EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Innocentia Vukeya, Research Administrator, School of Public Health

Her role and contributions have grown extensively over the years, making her a suitable nominee for this award.

Inno joined the School of Public Health in January 2017 as its Masters Research Administrator. She administers all research-related processes for the Masters in Public Health, MSc in Epidemiology, MSc Med Exposure Science, MMeds in Community Health and Occupational Health, and Masters by Dissertation. At any given time there are approximately 200 enrolled students. Through the relationships that she creates with the students, she keeps up with their progress by being their “go to” person for information, motivational support, and to discuss their challenges and successes. With the large numbers of part-time and international students, these interactions are key to keeping our students connected with the School.

Inno inherited an electronic database, containing student milestones from the first Masters cohorts in the early 2000s to date, that was in disarray. Over the years, Inno has cleaned the database and keeps it up to date. She is therefore able to provide Heads of Division and the Masters Research Coordinator with regular status reports on students. Further, she created a progress report questionnaire in RedCap for students and supervisors. She sends this out annually and collates the information that is used to identify students with challenges to enable early intervention.

Inno’s duties include organizing Masters protocol assessment meetings. She also submits protocols, forms, and research reports to the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Office on behalf of the students. This enables her to check that all submitted documents are complete, keep records of all submissions, and follow-up delays through regular engagement with Faculty administrators. Since the move from paper-based to email submissions at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this process, though time consuming, has been particularly useful in finding submissions that might have been missed. She also helps students with registration and follows-up those who fail to register on time.

Over the years, as efforts to keep students engaged while doing their research and to improve student throughput have been introduced, Inno has gracefully and cheerfully embraced the additional duties. These include scheduling and providing administrative support for monthly research support meetings for MSc students and biannual MPH student writing workshops. At these meetings and during Orientation and the research methods courses, she presents and discussions administrative matters with students.

Cont.

Inno serves as secretary of the School’s Postgraduate Student Research Committee. She also sits on the sub-committee that organizes the committee’s brown bag sessions and workshops for supervisors. Inno has also actively participated in the School’s Research Day committees in 2019 and 2021, and in the Postgraduate Symposium in 2021.

In her many roles in the School, Inno consistently goes the extra-mile to assist and support students and supervisors, often having to work after hours and during weekends. She works well with colleagues and willingly takes on extra duties of other administrators when they are not available. She is well-acquainted with university systems and creates time to attend training to keep up to date. Since joining the School, she has completed the Wits Postgraduate Diploma in Management. She is solution-focused, reliable and pays attention to detail. Inno represents the School well at its interface with students and supervisors who come from diverse backgrounds, ranging from recent graduates to very senior professionals. There is no doubt that her calm efficiency, work ethic, dedication and exceptional communication skills have contributed improvements in student throughput in recent years.