2022 Outstanding Staff & Program Awards AWARDS RECEPTION
May 5, 2022 • I Hotel, Illinois Ballroom
STUDENT AFFAIRS
2022 Outstanding Staff & Program Awards As Student Affairs team members, we chose our profession because we have a passion for helping students grow and develop into wellrounded people who have the capacity to change the world. Along the way, we have found that we work with some exceptional colleagues and programs, too! Each of our nearly 1,300 employees is dedicated to providing the kind of Illinois Experience that will shape our students’ lives and keep them involved with our campus long after they have graduated. Today we celebrate outstanding colleagues and programs that exemplify the spirit of Student Affairs at the University of Illinois. Please join me in congratulating them—and saluting countless other colleagues and student interns who give their best to our students every day. Sincerely,
Dr. Danita M. Brown Young Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2022 Outstanding Staff & Program Awards | 3
Program OPENING REMARKS
Dr. Danita M. Brown Young, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
PRESENTATION OF AWARDS Outstanding New Staff Member Outstanding Civil Service Staff Member Outstanding Academic Professional Staff Member Outstanding Assessment Project Outstanding Program
SELECTION COMMITTEE Many thanks to the students and staff who reviewed this year's nominations and selected the recipients: Sonya Holley (Chair)
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Director of Human Resources
Cody Demas
Campus Recreation, Assistant Director of Aquatics & Risk Management
Angela Ennis
Student Success and Engagement, Administrative Assistant
Patricia Ricketts
Counseling Center, Clinical Counselor
Erik Riha
Illini Union, Marketing Director
Beth Sheehan
The Career Center, Assistant Director of Information Management
Haro Wade
Office of Minority Student Affairs, Student Success Advisor
Amanda Wahba
Fraternity & Sorority Affairs, Assistant Director
Robert Wilczynski
Residential Life - Housing, Assistant Director
Joan Wingo
Women’s Resources Center, Office Support Associate 2022 Outstanding Staff & Program Awards | 4
Outstanding New Staff Member Award
Outstanding Civil Service Staff Member Award
2022 AWARD RECIPIENT
2022 AWARD RECIPIENT
Nora Peterson Associate Director of Prevention Women's Resource Center Nora Peterson joined the staff of the Women’s Resources Center in May of 2021 as Project Director. In January 2022, Nora joined the team as the Associate Director of Prevention. Since the start of her career at the Women's Resources Center she has aided and supported the staff and students in tremendous ways. She went above and beyond, providing increased opportunities for professional development, supervision for facilitators, and the development of new types of recognition. Under her direction, 8482 incoming students were educated about consent and supportive resources in Fall 2021, despite the Prevention position vacancy. Nora has aid the foundation for a comprehensive curriculum review of all of our prevention programs, starting with a complete overhaul of the curriculum for our CHLH 126: CARE Class. Nora has adapted the existing curriculum to incorporate a public health framework, shifting the focus from crisis response skills to prevention strategies. She has also built in more intentional opportunities for facilitation skill building to better prepare students to host productive and challenging conversations about campus sexual assault.
A colleague had this to say about Nora: This year has been incredibly difficult at the WRC. We have faced severe staffing shortages and challenges and I honestly do not think I would have made it through the last six months without Nora. She was always available for a question or to think through another approach when what worked in the past isn’t working anymore. She has gone above and beyond to meet both administrative needs and emotional needs of our team. She is the definition of a team player."
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Joann Logsdon Accountant I Illini Union Joann Logsdon is a prime example of a professional who makes Illinois great. While serving in as an Accountant I for the Illini Union for 10 years, she has demonstrated her care, work ethics, and ability to adapt during difficult situations. Joann is an accountant who has high integrity and recognizes that her highest responsibility is providing quality service to the organization that she accounts for. While also continuing to complete her assigned work and responsibilities, this past year, while her department was short-staffed, Joann took the initiative and volunteered to pick up several of her colleague's responsibilities to make sure accounts were reconciled and invoices and credits were processed and paid on time. Her efforts assisted in keeping accounts current, avoiding retail order holds, and helpeing her colleague's keep up with their workload. A colleague had this to say about Joann: She’s a great problem solver, and consistently helps staff with any issues they may have. She is always willing and able to make the time to help whenever staff needs assistance. If staff isn’t sure how to correct something, she will research or contact support to determine how to correct a mistake."
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Outstanding Academic Professional Staff Member Award
Outstanding Assessment Project Award
2022 AWARD RECIPIENT
2022 AWARD RECIPIENT
Dr. Mel Fenner
Time Tracking Project
Senior Assistant Director of Medical & Mental Health Systems & Compliance Student Affairs Technology
Student Assistance Center
Dr. Fenner is a model servant leader. He consistently demonstrates a willingness to jump in and lend a hand to his colleagues and make their lives easier and will provide individual attention to those in need. Dr. Fenner's intellect, teamwork, and collaborative approach to problem solving were perhaps never so necessary and clearly on display than during our campus and community response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Fenner was instrumental in the development of the Safer Illinois app and its ability to communicate with Medicat, our medical records software at McKinley Health Center. Dr. Fenner was also directly involved with sharing that knowledge with other Illinois institution. A colleague had this to say about Dr. Fenner:
Over the course of the 2021-2022 school year, the Student Assistance Center in the Office of the Dean of Students engaged in an assessment project to better understand and communicate out how staff time was utilized. In the fall of 2021, all Student Assistance Center staff spent one week tracking their time, broken up into several different activities or groupings. The team tracked their work every 15 minutes over a 24-hour period for an entire 7-day week. The data was analyzed, and results indicated that professional staff were collectively working an additional 60+ hours. The results are being used to reallocate responsibilities and advocate for additional staff.
Dr. Fenner is an extremely hard worker and always makes himself available at all hours of the day. Dr. Fenner is in his natural element in high-level strategic decision making work teams that set bold directions with tangible outcomes in mind. He is an excellent facilitator of conversation and is generous in passing the baton to other team members to both gather their input and pull their expertise into the solution. He is an excellent listener who takes feedback seriously and looks for win-win solutions."
2022 Outstanding Staff & Program Awards | 7
2022 Outstanding Staff & Program Awards | 8
Outstanding Program Award 2022 AWARD RECIPIENT
Stop Asian Hate
Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations Asian American Cultural Center The Stop Asian Hate program launched a two-week focused “Stop Asian Hate” campaign with the goal to build awareness and solidarity in our campus community. The findings from this campaign resulted in a series of educational workshops aimed to offer students, faculty, and staff greater understanding as well we current and historical historical contexts of antiAsian racism in the USA. The Asian America Cultural Center events help students, staff, and others in our campus community in understanding the link between these activities and the seemingly “new” phenomenon of COVID-19-related Anti-Asian hate. In addition to educating our campus community about these critical origins and underlying foundations of anti-Asian hate, the workshops were intended to give people tools to talk about this issue and act to address it when it happens. To learn more about the Stop Asian Hate program visit: https://oiir.illinois.edu/aacc/stop-asian-hate-campaign
Honorable Mention Student Memorial at the Office of the Dean of Students The Student Memorial exemplifies the Student Affairs’ values of student-centeredness, justice, and wellness. The Student Memorial represents the voice of students who can no longer be with us and whose time at Illinois was cut too short. This is our community’s way of honoring their presence, impact, and enduring legacy and connection to Illinois. We also believe that it is in the best interest of the student body for them to see our community recognize and remember those that they have lost. 2022 Outstanding Staff & Program Awards | 10