Lydia Marteney recently joined the Beckman Business Office as a post-award specialist.

Describe your career path up until this point.

Throughout my life, I’ve been pulled in different directions in terms of my interests and passions. For example, I probably would have told you in high school that math was my favorite subject, but I also really enjoyed music, art and history. Luckily for me, I attended a tiny private liberal arts college in New York State called Hartwick College, where I was able to continue dabbling in a lot of things. Unintentionally, I ended up triple majoring in accounting, anthropology and business administration.

After Hartwick, I worked as a tax and accounting specialist at Farm Credit East in Geneva, New York, in the beautiful Finger Lakes Region. I had an interesting portfolio. I worked with many kinds of agricultural clients from single-member crop farms owned by a Mennonite or Amish farmer to complex, multi-million-dollar dairy conglomerates.

Growing up, I had the pleasure of hosting seven exchange students through the program Youth for Understanding, and this had a tremendous impact on me as a child. It instilled in me a desire to live abroad for an extended period. This led me to pursuing a wild adventure in Copenhagen, Denmark, where I completed a two-year master’s degree in business an organizational anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. I had a wonderful time in Denmark and learned a lot in my program, including how to conduct anthropological field work. My field work focused on how a small, professional choir created experiences for their audiences and is titled “The Power of the Voice: Storytelling in the Creation and Experience of Danish Vocal Concerts.” All of this is to say, if anyone is traveling to Copenhagen, feel free to reach out at marteney@illinois.edu. I’d be happy to give you my tips and recommendations!

After I defended my thesis, I packed up and moved back to the U.S. for a new adventure. Following my partner, a faculty member in the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, I moved to Champaign in August 2025.

Describe your role at the Beckman Institute.

I am the newest member of the Business Office, joining recently as a post award specialist. This is my first position at Illinois and I am excited to be joining such a huge community! As a post award specialist, I get to collaborate with Beckman's amazing researchers to help manage their grants and funds. 

Outside of your professional experience, what are you an expert in?

I would certainly label myself as a jack of all trades kind of person — I’m passionate and quite knowledgeable about a variety of things, including…

Music performance. Since moving to Champaign, I have been lucky to join the Parkland College Orchestra, where I play in the Violin I section. I previously played with a wonderful student in Copenhagen called SymfUni, the Hartwick-SUNY Oneonta Orchestra and Auburn Chamber Orchestra.

Travel. My grandparents gave everyone in my family the travel bug. They travelled to all continents but Antarctica! Besides my stint in Denmark, I’ve been lucky enough to travel a lot with family and friends. This year, I am travelling to Istanbul and Egypt with my mom to celebrate her seventieth birthday!

Taylor Swift. After being a casual Taylor Swift fan for many years, I became slightly obsessed with Taylor Swift around the release of her Midnights album in 2022. I would consider myself a Swiftie now and like to stay up to date on all the happenings in the Taylor Swift Multiverse. I even travelled to Gelsenkirchen, Germany, for the Eras Tour in 2023!

Second-hand fashion. Several years ago, after watching a documentary about the environmental impact of the fashion industry, I made a New Year’s resolution of sorts to not purchase newly produced clothing. This has changed the way I shop, building upon an already existing enjoyment of thrifting and other forms of second-hand shopping like estate sales. It’s also very fun to travel to new cities and check out their second-hand scene!

Sourdough baking. Although I was a little late to the sourdough party, I eventually got sucked into sourdough baking. Most recently, I’ve been experimenting with different ways of making Copenhagen-style BMO buns (boller med ost means “buns with cheese” in Danish) while continuing to improve my loaf skills.

What do you like to do for fun? What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I have been super pleased with the Champaign-Urbana pickleball community! Everyone has been so welcoming and friendly, and I've really improved my play since moving here — I even played (and won!) my first tournament in January. I'd highly recommend checking out the John St. Pickleball Courts in Centennial Park in Champaign this spring if you want to try pickleball!

You'll probably also see me riding my Danish red lady's bicycle around town in the coming months! During my time in Denmark, I got so attached to "Big Red" that I had her shipped to Illinois as a memento of my time abroad.

Do you have a motto or a principle that you live by? Where did you first hear this?

A few years ago, I got introduced to the phrase “Be brave enough to suck at something new.” This has inspired me to do many of the things I have written about above and helps me remember that at some point, all experts were beginners!