The University of Iowa and UI Hospitals and Clinics provide students with an outstanding education and patients with world-class care.

But the UI and UIHC are also great places to work.

Delores Grauer, Kathleen McKeen, and François Abboud are the UI’s three longest continually employed people in its three employee categories: professional and scientific, merit, and faculty.

With more than 160 years of combined experience, these employees credit the university and its people for their career longevity.

Delores Grauer
Title: Payroll clerk
Years at the UI: 53

“I think about retiring sometimes,” says Grauer, a UI employee since 1964. “But I just enjoy my job too much.”

Following in the footsteps of her three brothers and older sister, who all worked at the UI before her, Grauer started serving trays of food to patients at UIHC while she was in high school.

She quickly worked her way up, earning the titles of diet clerk and finance accounting clerk before earning her current title of payroll clerk.

Today, Grauer, 70, is responsible for all things related to the completion of employee I-9 tax forms, as well as the responsibilities of appointments, status changes, and anything pertaining to UIHC employee payroll. She says she enjoys interacting with the multitude of UI employees and lending a helpful hand whenever she can.

When asked what she enjoys most about her job and what has motivated her to stay at the UI as long as she has, Grauer simply responded, “The people.”

Kathleen McKeen
Title: Cancer registry director
Years at the UI: 58

Originally hired as an administrator for the UI’s campus cancer registry, McKeen advanced from cancer surveillance on a campus level to overseeing the statewide registry.

“Here at the UI, we contribute Iowa cancer data to what’s happening on a national level,” says McKeen. “The UI began its partnership with the National Cancer Institute in 1973. No state had a registry program 20 years ago; the UI is a national leader, helping other states to develop their programs.”

McKeen, 76, started working for UIHC in 1959. She currently works in the College of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology, and she says she has no intention of retiring in the near future.

“Work has always been my hobby,” says McKeen. “I still feel as though I can contribute and mentor people in this field. I feel as though I’m making an improvement in people’s lives. I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t like what I’m doing.”

François M. Abboud
Titles: Professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics, Edith King Pearson Chair in Cardiovascular Research, associate vice president for research
Years at the UI: 57

Abboud first came to the University of Iowa in 1960 to conduct cardiovascular research under the mentorship of John W. Eckstein, former dean of the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

Since that time, he has taken on several roles at the UI: assistant professor, professor, director for the Medical Intensive Care Unit, chief of the Division of Cardiology, chair and DEO of the Department of Internal Medicine for the longest tenure to date, among others. He founded the Cardiovascular Research Center and served as its director from 1974 to 2012, and he was recognized by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, in 2013 when the University of Iowa Abboud Cardiovascular Research Center was named in his honor.

Reflecting on his years of service and long list of national and international accolades, Abboud, who's 86, says being a mentor is what he has valued most.

“Providing mentorship involves providing hope,” says Abboud. “Providing teachings and guidance to my students and trainees here at the UI impacts their way of life, as mine was impacted by my mentors.”

Abboud has directed several major research programs at the UI for almost 50 years, from which hundreds of trainees have graduated. Recruiting trainees showcased what Abboud calls the “Iowa glue.”

He explains this concept as “the glue of sharing, helping, working, and having fun together to achieve the best that one can with our given talents.”

“None of what I have done could have been done any place else in the world but Iowa,” he says.