University of Texas at Austin

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A Life Less Ordinary - Profile Fatima Bridgewater

By Olivia Shaffer

Published March 14, 2022

When Fátima Zago Bridgewater first began her career, she had originally planned to be an artist. Her hometown in central Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, had several art schools. Bridgewater herself studied at one of these schools and spent much of her early life painting. 

“I thought I wanted to be an artist. I tried many different mediums, but oil painting was my favorite,” said Bridgewater.

When Bridgewater moved with her one-year-old daughter and then-husband to Austin, Texas in 1998, Bridgewater put her painting dreams on pause for a while. 

“I haven’t painted since I had my daughter, but I don’t really miss it because I have a lot of other interests right now,” Bridgewater said. “I do love art, though. I will paint again one day when I’m less busy.”

Bridgewater worked at a custom homes company once she settled in Austin with her family. After several years at this job, she was ready for a change.

In 2005, Bridgewater found a position as Program Coordinator for a center at UT Austin called International Center for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (ICNAM), which was funded in part by CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología), Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology. 

“I was drawn to this program because it was a collaboration with Mexico, my home country. The role required me to speak Spanish and I worked with different universities and institutes in Mexico,” said Bridgewater. “I also learned to do research administration, which I have found is something that I really enjoy.”

I was drawn to the environment because it was very international. We had researchers, postdocs, and students from several different countries. Because I was also from another country, it felt like a community, like I was really part of a team.

— Fatima Bridgewater

After only a few years at ICNAM, the professor who headed the center, Miguel Jose Yacaman, moved to UT San Antonio and brought the center with him. Wanting to remain in Austin, Bridgewater began looking at other opportunities at UT.

With her significant research administration experience, Bridgewater found a position at the Oden Institute (ICES at the time) as a Senior Administrative Associate for the Center for Predictive Engineering and Computational Sciences (PECOS) headed by Bob Moser

“I was drawn to the environment because it was very international,” said Bridgewater. “We had researchers, postdocs, and students from several different countries. Because I was also from another country, it felt like a community, like I was really part of the team.”

In 2012, Bridgewater was invited to apply for the position of Executive Assistant and Office Manager (later reclassified to Research Administration Manager in 2015 to describe her role more accurately), in which she would be responsible for overseeing the research administration and HR for the entire institute.

“I had to learn how to manage people, since it was something I had never done before. I took a lot of training courses, and I made some mistakes early on that I have learned from.”

In 2019, Bridgewater’s position was again reclassified to Assistant Director of Research Administration and HR. While she had already been a part of the leadership team, this formalized her leadership role at the Institute. 2019 was also the year that Bridgewater became a Certified Research Administrator (CRA).

When COVID-19 hit in spring 2020, the University and the Institute had to adapt to the many changes and challenges the pandemic brought with it.

“Early in the pandemic was like a rollercoaster because there were so many unknowns. I had to manage my own emotions and my own fears and lead a team at the same time,” said Bridgewater.

The main things Bridgewater learned from the pandemic: how to be a more compassionate leader and the importance of having a strong team. “Everyone had different needs and different stresses. I had to step in, and other team members were willing to step in. We are a very good team,” she said.

Currently, Bridgewater manages the HR team and oversees 13 research administrators who provide support to 25 research centers and groups here at the Institute. It is her job to ensure that faculty and their groups have the administrative support they need.

Most recently, Bridgewater earned her Society for Human Resource Management Professional (SHRM-CP) Certification. From September to December, she took the Human Resource Management Certificate Program at the UT Center for Professional Education to help her prepare to take the exam. Once the course ended, she continued to study and prepare for several months.

“It was challenging to balance a full-time job, and my personal life while also making time to study for the exam,” she said. “This certification was important to my personal and professional development; it helped me expand the knowledge and skills that are needed to contribute in an efficient and effective way to the success of the Oden Institute.”

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Fatima Bridgewater at Sun Valley, Idaho in December 2021

Outside of work, Bridgewater loves to keep herself busy with a variety of activities, including rowing, snow skiing, windsurfing, and dancing.

Bridgewater has been rowing since 2013. After driving down MoPac and seeing the rowing club practicing, she thought to herself, “I could be doing that,” and joined the Austin Rowing Club. Soon after learning how to row, she joined the competitive team.

“I love being part of a team and I’m very competitive. I knew that if I had a team that relied on me, I would have to show up for practice.”

She also enjoys skiing. “I like the mountains and exploring new places. My favorite place is the place I have never been,” she said. “There is just something really freeing about skiing down a mountain.”

Bridgewater has always loved Latin dancing and has recently taken up ballroom dancing as well. She has also gone windsurfing several times in Corpus Christi. “I’m not very good at it, but I enjoy it. I like being active, I’ve never been the person to go to the beach and lay down.”

Bridgewater currently lives with her partner Keith and their dog, Milton. Her daughter, now 25, also lives in Austin and works at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The rest of her family, including her mother and four sisters, still live in Mexico and she looks forward to visiting them soon.