Dr. Gunter Bischof, Director of Center Austria says, "Gertraud Griessner has been the heart and soul of Center Austria: The Austrian Marshall Plan Center for European Studies since its very beginning in 1997. Her work performance has been consistently superior, due to her very personal approach to people and problems. She is never frazzled by her heavy workload and always has a kind word for everyone she comes in contact with. She is the main organizer of the student exchange with the University of Innsbruck and has brought this program to record number of 70-80 Innsbruck students studying at UNO every year.
She takes care of the personal problems of students, she is their college counselor, and their best friend in town. In the process she has made an astounding personal contribution to the internationalization of UNO over the past 20 years or so. She has contributed as much as anybody on campus to help fulfill expectations for UNO's new QEP on "Global Engagement" to become a success. Moreover, she has served as the secretary of UNO's International Summer School in Innsbruck over the past 7 years and has been a mainstay in the continued success of that program in its 40th anniversary year (2015).UNO's model university partnership with the University of Innsbruck in part is due to her enormous commitment to the students and faculty that make the partnership live."