awards

Employee awards for 2012 were presented at the annual employees’ holiday banquet on Thursday, December 22. The winners are:

Sandy Galati, physical plant, won the MargaretW. Henzi Award for outstanding office/clerical employees, and was cited as “the primary conduit through which literally thousands of work orders pass every year…by virtue of the nature of her job, she has the task of fielding what are often urgent and demanding calls from customers who may be understandably frustrated or experiencing difficulty and yet—without fail—she is always cheerful, helpful, and friendly.”

Anthony Torres, physical plant, won the TedDeiss/Joyce and Virgil Dodson Outstanding Physical Plant Employee Award. He was praised as one who “demonstrated his versatility and proved himself to be a team player by stepping up and playing an extremely critical role when the university had to re-key every room in our residence halls…in July 2012 he was promoted to foreman and given the additional responsibility of supervising the athletics/events crew.”

The winner of the Hooyboer Outstanding Professional Staff Award is Heidi Keller, student accounts. The Hooyboer Award honors the sort of dedication and commitment that drives and infuses the University’s best and most creative and visionary staffers, the sort of men and women who take the University utterly to heart, and work brilliantly for its success, which made the choice of Heidi nearly a foregone conclusion. She was cited in part as “someone whose inspirational spirit causes her employees to hail her as a University treasure.”

A new honor, the President’s Team Award, was presented to the Office of Admissions. The award was established in 2012 by University president Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C. to honor staff teams whose collective effort demonstrates unwavering commitment to the mission and goals of the University.

Winning the Father Charles Miltner, C.S.C., Award was Jason McDonald, admissions. He was lauded as “among the most cheerful, trusted, admired, and accomplished employees in modern University history…in his fourteen years on The Bluff, he has played a crucial part in the University’s amazing rise in national renown, respect, and popularity.” Beginning with the late Fr. John Hooyboer, C.S.C., the first recipient, the award has been presented to diligent and creative men and women who have gone to sometimes extraordinary lengths to further the mission of the University. It is the highest employee honor bestowed by the University.

Employees were also honored for milestone years of service to the University, including Mary Beebe, Leah Teixeira, Cynthia Blanding, Brian Toole, Kurt Bottcher, Maria de los Angeles Vega, John Carleton, Christina Wall, MingXia Chen, Jack Welch, John Donato, Gregory White, Jonathan Down, Gwen Guderjohn, Sharon Hogan, Joseph Houck, Cathleen Kelley, Bradley Kerr, Paul Le Clercq, Mary Louie, Shizuko Madsen, Bryce Majors, Elisa Majors, Kelly Margheim, Matthew Ortiz, Debra Schwartzkopf, Bradford Scott, Russell Seidelman, Mary Beth Snell, Kimberley Spir, Malathi Sundramurthy, and Mary Virnig (5 years); Pat Alderman, Jim Axling, Maureen Briare, Matthew Gerber, Vinci Halbrook-Paterson, Jeromy Koffler, Michael Kranyak, Colin McGinty, Andrea Nelin-Roth, Khiet Nguyen, Natalie Shank, Sheila Smith, Bryce Strang, and Patricia Wood (10 years); Carol Bruce, Lori Coulson, Tim Crump, Teresa Freemont, Joann Jeffers, Jim Ly0ns, Arja Nelson, Scott Pitka, Chris Sperry, Melissa Thongtan, and No Vo (15 years); Rayne Funk, Meridee Kaiel, Paul Luty, Patty Rubin, and Carolyn Strong (20 years); Bill Irwin, Shaun Shepherd, and Cindy Sturm (25 years); Stephen Hafer, Jim Haines, Ron Scott, and John Soission (30 years); and Virginia Asuncion (40 years).

For more information contact Bryn Sopko, human resources, at 8987 or sopko@up.edu.