Dorothy Van Ness is the Research Administrative Assistant working in the Madison office.
Van Ness spent 10 years in Florida before heading to Wisconsin in 2010. She has more than 25 years of administrative experience—most recently at UW-Stevens Point. She’s excited to live and work in Madison. She looks forward to helping others quit tobacco use at UW-CTRI.
Born and raised in New Jersey, she grew up in a family of smokers and eventually started smoking at the age of sixteen. She tried to quit numerous times. “I would light up as soon as I had a bad day,” Van Ness said.
She decided it was time and quit for good in 1999. “A lot has happened in the past 25 years, and I was determined to never start again.” She is much healthier and is happy now that she no longer smokes, she said.
When not working, she spends most of her time with her two grown daughters, seven grandchildren and her dogs, Sassy and Skye.
