Berkeleyan

Fifty-nine outstanding staff receive their just rewards

By Cathy Cockrell, Public Affairs | 10 November 2004

Twenty-four individual staff members and three staff teams received Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards at a Nov. 3 ceremony at Alumni House. The annual awards are administered and presented by the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee (CSAC).

Elvia Villalobos, a two-time honoree this year (Kira Stoll photo)

“This year we had 232 staff nominated — as individuals and as part of a team — and were able to give awards to 59,” says CSAC chair Monica Lin, assistant dean of instruction and student affairs in the College of Natural Resources, who opened the program. “It’s a challenging process, and at the same time it’s very uplifting to see the amazing contributions that staff make to the Berkeley campus.” Lin, who has served on CSAC for four years, says that every year she views the award process as “one of the highlights” of serving on the committee.

Individual award winners for 2004 include these:

• Eric Abrams, associate director for outreach and recruitment at Boalt Hall School of Law
• Joanna Abrams, a program representative in the Summer Sessions – International Programs office
• Kaye Bock, student affairs officer in the Department of City and Regional Planning
• Lana Buffington, senior analyst in the Academic Senate’s budget committee office
• Cecille Cabacunga, director of Career and Alumni Services in the Goldman School of Public Policy
• Susan Cass, student affairs officer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology
• James Coates, administrative specialist in the Department of Music
• Tom Colton, senior development engineer in the Department of Physics
• Claudia Covello, director of clinical services at University Health Services
• Clarissa Fermin, recruiting assistant in the Office of Human Resources’ Employment Services unit
• Suzanne Llewellyn, administrative officer in the School of Public Health
• Meghan R. Flanagan, director of the Center for Plant Genomics Training and Education
• Susan Hagstrom, senior administrative analyst in the College of Letters and Science’s Office of Undergraduate Advising
• Jan Johnson, student affairs officer in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
• David Lein, coordinator of instructional computing for the School of Public Health
• Brenda Marshall, executive secretary to the dean at the School of Optometry
• Alicia Murillo, member of the University Hall custodial staff
• Madalene Rodriguez, library assistant supervisor at the Fong Optometry and Health Sciences Library
• Jason Smith, health physicist on Environmental Health and Safety’s radiation-safety team
• Alix Schwartz, director of academic planning in the College of Letters and Science’s Undergraduate Division
• Linda Song, associate director of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
• Jurgen Steyer, programmer analyst for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning’s computer lab
• Elvia Villalobos, student affairs officer in the development office of Student Affairs
• Diana Wear, manager of the Office for History of Science and Technology.

Three team-award winners were also commended:

• Campuswide Alumni-Development System (CADS) Web Joint Application Development Team
The team was formed to create a web interface to the existing campuswide alumni-development system, a database system that maintains nearly one million records for individuals and organizations who are donors to the campus. Team members are Jim Bullock, Jennifer Cutting, Michael Ernst, Roe Fellows, Joan Gruen, Nancy Hall, Jennifer Kitt, Josh Marcus, Rannah McIntosh, and Martha Tipton.

Joan Gruen, who had been on medical leave, passed away a week and a half before the ceremony. Her husband, Professor Erich Gruen, attended the ceremony and accepted a framed certificate on her behalf.

• Immigrant Student Issues Coalition
Staff volunteers committed to advocating for immigrant students came together two years ago to form a coalition. Working on their own time, members develop strategies to generate awareness, build alliances, and effect policy change on behalf of immigrant students. Members are Allan Creighton, Luisa Giulianetti, Alberto Ledesma, Christina Lee, Fabrizio Mejia, Annette Rubado-Mejia, and Elvia Villalobos.

• University Health Services’ Connect Enterprise Practice Management
The team found and set in place, in 100 days, a new computer system that facilitates the entire patient experience at University Health Services, from appoinment scheduling to final payment. Members are Josephine Billington, Pamela Cameron, Betty Clark, Eleanor Cooney, Elyse Hottel, Renee Krahnke, Siobhan Lilly, Gail LoDolce, Leone Neal, Heather Pineda, Carole Plum, Mary Popylisen, Jeffrey Prince, Arcenia Romo, Paula Taubman, Veronica Vazquez, Elizabeth Yoast, and Linda Zaruba.