Fall 2002 Convocation Award Winners

I’m pleased now to present the 12th Annual Staff Recognition Awards. We need to celebrate our achievers and our achievements. Would past winners please stand? Thank you!

Three years ago, we made changes in faculty and staff awards. For staff, we increased the prizes from four to 14 -- with stipends rising from $200 to a range of $500 to $1000, each supplied by the foundation. The university staff awards committee chooses all winners.

First, I'll name those who will be given a plaque and $500 as the distinguished service award winners from each division. When I call your name, please stand. Also, please join me and the university-wide winners at the podium for pictures after the convocation.

This year there are nine awards to be given to divisional winners:

From Academic Affairs:

• Mary Schmidt, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• James Sheu, College of Natural Sciences

From Administration and Finance:

• Dieter Braune, building maintenance
• Barbara Brauner, Custodial Services


• Candy Pisarcek, Customer Services

From Information Research & Technology:

• Ron Rodriguez, Administrative Computer Services

From Student Affairs

Kathy Marcelino, Housing & Residential Life
• Cynthia Olivo, Admissions

From University Advancement:

• Mary Moya, Advancement Services

Congratulations to each awardee and others who were nominated.

Now for the four university-wide staff awards -- two named "The President's Outstanding Employee Award" and the other two "The President's Special Achievement Award." Each winner will receive a plaque, $1000, and complimentary theater and athletic tickets.

The two outstanding employee winners will also have designated parking spaces. (We’re not saying where.)

First, the outstanding employee award winners, who, according to the criteria, "Demonstrate expertise in their jobs and exceptional willingness to assist others.” I'll call the winners’ names. As each walks to the platform, I'll read some brief comments.

The first is Jenna Aguirre, administrative analyst in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Jenna routinely exceeds expectations, demonstrating superb organizational, financial and service skills. She resolves difficult issues before they become problems. Beyond creating reports that make it easier to see the college budget status at any time, she’s adapted PeopleSoft training materials to user-friendly processes, supplying frequent updates.

Jenna demonstrates consistently strong leadership skills. She’s a wonderful role model for staff and a critical go to person for the college. She continues to provide exceptional service despite the fact that over the past year she’s been a key figure in a new building project. (Is there a new building project in Social and Behavioral Sciences?) And she handles a vast array of critical responsibilities. Congratulations Jenna.

The second winner is Antonio Vilches, shipping and receiving assistant in the Pfau Library.

Tony is recovering from heart surgery. He’ll be back in November, but I want to read this nonetheless. In fact, Tony is one of the first people I recall meeting when I came to the university. It was at a staff picnic.

Tony’s expertise, demeanor and loyalty serve as his foundation. Working with others is a hallmark of Tony’s performance. He’s networked well on campus and utilizes these contacts to facilitate his work and foster library operations. His service attitude is a true asset to the library. He’s assisted in many library construction projects serving as lead support staff by interacting with project managers and dealing patiently with handling the logistics of construction.

He is consistently willing to do what is needed and to adjust readily to interruptions generated by numerous projects and service needs. Congratulations Tony!

Now for the special achievement awards, which, according to the criteria, “Acknowledge a significant and specific contribution – beyond the regular expectations of a position.”

The winners for this year are:

First, Dena Lopez, assistant budget analyst in the Bursar’s Office.

The frustration level of many users of the financial and HR systems was extremely high. (This is a real surprise to me. Is this true?) Dena responded to users needs by developing an automated report for controlling and updating division baseline budgets, developing budget queries for administrative analysts so they could review expense data, conducting twice a month training courses, and producing a monthly report to enable vice presidents to track salary savings.

During these largely voluntary projects, Dena’s professionalism remained top notch. She’s the type of employee who makes a good team great! Congratulation Dena!

The second winner is Beverly Gentry, administrative analyst and specialist in Facilities Services.

Although her primary responsibility is to oversee the facilities front office, Beverly has a passion for igniting the interests of others in improving customer service.

As lead Quality Improvement Facilitator at CSUSB, Beverly has made significant contributions to the quality improvement effort, playing a specific and pivotal role in establishing Administration and Finance’s balanced scorecard. She has team taught, consulted on and advocated for quality enhancement strategies, for satisfaction assessment, for process measurement and outcomes assessments and performance measurements in various divisions across campus.

Last fall Beverly was named the California State University System’s Quality Improvement Facilitator of the Year. And that’s quite an achievement as well.

This year, in addition to individual prizes, we wish to formalize recognition of outstanding contributions by teams that work across divisional lines with shared goals. Each team member will receive a plaque and $100.

Two employee teams will be recognized for their efforts.

The first winning team is the Information Center Team, composed of Jennifer Bauer, Janet Brooks, Grace Fry, Bea Gandy, Elroy Jones and Janette Salcedo. Come on up.

This team developed a one-stop shopping concept into a customer-friendly center. Students can receive help with registration, applications, information advising and class schedules.

Since the center serves many diverse populations, team members must provide exceptional service to students with disabilities for adult re-entry students, international students as well as parents, faculty members, and members of the greater campus community.

Because students are able to speak to staff without a barrier, a more welcoming environment is provided to those who have never been on campus before. The team has also developed processes enabling many records to be generated for same day delivery. Congratulations!

The second set of winners is the “STARRS” Team, Students Tracking Archive Retrieval Redirect System. Team members include Kevin Beecher, Roxana Bravo, Mary Chouinard, Victoria Coffey, Khalil Daneshvar, Grace Dempsey, Jim Fish, Mary Lou Garcia, Cheryl Quiroz and Vanessa Wang-Rekem. Come on up. Congratulations!

This cross-divisional team was responsible for implementing an optical recognition system that scans admissions applications and transcripts from other universities. As a result of “STARRS,” the processing time for an application decreased from an average of four weeks to one week. That’s really great isn’t it? Accuracy of data input has been greatly improved.

Additionally the transcript processing component facilitated the production of a student PAWS report in time for the first quarter of registration, thus providing improved opportunities for advisement. Congratulations!

Thanks to each of the award winners for your contributions -- from division and team winners to those who received outstanding employee and special achievement awards.