Eight civil service staff employees were honored with the Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award at a banquet April 10. The award recognizes exceptional performance.
Each recipient receives $2,000 and a plaque. Recipients' names also are engraved on a plaque displayed in the Staff Human Resources Office. The names of past winners are online.
Permanent staff employees with at least two years of service or retired employees in status appointments during the calendar year may be nominated for the award. A committee recommends finalists, who are then approved by the chancellor.
This year's award recipients:
Erika E. Albin, an administrative clerk at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, provides registration services to all nondegree online students across campus. She works closely with campus admissions contacts at the assistant and associate dean level to ensure their department and college needs are met. According to Daniel Fein, the center's associate director, she "performs duties above and beyond what is normally expected."
"She consistently demonstrates extensive knowledge and competence in a wide array of registration and admissions topics," he said. "Her extensive experience allows her to use her knowledge and expertise to quickly troubleshoot and solve problems."
According to Fein, even during times of high volume, Albin handles a large workload in an extremely effective and timely fashion. She is self-directed and completes tasks with little direction or supervision.
Albin was named a team leader, and some of the policies she implemented saved the team time and increased the quality of the service to the academic units. "Her positive attitude and work ethic were contagious and it soon defined the culture of her team," Fein said.
When the office converted to a (nearly) all-digital environment, saving time and money, she took the project a step further and developed a digital filing system for her team.
Richard L. Burton, an assistant facilities manager at Allerton Park and Retreat Center, supervises the daily work of the maintenance staff in the performance of a variety of maintenance, repair and improvement tasks, often involving specialized skills.
"Richard routinely demonstrates excellence in overall work performance," said Derek Peterson, the associate director of park operations. "He is one of my most dependable employees. He always answers calls during and outside of work hours and can be counted on to attend to emergencies at any time of day or night."
Peterson said that Burton also manages his extensive workload in a professional and efficient manner. In the past few years, Burton's staff has been reduced by 30 percent yet his team continues to perform the required tasks in a timely manner.
Burton works independently, Peterson said, attending to each project with vigor and expertise and demands the same of his staff. He also promotes positive morale by displaying a congenial, supportive attitude. In addition, he exhibits initiative and creativity in trying to improve operations at Allerton. He often will take classes or consult with other experts to improve operations or learn a new skill, such as recent training he completed on geothermal systems.
Clifford J. Gulyash, an instrument maker in the department of mechanical science and engineering in the College of Engineering, develops and fabricates complicated, delicate or precise laboratory apparatus, meeting precise and predetermined engineering or research specifications.
"As an instrument maker, Cliff demonstrates the highest degree of skill, solving exceedingly complex and intricate machining problems for faculty, staff and students," said Robert K. Parrish, the research lab supervisor for mechanical science and engineering. "Cliff is regarded as the utmost authority in the electrical discharge machining process, which is a specialized machine process that only a few shops are able to offer. Staff members from other department shops often seek his advice for solving complex problems."
Gulyash also provides excellent customer service to students in the process of providing these services to them for their research and senior design or other projects. He helps educate them on how to interact with technical staff in a machine shop and helps them understand the processes. Often a client comes to him with a difficult problem that is poorly defined, and, in many cases, needing substantial discussion to understand what is needed. Gulyash works hard to help develop a soundly engineered solution to the problem.
Paul A. Jensen is a building operations foreman for Facilities and Services. He schedules moving and public function work for the campus and supervises window washing work orders. He supervises equipment moves from campus units to campus surplus as well as internal office moves.
"Paul made our move out and return back to Lincoln Hall a seamless one," wrote Donna Zimmerman, an administrative clerk in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, one of his nominators. Even while getting situated in the new location, Zimmerman said Jensen never complained when staff members requested that furniture be moved around. "He was there for us," she said.
"No matter how busy Paul or his crew is, he always finds a way to get the job into his schedule and get it done properly," wrote Karla Harmon, an administrative assistant in the department of anthropology, in her nomination of Jensen.
In addition, she noted, Jensen always will step in to help his crew to get the job done. This not only helps make the job go more quickly, but promotes positive morale.
"Paul Jensen being in charge of the moving crew is truly a huge asset to the university," Harmon said. "He stays on task, keeps work going for his crew and keeps costs down for the university by making sure that the job gets done."
Laurie A. Macadam, an administrative assistant in the business office of the department of mechanical science and engineering in the College of Engineering, provides a variety of accounting, purchasing, reimbursement and other administrative services. As one of the largest campus units (in terms of research expenditures), Macadam's position handles an exceptionally large volume of transactions.
Macadam joined the department in 2008 as an administrative assistant for the Center of Applied Materials and the Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCAMPWS) and was part of the administrative team that successfully reorganized it. When her current position became vacant, she took work home to help process the overwhelming volume of purchases and reimbursements. (She was not allowed to earn overtime; she was just pitching in to help.)
Eventually, she transferred full time to the business office, but she continued to support WaterCAMPWS as well.
"Once she transferred, she exhibited tremendous initiative and creativity in redesigning processes and procedures, which greatly improved the efficiencies in the department's business processes," said John K. Wierschen, the assistant to the department head.
In addition, Wierschen said Macadam is extraordinarily friendly and fun to work with, "always smiling, always positive, and she has a work ethic, spirit of helpfulness and customer-service focus that is seldom seen in today's workforce."
Douglas E. Rex is a building service worker in the Student Dining and Residential Program Building for University Housing. His job responsibilities include setting up of all meeting and event spaces throughout the 137,000-square-foot facility, cleaning the restrooms and public spaces, assisting in cleaning the dining area, removing snow and running work orders as needed.
There are a lot of public meeting spaces available for groups to use in that building and Rex treats each event as if a VIP is using the space, wrote Mark A. Kuehl, a building service foreman, in nominating him.
Rex also assists in determining the appropriate setup considering the size of the room and the number of people. He also helps guests with last-minute changes.
"He really is the essence of this facility," Kuehl said. "He also is excellent at working with new hires in showing them different aspects of the job and making sure they understand the different setups. He is the model example of a team player, as he will lend a hand to any employee or staff member if he sees they are behind and need help or even if it is an office employee who needs assistance with getting boxes taken out to the recycle."
Brenda R. Stamm, an office administrator for the department of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has demonstrated excellence in work performance for more than 20 years in varying roles in the department.
Since joining the department as a typing clerk II in 1994, Stamm has been promoted five times.
"As the department staff has shrunk from eight to three, Brenda has taken on more and increasingly complex assignments," wrote Paul F. Diehl, the Henning Larsen Professor and the chair of the department. Her duties comprise graduate student applications, appointments and fellowships; faculty and other appointments, including payroll and recruitment and faculty reviews and promotion/tenure cases; finance and business issues; and general administrative support, including managing space, equipment and special events.
She is meticulous in checking paperwork but does not hesitate to doublecheck a new policy or issue she is not clear about.
"Brenda's personal skills and work performance have a positive impact on all those with whom she interacts," Diehl said. "She is accessible to all. Her focus on the details does not preclude genuine warmth. Her door is always, quite literally, open, and students and faculty know that they can come talk to her at any time about issues related to the graduate program, university procurement and a host of other matters. Once they leave her office, she will work tirelessly to help find the answer to their question or solve their problem."
Mary J. Strum, an office manager in the department of communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, provides support to the director of the unit's graduate studies and to the department head as well as faculty members and students.
"Her organizational skills, strong work ethic, flexibility and friendly disposition have touched everyone in our department," wrote Barbara I. Hall, an academic adviser in the department, in nominating Strum. "We certainly are much stronger for all she does."
"She provides exceptional service to our students, and faculty and staff members every day," Hall said. "Both when the flow of work is predictable and when she is hit with sudden obstacles or demands, she responds with easy confidence and competence."
Hall noted that it was felt that Strum's work and dedication to the success of her students contributed to the positive evaluation of the graduate program in the recent Graduate College review of campus doctoral programs, which noted high levels of student satisfaction and a high success rate in job acquisition for new graduates.
In addition, Strum will always step in when needed to keep the department running smoothly. She has taken on extra responsibility to cover during times of transition and always does so with confidence and good humor.