-faceted our work is.”
(Szabó Emese)