Beyond the Call Award

Past Winners:

Spring 2013

Vivek Sah, Assistant Professor of Real Estate

We nominate Vivek Sah for the Beyond the Call Award. His management on behalf of the Faculty Development trip to India began well before the trip and continued throughout the week. Vivek was invaluable to the Ahlers Center and our group visits before and during the trip. He made our initial connections with his alma mater, the Institute of Management Technology, which hosted our practicum last January, provided support for our company visits on this development program and treated us very well during our stay in India. He continued to serve as a reference to help develop the program and insisted on managing all of the logistics which allowed us more control and saved us money. While in Delhi he not only managed our transportation and tours, but was always on hand to assist us with more personal needs – like tourist ideas, money exchange, shopping support, etc. He never ran out of energy and never made any of us feel that we were intruding on his time. He was so generous, positive and upbeat throughout the trip. Having a local person who could speak Hindi as a part of our group truly enriched our experience and helped the program run more smoothly. Vivek worked for the entire time of the trip from sunup to past midnight making sure everyone was taken care of and all problems were resolved. From his handling of the Bollywood show (which included transportation, ticket exchanges, dinner) to getting a new bus post haste on the day of the Agra trip, Vivek was at all times creative and flexible. He helped all faculty, answered even the most naive questions, bargained effectively for us when shopping, ensured our safety and was a total delightful resource. On several occasions he went way beyond the call of duty by taking his own time to show several of us a very personal side of his hometown from introducing us to his family members to taking us out in Delhi at night to the best places to eat and drink. For one colleague who was on sabbatical in another country he volunteered to buy a universal plug and take it to India for her as well as laid the groundwork to get her research survey distributed to alumni of IMT. It's always difficult when you take colleagues and friends to your 'home land' especially because you want them to have a good time and come away with a favorable impression. That can be challenging in a country like India where things kind of go on their own schedule (an organized chaos if you will) and especially given the varied backgrounds of faculty who went on the trip. By being our on-the-ground point person Vivek took complete charge of coordination and tried his best to make sure we were all happy. His generosity with his time (and with his money as on several occasions we witnessed him giving money to the poor) was greatly appreciated and was above and beyond the call. Before the trip, several of us did not know Vivek but it became clear that he represents the best of what is great about USD from hard work to professionalism and a true caring of others. - Faculty Development Trip India 2013

Nominees included:

Bridget Breitenberg, Program Coordinator, MSEL

As a faculty member teaching in the MSEL program, I have experienced first hand the outstanding service by her to the MSEL program. She is superbly efficient, always willing to help and does it with a cheerful attitude. - Shreesh Despande

Bridget has an amazing amount of positive energy and enthusiasm and is always looking for ways in increase her job responsibilities. She was very passionate about bringing the Study Abroad to the MSEL program, and as of next month, we will be going for the 2nd time to Istanbul. As of next year, the Study Abroad will be a mandatory part of the MSEL program, thanks to all of Bridget's hard work and enthusiasm. It should be noted that this passion stems from the desire to continuously improve our program and align our values with those of the university, in general, and the SBA, in particular. As you know, the mission of the SBA reads as follows: "We develop socially responsible business leaders with a global mindset through academically rigorous, relevant, and values-based education and research." Bridget really found it important to expand upon the "global mindset" of our students, and we can say that we believe we have successfully done so due to her extraordinary efforts. Many also know that our students are very busy working professionals, and as such, we are ESPECIALLY high touch with them. Bridget handles the many special requests with ease, grace and a smile, and always makes sure students feel welcomed and well taken care of. Her friendly demeanor is a huge asset to us and to our students. As we like to joke in our office, she gets to be the "good cop" simply because she is so naturally good at it. In addition to her role as the Program Coordinator, she is also very passionate about making sure that the SBA comes together in a meaningful way. She has played a big role in the Solidarity Committee and is dedicated to making sure we not only come together as the SBA community, but positively affect our San Diego community as well. In short, Bridget approaches each task with enthusiasm and a "can-do" attitude, and consistently and perpetually goes "beyond the call" to make sure that everything is done exceptionally well, often exceeding expectations. Her dedication to professionalism, quality and growth are certainly something to be admired. – Gina Fascilla

Bridget’s entire persona projects the values and mission of the University of San Diego and the School of Business. In her role as the Program Coordinator for the Master of Science in Executive Leadership, she consistently demonstrates outstanding judgment and interpersonal skills as well as a very advanced level of initiative. Beyond her phenomenal communication, planning and organizational skills, she has actually enabled growth and development opportunities for the MSEL Program. Through dedication and perseverance, she facilitated MSEL’s first study abroad program. Bridget’s diligence and determination were a key factor in accomplishing this goal. She applied successfully for a grant to enable further development of MSEL’s international opportunities. She worked with all stakeholders and addressed all concerns effectively, which paved the way for the full integration of the study abroad opportunity within the MSEL program. Also, far beyond the scope of her Coordinator role, she is currently leading the MSEL effort to enrich our program by finding innovative ways to incorporate new technology in the classroom experience. She has facilitated the design of high level information sessions that have enabled faculty and other stakeholders to gain a better understanding of the far-reaching possibilities. This has required great flexibility, and she has quickly demonstrated her ability to find alternative solutions when necessary. Lastly, Bridget uses her innate leadership ability to “lead up” to introduce opportunities for innovation and growth not only of the MSEL program but also of the School of Business. She has worked hard to ensure that the Solidarity Committee brings value and recognition to USD as a whole and has been a strong voice in the community. The programs that she developed (St. Vincent de Paul, the Linda Vista Street Fair, building a sustainable garden for a Linda Vista school) have all been extremely successful. Her loyalty and enthusiasm for USD, SBA and especially MSEL constantly generate new possibilities to enhance our University. She is an admirable ambassador for the School of Business Administration, and it is indeed a privilege to work with Bridget Breitenberg.– Christina de Vaca

Fall 2012

Jennifer Russell, Executive Assistant

Jennifer is an outstanding worker. Pleasant yet efficient, always ready to help. Goes beyond, doesn't ask what time it is... A wonderful asset for our business school. - Marko Svetina

Nominees included:

Jan Kennedy, Executive Assistant/Event Scheduler

I would like to nominate Jan Kennedy for the Beyond the Call award for her incredible service with the 30+ office moves as well as getting the 11 new faculty situated. This was an incredible undertaking and she did the whole thing with a smile and pleasant personality. Not many could have done that. A true professional.. – Charles Teplitz.

Spring 2012

Joe Bertocchini, Development Coordinator

Joe does an outstanding job in supporting the Dean and the Director of Development in their work with the SBA Board of Directors and in preparing both of us for consistent and demanding travel schedules. He interfaces with our alumni all over the world and they consistently say how gracious and wonderful he is to deal with.If it were not for Joe, we couldn't get in the door on many of our visits. He does all of this while handling the normal volume of work and demands of a busy and ever changing priority office. He does this with a smile on his face and everyone who interacts with Joe - both inside of USD and outside - say how wonderful he is to deal with. He should receive the Outstanding Service award. - Liz Mueller

Nominees included:

Natalie Olsen, Executive Assistant, Ahler's Center

Although she has been with the Ahlers Center just five months, Natalie has been dedicated to learning the ropes as quickly as she can. She is dependable, helpful and always friendly. When Katie Singleton left the Ahlers Center in April, there was a lack of human capital to run the many study abroad programs offered by the center. On top of her daily tasks of supporting all of Ahlers programs, Natalie agreed to take on the enormous responsibility of managing our summer 2012 study abroad program going to Berlin and Istanbul. Doing this, she is coordinating students and faculty from three different graduate programs (MBA, MSGL and MSEL). The task is difficult enough when you've been with the Center for years and are familiar with all the components of coordinating logistics, student billing, setting up WebCT, etc. However, Natalie is doing the best she possibly can with the time she has to do it and I admire her for stepping into - and succeeding in - the unknown. She deserves an extra large Thank You on behalf of the entire School of Business for keeping these programs running smoothly. – Tara Jankowski

Terra Saltzman-Baker, MBA Corporate Relations Manager

In the face of many simultaneous events and meetings throughout the year, Terra consistantly approaches this juggling act with boundless energy, a shining positive attitude, and is always making sure that the bases are covered. I'm inspired by Terra's generous spirit and hard work, and this in turn, propels me to do better at my job. – Christy Bergheim

Fall 2011

Nadia Auch, Assistant Director, Center for Peace and Commerce

Nadia Auch gets things done! She is positively tenacious and works very diligently to make things happen. She is definitely someone who goes “beyond the call” making great contributions to the SBA and USD. -Denise Dimon

Nadia’s professionalism permeates every single activity of the Center for Peace and Commerce. If any of you have participated in a CPC event, it is almost impossible not to notice her talent in action. Every single event of the CPC reveals how she pours her intellect, skills and heart into the task at hand. In September, 2011 we had the Conference on Business for Poverty Alleviation to celebrate C.K. Prahalad’s legacy. It was a success. This success owed much to both Nadia Auch and Katie Singleton’s leadership and commitment. They took care of all aspects of the conference going from production of the brochures to arranging travels for scholars from all over the world. They worked in team to ensure that the event provided an unforgettable academic experience, as well as a personal one here at USD. Then there is the Social Innovation Challenge (SIC). This student driven competition has expanded in one year to the entire university. Two weeks ago we received additional funds of $50,000. This is possible because of Nadia’s leadership. Due to her indefatigable efforts we have moved from having 10 students in last year’s information sessions to having 75 rsvp’s for today’s Idea Lab (information session). If that is not outstanding, then I don’t know what is. She achieves this by creatively engaging support from students and various USD faculty and staff. Another component of her outstanding work is what she has achieved with the Center’s Advisory Board. We currently have a board of 12 business and non-profit leaders from San Diego. Most of them have been recruited thanks to Nadia’s effort in identifying the best candidates and her work in getting them interested in donating their time and effort to build the CPC. All of the board members are incredibly committed to the Center and its mission. Nadia also functions as an effective bridge-builder between the SBA and the School for Peace and Justice. Despite all her work, she finds time to ensure that all of the members of the KSPJ remain proactively involved in various ways. –Patricia Marquez

Nadia Auch is wholeheartedly dedicated the mission of the Center for Peace and Commerce. Her commitment to CPC and USD shows in everything she does. Be it the Social Innovation Challenge, the SCMI Forum, or the Summit on Peace and Prosperity through Trade and Commerce, Nadia works extremely hard, definitely going above and beyond the call of duty on a regular basis, to not only get the job done, but get the job done right. Beyond events that CPC is involved with, Nadia works tirelessly to get students and the community involved with the Center. She is creative, thinks outside the box, makes connections and finds synergies that greatly benefit the Center. USD is lucky to have her! Thanks for all that you do, Nadia! –Katie Singleton

I wish to nominate Nadia Auch, assistant director of CPC who has been an amazing asset to the school in raising the profile of the center, engaging and increasing number of students and helping establish additional sources of funds to support the mission of the center. In particular, Nadia worked phenomenally hard supporting the SCMI fall forum on responsible supply chain management leading to significant profit and recognition for our activities. I am also amazed how Nadia achieves so much beyond the normal expectations - such as attending evening classes to speak with students and meeting community members outside normal business hours. –Simon Croom

Nominees included:

Jennifer Russell, Executive Assistant

Jennifer is not our department’s secretary, but always steps in to assist when Deanna is out. She follows up to make sure that the issues have been resolved. –Rangapriya Kannan-Narasimhan.

Jennifer is an outstanding employee—does everything she is asked with speed and accuracy, what more can one ask for? In addition, she is pleasant and punctual and professional. –Marko Svetina

Katie Singleton, Associate Director, Ahlers Center

Katie Singleton provided excellent customer service to attendees of the C.K. Prahalad’s Legacy: Business for Poverty Alleviation Conference. On September 15th the day the conference began she arrived at 8:30 a.m. and finished working at 11:30 p.m. She then brought me, her colleague, coffee in the morning. She was professional, kind, friendly, and attentive to the over 50 attendees who flew in from all over the world. She was kind to guests who tested her patience by persistently asking her the same questions more than 50 times. She remained composed, polite and professional with a smile. She worked the 16th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., she then worked Saturday the 17th from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. She also ran to resolve a catering problem by picking up extra sandwiches from Urbane Café on Saturday the 17th and she aided in babysitting C.K. Prahalad’s grandson so that his parents could participate in the paper discussions. She was tirelessly dedicated to deliver USD’s mission to each and every conference attendee and passionately cared for the quality of the them, the research, and execution of such an important conference. –Nadia Auch

Barbara Withers, Professor of Management Science

For two years in a row Barbara Withers has put in a lot of time, travel, interaction, and effort on developing prospective faculty candidate selections for campus visits. A tremendous amount of work—done two years in a row. –Don Helmich

Barbara took on the task of managing the faculty recruiting for the Operations Management area. Barbara handled correspondence with over 100 applicants to ensure their applications were complete. She also arranged for interviews with over 35 candidates at two conferences in two states within days of each other. She is responsible for further correspondence with the applicants as well as arranging campus visits for the finalist. –Charles Teplitz

Spring 2011

Ann Hidalgo, Executive Assistant to the Associate Dean

Ann does not work for MBA Programs and yet, without her, we probably would have gone crazy. (Seriously). Ann has been an enormous help to us over the past few months with projects big and small as we have grappled with more work to be done than we could possibly do ourselves. I don’t even think she blinked when we asked her to learn about our academic programs, quickly, and then start responding to a slew of emailed questions from prospective students. She helped set up a process of communication for working together on the most communication-sensitive projects we have (students – revenue! students – jobs!), which worked despite being separated by the slope of our mesa. I know how much time and effort goes into these emails and I have to say there is no doubt that Ann worked really, really hard to do what she did in the time she had. Through it all, she has been professional and friendly. Ann went Beyond the Call to help us out – and deserves recognition for it! -Sara Miksa I nominate Ann Hidalgo for the “Beyond the Call” award. Ann has been helping the MBA office with various projects, which would not have been completed in such a timely fashion without her help. Ann has always been eager to help with any task we ask of her. She is always smiling and a pleasure to be around. No one deserves this award more than Ann does and I am honored to nominate her. -Pat Moulton Ann is amazing. She readily accepts projects from outside of her job scope and does it with a huge smile and amazing sense of time sensitivity. For the last two years, Ann has readily agreed to put together USD MBA resume books so that I can share them with employers. She has never once complained and always takes great care in making sure they are perfect. In addition, after a recent employer event held on campus, the attendees asked for a resume book of students in attendance. Ann had the project turned around so quickly, that I had it in my hands before I had compiled a list of the recipients’ email addresses! Thanks to Ann for all that she has done to support the MBA Programs Department over the years. We’d be lost without her. -Terra Saltzman Baker

Ann has continually stepped-up to the plate to support important projects. In 2008, when we wanted to launch an alumni resume book, Ann willingly offered to help, and allowed us to quickly launch an effective tool that showed alumni that we cared about them at a difficult time. Recently, when the MBA program was struggling to find additional support for a critical outreach campaign to prospective students, Ann volunteered. She quickly mastered the technical and communication nuances that enabled a personalized approach to our outreach. Her eagerness to help, attention to detail, and thoughtful input are all signs of a true professional who has consistently gone beyond the call. -David Bergheim

Ann is always ready and willing to help if she has any spare time. She seems happy to take on additional projects. She is extremely competent, very professional, and gets the job done in a timely manner. This January it became clear that the MBA office needed assistance with our annual GMASS email campaign, if we were going to pull off running this campaign at an accelerated pace (necessary to reach all potential applicants before our April 1 deadline). This was NOT a small project. Ann responded to anywhere between 30 and 100 email messages a day, 4 days per week, for two months. We asked Ann to respond to basic responses using email templates that we created for her and to forward any emails that had direct questions to the MBA office. Ann, as usual, went way above and beyond. In addition to doing what we asked, she did the following: 1) in forwarding messages, she highlighted the types of questions being asked, 2) She notified us of responses coming from individuals who had already submitted applications, and 3)she responded to questions that she was confident she could answer correctly. I can honestly say that I don’t know what we would have done without Ann’s help over the past few months. Having someone who I knew I could trust to handle a project of this magnitude was amazing. But Ann has done much more than this for the MBA programs this year. She has gladly taken on smaller projects, including putting together two resume books. Ann will be leaving USD shortly to pursue graduate studies. It would be a shame for her to leave without knowing just how much she is appreciated for repeatedly going above and beyond her job responsibilities. -Kacy Hayes

Ann has been a great resource for the MBA Programs. Her assistance was invaluable for the completion of our recent recruiting efforts, which she handled with the utmost professionalism and dedication. She also helped us to prepare the Resume Books of our students twice during the academic year. Ann’s service has been truly Beyond the Call. - Manzur Rahman

Fall 2010

Stephanie Kiesel, Assistant Director, MSGL

Stephanie has taken on the responsibility of managing all veteran based benefits for the specialized masters degrees in the SBA. We have had a number of active duty and vets go through the SCM program and Stephanie treats every single one of them like they were a student from her own program. She works diligently with financial aid to make sure that the appropriate benefits are awarded in a timely manner. Without Stephanie, many of us would be lost attempting to figure out the details of these benefit programs. She makes all of our jobs easier (for no additional compensation) and she makes our students experience much more enjoyable. Thank you, thank you Stephanie. -Lauren Lukens

Stephanie has been a tremendous asset not only to the MSGL program, but to several other MS programs. The Post 9-11/GI Bill benefits are confusing at best, and Stephanie has managed to filter all student questions, create all student spreadsheets and stay abreast of the many frequent changes to the bill for students not only in her program, but in all of the other MS programs in the SBA. The amount of time she has spent dealing with MSEL students alone is significant. She has saved me NUMEROUS hours, and does it all without a single complaint and with a smile on her face. As her supervisor, Bob Schoultz stated, her help “has been, and remains her personal commitment to serve students, especially military and veterans.” She is truly indispensable in working with our veteran and active duty students and she is more than deserving of this award. She exemplifies everything that the Beyond the Call award stands for. -Gina Fascilla

Stephanie ought to have a second title – Yellow Ribbon and GI Bill Guru. For the past year and a half, Stephanie has responded to the needs of all graduate SBA veterans (and perhaps undergrads too – I wouldn’t be surprised) and advocated persistently on their behalf. She has waded through shifting and elusive piles of information, fought battles that were often most unpleasant, navigated bureaucracy, put together documents and tools that students could use to understand their benefits, and somehow made time to meet with students in person – regardless of which program they were attending. I know that she has personally helped well over a dozen of (“my”) MBA students, not to mention all of the consulting she has offered to me as a colleague via phone conferences and meetings. Why does she do all this? The crude answer is a) a respect for the law and seeing that promised legislative benefits are conferred and b) an understanding that this population of students makes up a significant chunk of our enrollment and thus our revenue. But the true reason is that she cares. A lot. About all our students. Is caring in and of itself “going beyond the call?” Nope. But acting on one’s feelings to benefit others in a way that just not meets but exceeds the minimum is. -Sarah Miksa

Nominees included:

Ann Hidalgo, Executive Assistant to the Associate Dean

Ann is someone that I can count on to lend a hand or volunteer to help out at the drop of a hat. She is always going out of her way to take part in a new project and does so in a way that always makes me feel that she truly WANTS to help. In addition to her unending willingness to help, she is someone that I look forward to running into in the halls of Coronado as she always has a warm smile on her face that always brightens my day. -Joe Bertocchini

Annie Grand, Supply Chain

During the summer months Annie not only covered her normal duties, but embraced wholeheartedly the responsibilities of supporting MS-SCM recruitment with no hesitation, with great enthusiasm and went above and beyond the call in her commitment to ensuring the cohort was a success. -Simon Croom

Jewel Leonard, Assistant Director, Undergraduate Programs

Jewel has taken on a variety of projects without hesitation and without complaint. Examples of her projects include: 1. Organizing the Leadership initiative 2. Organizing the undergraduate assessment of learning efforts 3. Volunteering to represent the SBA in the WASC accreditation learning assessment efforts 4. She was asked by the SBA administration to help organize the support staff workflow and she is spending many hours working on that issue. On all of these projects Jewel has given her full time, attention, and effort even though they are not specifically in her job description. These projects have required her to devote extra hours to USD and have caused her extra stress. But she is working on all of them willingly and without complaint. -Tom Dalton

Spring 2010

Myla Wilson, Executive Assistant, MSRE

Myla is an absolute stand-out in her performance, attitude and capabilities. She is quick, accurate and enthusiastic about her work. She cheerfully assists in the many different tasks she is given, always giving more than what is expected of her. She has made herself indispensable in the short time she has been with the Burnham-Moores Center, contributing to faculty support, research initiatives, publications, events and fundraising, among other many other endeavors, large and small. Regardless of how much she has on her plate, Myla is unfailingly good-natured, cheerful and ready to help. The SBA is extremely fortunate to have her. -Jeryldine Saville

Myla is an incredibly competent and efficient executive assistant. She has taken on many responsibilities and completes them flawlessly and quickly. She assists our entire faculty with any classroom needs and acts as the liaison often times between our students and adjunct faculty members. She is friendly and so easy to work with. If I ask for assistance on anything (online surveying, student tracking or application organization) she gets it done asap. She manages our work study student amazingly well, she follows up to make sure tasks are completed accurately and keeps a running list of responsibilities for our work study. Not only does Myla assist with administrative tasks for me, but she has a graphic design background and is my go-to for all flyers I need for our real estate society and alumni activities. We are so lucky to have Myla in our office and consider her a great colleague and friend. -Lauren Lukens

Myla’s primary responsibility is to support the academic real estate programs, and she has done a terrific job helping faculty in terms of teaching and research. She is very efficient and good at multi-tasking. More importantly, Myla always accepts new assignments with a smile, even when she is busy. In addition to assisting faculty, she helps students solve problems and works with the Burnham-Moores Center staff on other center activities all the time. Her contribution to the real estate programs in SBA well exceeds her job description. I therefore strongly recommend her for the award. -Charles Tu

Terra Saltzman Baker, Corporate Relations Manager

Right at the beginning of June, while still in full Admissions season, our replacement for Kacy during her maternity leave unexpectedly resigned. As it would be extremely difficult to search, select, and train someone new at such a short notice, I broached the idea to Terra if she would consider doing this on an interim basis. Although she had no background in this job, she agreed to do so without a moment’s hesitation. Terra has done a fantastic job in coming up to speed, and carrying through the admissions of the three separate cohorts in an admirable manner. And although she did not have to do so, she still continued to work with our current students on their employment and internship searches. And with good cheer to boot! Terra’s spirit and good will is what allowed our office to manage this transition as smoothly as possible. Her contribution was truly Beyond the Call! -Manzur Rahman

Terra is a stud. Nuff said. After Kacy Hayes’ maternity replacement informed us she was leaving for a full-time role, Manzur realized that it would take to much time to recruit a new person and then train them in before she left. As he assessed the department, the newest member of the team – Terra, (who was not going to any conferences this summer) was the most viable candidate. With the nerves of knowing that she is not a spreadsheet person, she took a deep breath and dove in head first with the training. Although her eyes were crossed at the end of each day, she kept a smile on her face and a positive attitude. As she has gained confidence in the role, the applications have kept flowing in. She has yet to have any slow moments. Each prospective student with whom she meets is treated with energy as though they are the first meeting of her day. She has taken all measures to learn the role to the fullest so that she may be knowledgeable of the program when she is talking to candidates. With her help, the program has grown from an average of 20 students per cohort to an average in the mid 30’s per full-time cohort. While taking on this role, she has still made time to stay on top of her Career Services e-mail and has continued discussions with students and employers, especially during my absence at career services conferences. She (and the rest of the team) has a new found respect for the job that Kacy handles on a regular basis and is relentlessly praying for her return. Watching her fearlessly handle this addition to her plate that is not in the area of her strengths, has been a powerful example of selfless leadership to each of us in the department and I am thankful to know that we have someone with such faithful, passionate, drive on our team. These are the reasons I am happy to recommend Terra Saltzman-Baker for the SBA Beyond the Call Award Nomination. You Rock Girl! -Reyna Brook Sund

Terra is a huge asset to the MBA students and alumni as part of their career advising team, and has done great work over the past year in radically expanding the services we offer to students and help connect our department better with the regional and even national business communities. She has built good relationships with key faculty in the process. She challenges students to approach their careers and education deeper and harder, and leads by example in her own passion for her work and her work ethic. She is also a fantastic colleague and someone that I am glad to have as a team-member for her skills, enthusiasm, warmth, wit, creativity, and care and attention to working in a team. But that’s not why I am nominating her. Terra has in fact truly gone beyond the call the summer because she is currently working two positions. Our 1-person admissions department went on maternity leave and then her temporary replacement found a permanent position elsewhere, leaving our department in the thick of admissions to the three fall MBA cohorts without an admissions officer. Terra stepped in (cheerfully!) to take on the role. Admissions at this time of year is highly detail-oriented, time-sensitive, and delicate. Missing a small detail in a spreadsheet or neglecting to respond to a prospective student promptly can mean the loss of what could have been an excellent MBA student. Terra is not a spreadsheet kind of gal; admissions is very much outside of her comfort zone. Yet, she has applied her intellect and her time carefully and deliberately to train rapidly and get the job done. Not only has she done so without complaint, but she has literally done so with a smile on her face and an infectious positive attitude that melds a sense of humor and pragmatism. More importantly, she has done more than just the minimum to prevent disaster. She has instead aimed for excellence, and the enthusiasm and growing size (relative to previous years) of our fall cohorts must be a testament in part to Terra’s service on their behalf. Did I mention that, while seating our largest full-time cohorts ever, she has continued to provide career advising to MBA students? The way in which she switches between back-to-back meetings of prospective student interviews and student/alumni career placement services is astounding. I think that if you were to examine the carpet in our area you would find a tell-tale path worn between Kacy’s/Terra’s admissions office and chair and Terra’s careers office and chair across the hallway. She is guilty of working very, very hard this summer! Is it sustainable? – no. But we’re sure glad that Terra was here to pull off a miracle this summer. -Sarah Miksa

I second the nomination! -Pat Moulton

Nominees included:

Joe Bertocchini, Development Coordinator

Joe has been an incredible addition to the SBA and has been an invaluable member to the Development department since his arrival last May. He handles a tremendous amount of work and is always willing to take on more in an enthusiastic manner. He supports both the DOD and Dean Pyke in all areas of Development which includes working with the SBA Board of Advisors, planning and coordinating all of our travel to visit with alumni, and other alumni events. He enthusiastically helps all areas of the SBA in their work and is always cheerful in his manner. I can think of no one more qualified than Joe to receive this award. -Liz Mueller

Brooke Harrington, Undergraduate Advising Manager

Brooke Harrington manages the UG Advising Office which services approximately 1100 business undergraduates. At the beginning of each semester, the Advising Office has a large volume of transfer students, many of whom are admitted just days (or even the day) before school starts. In order to alleviate the student traffic and stress in her office and on co-workers, Brooke Harrington voluntarily met with students on the weekends to ensure they were registered for classes in time for the first day. Additionally, she manually handled the waiting lists for all closed undergraduate business classes, which provided great support and assistance to faculty. Instead of dealing with students who wanted to crash their classes, faculty just sent them to the Advising Office to get on the waiting list. A large number of undergraduate business courses closed during the registration period in November. By the first day of the spring semester, approximately 132 undergraduate business courses were closed. Brooke manually had to check closed courses to see who has dropped the course and then add students on the waiting list to the class. Students can add or drop courses for the first 10 days of the semester. Brooke had to handle the waiting lists in the evenings because she met with students for registration issues during day and on weekends. -Jewel Leonard

Fall 2009

Angelica Gonzalez

Unfortunately the wonderful comments and nominations for Angelica are no longer on file. Thank you, Angelica, for going beyond the call!

Danielle Steiner, Executive Assistant, Ahlers Center for International Business

Unfortunately the wonderful comments and nominations for Danielle are no longer on file. Thank you, Danielle, for going beyond the call!

Spring 2009

Jan Kennedy, Executive Assistant for the SBA

Jan is always helpful, always resourceful and willing to go the extra distance to take care of you. In addition, when I have a new employee, he agreed to be a buddy/mentor which meant she really went above and beyond. She is a pleasure to deal with and definitely worthy of this award.-Liz Meuller

Jan Kennedy is always there for you. She accepts any request with a smile and sees it through tpo the best of her ability. She never says "it's not my job." She just gets it done.-Thomas Minnich

Jan is always there for whatever I need, acts immediately and patiently and morst importantly, she is very efficient. Jan made my transition easier than I could imagine. -Marko Svetina

Jan has always been approachable, professional, supportive, and does everything for everyone without complaint. She obviously cares about her work and goes out of her way for all of us. (She needs her own office!) She has constant interruptions, yet handles everything and everyone with style and grace. She is amazing and a keeper! -JoAnne Lavin

Fall 2009

JoAnne Lavin, Executive Assistant to the Accountancy Programs

Unfortunately the wonderful comments and nominations for JoAnn are no longer on file. Thank you, JoAnn, for going beyond the call!