Meet Tina
Tina Kramer
A Steward to Students, Salem buildings, and Our Beautiful Landscape
Tina Kramer grew up in a tiny town of 4,500 people in Wisconsin before heading to college at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, then graduate school at Concordia University. Now she oversees all of Salem Academy & College Facilities and Public Safety. That means her work includes overseeing all institutional-owned property and its internal and external infrastructure, from roads, sidewalks, and grounds to utilities such as water, sewer, gas, waste and electricity. She said Salem Academy & College is, in essence, a small city within Winston-Salem. The campus consists of more than 50 acres of land with 25 buildings and more than 500,000 gross square feet of space.
Perhaps the fact she was raised as the child of florists influenced her to be interested in grounds maintenance, although that is only one part of her job. Her parents owned and operated 4 retail flower shops for 45+ years. She manages and has teams that support the operational areas of Public Safety, Maintenance, Grounds, Custodial, Event Setups, Mail Services, Sustainability, Capital Projects. Campus Fleet, and Utilities.
She said when she walked on this campus for the first time on a spring morning in March of 2023 to interview for her current position, she “knew in the first couple minutes that this was a special place, full of beauty and uniqueness.” As an executive in Facilities, she was only looking at the buildings and grounds at first but then she met the people and that’s when she decided Salem is truly a remarkable place. She has found Salem to be a community of people who care for and about one another, like a Salem family.
As the head of Facilities, Tina leads a team of people who are stewards to students and to the buildings. This requires them to spend allocated funds wisely in the upkeep of Salem’s physical resources for the benefit of today’s campus community and for future generations of students, faculty, staff, and community members.
Her team also considers the environment in their decision-making. They are committed to purchasing and using environmentally and socially responsible materials, products and services.
She finds Salem’s students to be remarkable, as well. She says they are strong-willed, curious, creative, and forward thinking and believes these traits make them great leaders today and in the future.
Outside of her responsibilities overseeing what is basically a small town, Tina finds time for DIY projects and sews clothes and makes jewelry.