Staff Excellence Awards

Nominated by Eve Buckley, Owen White, Douglas Tobias and Bonnie Lewis

• Transformed undergraduate program administration by streamlining complex processes like transfer credit evaluations, curriculum changes, faculty course requests, and semester scheduling reducing errors and saving faculty time.
• Advanced student success and engagement by creating a continually updated freshman orientation handbook, launching welcoming community events, designing enrollment and career‑focused promotional materials, and collaborating with the CAS Student Success Center to expand internship pathways.
• Built innovative recruitment and advising resources by developing and maintaining a centralized website, the History Hen Hub, that curates research, internship, and fellowship opportunities—improving student follow‑through and serving as a compelling recruitment tool for admitted students and families.
• Strengthened and scaled the Museum Studies & Public Engagement minor by creating tracking systems, clear advising documents, recommended course sequences, and university‑wide promotional materials, ensuring undergraduate needs are consistently met despite program growth.
• Exemplified UD core values through leadership and innovation, earning widespread praise for her responsiveness, entrepreneurial problem‑solving, compassion, and advocacy, leveraging deep institutional knowledge and campus connections to enhance departmental effectiveness and the undergraduate experience.

Nominated by Carolyn Quinci and Amanda Steele-Middleton

The team succesfully:

• Delivered a unified, campus‑wide academic planning platform: Led the successful implementation of Stellic, replacing multiple fragmented and inconsistent systems with a single, intuitive solution that integrates degree audits, academic planning, and advising for the entire UD community.
• Managed a complex, multi‑year implementation with excellence: Oversaw system configuration, data integration, degree audit coding including building graduate audits from the ground up, testing, training, and troubleshooting while coordinating closely with campus partners and supporting both legacy and new systems during transition.
• Dramatically improved advising and student experience: Simplified academic planning for students and provided advisors with a comprehensive tool to monitor progress, identify concerns proactively, and engage more effectively, with future analytics poised to further support departmental planning and resource management.
• Exemplified collaboration, dedication, and service: Completed this large‑scale, ongoing project alongside full daily responsibilities, demonstrating exceptional professionalism, sustained teamwork across units, and a deep, lasting commitment to student success and institutional efficiency.

The work of the Stellic Implementation team is not yet done and will continue to be essential as the platform is adopted campus-wide. User training,troubleshooting, platform maintenance and ongoing collaboration with stakeholders across the university will be ongoing.

Nominated by Ellie Walt, Jennifer Horney and Lauren Camphausen.

• Strengthened statewide public health partnerships: As Program Manager for the UD Partnership for Healthy Communities, Kate built and sustained meaningful collaborations among UD, state agencies, healthcare providers, nonprofits, and other universities to advance public health outcomes across Delaware.
• Led high‑impact convenings and initiatives: Successfully planned and delivered major events including Empower and Engage: The Public Health Exchange and played a key role in coordinating Delaware’s State Health Improvement Plan through town halls, community conversations, and targeted outreach.
• Championed equity, inclusion, and LGBTQIA+ advocacy: Organized annual Legal & Healthcare Readiness Days in Newark and Georgetown, connected community members with vital resources, and co‑led UD’s Pride Caucus to foster a safer, more inclusive and supportive workplace for LGBTQIA+ employees.
• Advanced student success and workforce readiness: Supported students in UD’s public health programs by building internship pipelines with community partners, enhancing experiential learning, professional networking, and employment pathways while modeling collaboration, optimism, and shared purpose.

Nominated by Tiffany Heiger for the team's efforts to support:

Nominated by Neri de Kramer who has named Jissell as a:

Nominated by Moria Curtis, Meghan Biery and Kelly Meacham who have named Adrian as a:

• Campus-Wide Influencer & Policy Innovator: Widely respected across UD for advancing student-centered policies, advocating for unrestricted majors, improving advising through campus-wide surveys and systems pilots, strengthening UST’s institutional role, and establishing a clear advisor career ladder that serves as a model for the University.
• Transformational People-Centered Leader: Demonstrates inclusive, fair, and transparent leadership by mentoring staff individually, aligning responsibilities with strengths, fostering high morale, and creating a trusted environment where staff feel supported, heard, and empowered to grow.
• Champion of Professional Development: Leads purposeful weekly team meetings focused on collaboration, policy understanding, and campus engagement, while actively encouraging and supporting staff participation in ongoing professional development, advanced degrees, NACADA involvement, and leadership roles.
• Student Advocate with Measurable Impact: Consistently advocates for student access and success across colleges and administrative units—especially during high‑impact periods like registration—resulting in 94% of students reporting their advisor listens to and respects them as an individual.