Hubert Browne
Student Unions and Activities
Nominated by: Ben Vogel
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Resiliency
Hubert keeps a positive attitude every day, not just as he works on-site every day during the current crisis. He is resilient and always keeps the mission of SUA as a top priority as he responds to the building's needs. Hubert goes out of his way to make sure he is supporting his co-workers and the students we serve.
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Melanie Buford
Leadership Minor
Nominated by: Laura Wiesner
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Resiliency
Among so many of us working in overdrive to maintain student learning and development, I want to honor a colleague who is managing an especially incredible feat in our current context. As a coordinator for our Field Experience classes, Melanie maintains a long-standing curriculum that has been upended by the necessary limitations put into place for community-engaged learning. As Melanie and other Field Experience instructors manage relationships with community partners navigating their own deep struggle, she also needs to constantly adapt the expectations and assignments for nearly 100 students across sections, many of whom no longer can work with field partners (in a "field experience" class!). As Melanie makes real-time adjustments to the curriculum available to three class sections, she is also teaching two classes AND working to build an online curriculum for the summer class. On top of that, she is trying to develop more than 20 remote summer internship-like experiences as we prepare for class sizes to increase while our planned sections outside of the Twin Cities need to close. I want to be clear, though, that what has impressed me most about Melanie -- and the thing I most want to revere publicly -- are the times I've seen her maintain learning and development while "letting go" of standards that are untenable in our current context. It's not sustainable for all of us to continue at the pace we are at and what I admire most is colleagues like Melanie who work to make or find permission to reduce the effort needed to exponentially scale our work.
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Custodial & Maintenance Staff
Student Unions and Activities
Nominated by: Jason Hancock
Value Demonstrated by Employees: Student Centeredness
Many of the custodial and maintenance staff have remained on site in our facilities during the extended reduced operations period. Specifically, Ben Vogel, Hubert Browne and Wesley Woodson as supervisors and their staff consisting of Lensa Degefu, Kevin Stone, David Ram, Al Livingston, Ross Becker, and Todd Mobraaten, work everyday to ensure that our facilities are clean, sanitized, safe and comfortable for the students using our spaces for WiFi and the computer lab. Without their efforts, many students would not have a place to do their coursework using WiFi and printing/software usage in the computer lab.
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Event Services Team
Student Unions and Activities
Nominated by: Jason Hancock
Value Demonstrated by Employees: Accountability
The SUA Event Services team, consisting of Joe Thoen, Sarah Ries, Luke Grundmeyer, David Hill, Beth Galatis, Mike Kaybeya Kazadi, Nathan Taylor, Kyle Kimbllin, and Steve Carnes, were instrumental in coordinating reservation communication and cancellations of event spaces in SUA facilities. Several thousand bookings and hundreds of clients were handled professionally and thoughtfully during this emotional time. Their work continues as many of these bookings need to be rescheduled for future dates. Their commitment to treating each client with respect and compassion is outstanding and I am fortunate to be able to work with all of them.
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Facilities Staff
Student Unions and Activities
Nominated by: Garnette Kuznia on behalf of SUA staff
Value Demonstrated by Employees: Resiliency
Thank you to the SUA facilities staff who are still working on site, maintaining, cleaning, and securing our buildings for our students and campus community:
Al Livingston
Ross Becker
Wesley Woodson
Hubert Browne
Todd Mobraaten
David Ram
Kevin Stone
Lensa Degefu
We appreciate all you do!
-From your #SUAFam
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Sandy Goetzke
Boynton Dental
Nominated by: Boynton Dental
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Wellbeing
Sandy has been using her time and financial resources to fabricate homemade masks to distribute to the Boynton Dental clinic staff. She shows care for the wellbeing of our dental staff and Boynton Health staff.
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Eleanor Gray
Student Legal Service
Nominated by: Karmen McQuitty
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Collaboration
Eleanor has done an AMAZING job keeping SLS up and running! She had the foresight to create our virtual office (appointments, data collection, case management) which has proven invaluable. Three cheers for Eleanor!
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Sarah Kelley-Pegg
Boynton Health
Nominated by: Jenny Swanson
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Wellbeing
Sarah Kelley-Pegg is a nurse practitioner with Boynton and splits her time with the main clinic and the Minneapolis College Student Health Clinic (a satellite clinic of Boynton). During the COVID 19 outbreak Sarah has really stepped up to help the Minneapolis College staff navigate the rapidly changing requirements. What I'm most impressed with is that when we found out the food pantry and snack pack stations were closed on the Minneapolis Campus, Sarah graciously offered to help Minneapolis College get food to those that need it most (the Mpls College staff has been sent home but we are working on campus. Since we are here we want to maximize our ability to help this community). Our clinic is very separate from the operations at Minneapolis college so this is no small feat. We have had to learn the food pantry, get access to the space, put together packets, and safely provide to students in need. Sarah is always thinking about the under-served population and making sure they are not forgotten. Even though we are not serving the UMN students directly, OSA has a mission to serve our community. Kudos to Sarah for serving our community of learners, I'm lucky to work with her!
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Jennifer Krzmarzick
Boynton Health
Nominated by: Maggie Towle
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Resiliency
Dr. Krzmarzick has been doing amazing work adopting new clinical practices and procedures during this COVID-19 Crisis. A huge SHOUT OUT for the great work she is doing!
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Susan Sarapa
Boynton Dental
Nominated by: Boynton Dental
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Wellbeing
Susan has been using her time and financial resources to fabricate homemade masks to distribute to the Boynton Dental clinic staff. She shows care for the wellbeing of our dental staff and Boynton Health staff.
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Kendre Turonie
Off Campus Living
Nominated by: Maggie Towle
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Advocacy
In the midst of this COVID-19 Crisis, Kendre has been leading the charge for the Census 2020. Numerous staff and offices across campus have been talking about the great work Kendre is doing, and this is a very important Census year for our state - way to go, Kendre!
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Jill Wooldridge
Boynton Health
Nominated by: Heather Reinert
Value Demonstrated by Employee: Resiliency
Jill has worked tirelessly to create, morph, adapt, explain and recreate workflows to address the constantly changing COVID environment which has affected the way Boynton Health is able to provide care for our patients. Her creativity, patience and resilience in the face of frustrating and constant change has been an inspiration and a beacon for us, the health care providers she supervises. Thank you, Jill!!