Tina Dadio’s mantra for all University employees is “when in doubt contact the Office of Legal Affairs.”
Dadio is the University public records officer and a paralegal, and during her five years on campus, she’s experienced a different work environment from that of being a paralegal in the for-profit world.
“Prior to UNC Charlotte, I worked for 15-plus years as a paralegal for private defense litigation firms. I lived life in six-minute billing increments dealing with discovery responses, drafting motions for time extensions and deadlines, deadlines and deadlines,” explained Dadio. “Now, I still have deadlines to meet; however, most of my deadlines are project-based. These projects can range from responding to public records requests and providing litigation support to the attorneys to conducting educational programs on specified legal topics and reviewing contracts.”
As a state agency, UNC Charlotte is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law. Dadio fields the requests for access to University records. Such requests have increased year after year.
“The growth of the University is driving up the requests for public records,” Dadio noted. “Rather than specific files, more and more requests are for ‘any and all.’ Recently, we received a request for roughly 8,000 emails and another was for 3,000. This is a time-consuming process, because I have to review all the files and redact any confidential information. Anna Clark, my assistant, has been a tremendous addition, helping to organize the public records requests.”
Originally from Connecticut, Dadio earned a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from Quinnipiac University. She and her husband Domenic moved South in search of warmer weather; before joining the University, Dadio was a substitute teacher and worked for a private law firm.
Being part of the UNC Charlotte community is a great experience. “Working in a university environment opens you up to enriching experiences – you may even find yourself wanting to take advantage of some of them.”
She added, “I love what I do – I’m able to grow professionally and meet new and wonderful people through such volunteer opportunities as Giving Green and New Employee Orientation.”
As one of the Giving Green Campaign champions, Dadio touted the importance of giving back to the community. “Our unit had 100 percent participation again this year. If every employee could just give $1 per month – that would be a huge impact for area nonprofits and the University.”
Dadio, who is a council member for the North Carolina Bar Association Paralegal Division and a North Carolina notary public, is one of the “team moms” for the Hickory Ridge High School’s cross country team. Her son Domenic, 15, is on the team. His brother Marc, 13, is on the middle school track team.
An avid vegetable gardener, Dadio also enjoys being in the kitchen. “I cook a lot. I’m Italian, so the refrigerator is always stocked. I make meat sauce every Sunday morning, so after church we have our pasta, sauce and meatballs. It’s one of our family rituals.”