Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Viola Florez has announced the 2008 Outstanding Staff and Workgroup Award winners. They are: Outstanding Work Group – Counseling and Therapy Services (CATS) and Outstanding Staff – Geoffrey Courtin, Josie Gibson and Susan Minter. They were honored recently at a reception at the UNM Student Union Building.
Photo: Outstanding Staff Work Group – Counseling and Therapy Services (CATS)
“It’s very important to honor and praise those individuals behind the scenes for their hard work,” said Florez. “To be recognized by their own peers and colleagues is quite an honor.”
Outstanding Work Group Award
Counseling and Therapy Services (CATS)
The CATS workgroup serves students’ mental health needs. They assist UNM students with psychological and psychiatric support services to help them function successfully in their academic lives and are a critical function of the campus. CATS is integral to the needs of students who might otherwise dropout of school due to depression, anxiety or other psychosocial problems. The most important services are emergency care for life-threatening situations, and same-day interventions for significant life crises.
Outstanding Staff Awards
Photo: Josie Gibson, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Viola Florez and Susan Minter. Not pictured: Geoffrey Courtin.
Geoffrey Courtin, research engineer, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering
Courtin does many things for many people. He essentially keeps the research and teaching labs up and running. He oversees the state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope, four undergraduate laboratory courses as well as safety, chemicals, equipment and inventory.
Additionally, Courtin is concerned for the success of the students in the department. Even though he is not a faculty member, he is responsible for four core classes. He donates his time to a diverse group of students who participate in national engineering design competitions. Courtin also takes pride in outreach and minority recruiting and is known as the “go-to-guy” for departmental outreach.
Josie Gibson, coordinator, Program Advisement, Civil Engineering
Gibson has turned around the Program Advisement within the civil engineering department since joining the department in December 2002. She developed and organized a filing system, and created databases and spreadsheets to track enrollment, ethnicity, gender and programs.
Working with the department chair, scholarship director and Engineering Student Services, Gibson also helped to reorganize departmental scholarships creating guidelines and procedures for awarding scholarships to the most deserving students.
Susan Minter, manager, Applications Programming, ITS
Minter was instrumental in the implementation of HRS and the recent Banner HR/Payroll at UNM. A leader by example, Minter worked many hours above and beyond the call of duty during the implementations of those two campus-wide projects. An intelligent, diligent and self-sacrificing employee, Minter was praised by many for her dedication, work ethic, and analytical skills.
“I can honestly say that there were times in both the HRS and HR/Payroll projects when the entire project might have failed had it not been for Susan,” said David McGuire, associate director, ITS Computing Services. “Her intelligence, perseverance, enthusiasm, skill and dedication kept both projects going during some very dark hours.”
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; email: scarr@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at May 15, 2008 04:00 PM