CASL Staff Recognition Awardees

"We have quite a few new members of our team in CASL. Rachel has taken the lead to not only train the new (and current) staff on the class scheduling process and systems, but she has made herself available for office hours and answering questions even when her job keeps her very busy. 

Rachel, I appreciate all that you do and want to THANK YOU for your dedication and leadership.”

I would like to formally acknowledge Elisa for her outstanding performance and invaluable contributions to her department. Serving as the sole support staff, Elisa has consistently excelled in managing a multitude of tasks with remarkable proficiency.

Most notably, her proactive involvement in the meticulous preparation of two promotion and tenure casebooks, while simultaneously supporting two different administrators, stands as a testament to her dedication and professionalism. Elisa's unwavering commitment, adaptability, and exceptional work ethic have not gone unnoticed.

The Dean's office deeply appreciates her exemplary efforts and the significant impact she has made. 

Christine is an incredibly hard worker that always goes above and beyond in her role and in helping so many other people within CASL. Since coming on board, she has brought tenacity, kindness, and true care & concern into everything she does within CASL - and that's a lot; from managing our wonderful staff to serving on staff senate.

Not only is she diligent with her work and consistently communicative, she is always reliable. I know I can count on her to help out - whether it's getting an answer about something random, stepping up to chip in anywhere she can, or just simply being there to listen and help anyone. I feel lucky to be able to work alongside her in the dean's office and that she is part of our CASL team - she has become a trusted colleague who keeps confidences and someone who is so very valued in her role and as a person!

I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation for the exceptional work that Lori Petrick has been doing as an Administrative Specialist. Her dedication and professionalism have not gone unnoticed, and I am truly grateful for the positive impact she’s made on our team.

Lori has consistently gone above and beyond what is expected out of her since I started with CASL in January of this year. Lori is the administrative specialist for the Department of Language, Culture, and the Art, which is one of our largest departments in CASL. She has not only onboarded a new administrative assistant for LCA (the lovely Sharon Rose), but she has also been helping me onboard and train the new integrated administrative assistant that started in July (the newbie Neal). Lori recently has taken time to schedule and host a training for Neal, Sharon Rose, and me about how to set up casebooks in Interfolio. This is just one example of the time that she has taken out of her busy schedule to ensure that we are all trained appropriately.

Her organizational skills and attention to detail have been instrumental in ensuring that LCAs operations run smoothly. Whether it's managing schedules, coordinating meetings, or handling complex administrative tasks, she consistently goes above and beyond to ensure everything is executed flawlessly. Her proactive approach and problem-solving abilities are qualities that set her apart.

Thank you Lori for your hard work and commitment. It’s a pleasure to work with someone who demonstrates such a high level of competence and enthusiasm.

I am nominating Kiara for her outstanding support of the Department of Social Sciences this year. I have been consistently amazed by her ability to juggle multiple needs of two offices and deal with all challenges with patience and grace. I will be missing Kiara as she goes back full time to the Dean's office.

Liz is a true rock star, not just for what she does in the CASL Internship Office - but her dedication and hard work for so many other areas in CASL. She is always helpful, makes herself available, is attentive, and always offers a helping hand to everyone. In my time on-boarding in the dean's office (and pretty much all summer), Liz was tasked with doing social media and the website ambassador work and she went above and beyond to make sure everything was taken care of and that I felt comfortable and could ask questions regarding anything, as I was learning. She also does so much work outside of her own office, which makes her not only a rock star but one of the most reliable and valuable people on our team. Thanks Liz for always helping - and being willing to do so with a smile. Your energy and kindness is contagious and I think our college would be lost without you!

I am nominating Sue for her dedication and profound sense of commitment to our SSCI department. Sue consistently demonstrates exceptional work ethic, attention to detail, and willingness to go above and beyond to support the faculty despite significant challenges. Sue has been instrumental in allowing for my smooth transition to my role and I am sincerely grateful to her for that.

Although very assertive, Rachel is a motivator and educator in her own right.

Rachel gives 200% of herself to whatever is entrusted to her stewardship and will inconvenience herself for the greater good of whatever the cause, CASL, BSCI, students, and staff.

Rachel demonstrates superb leadership by truly "walking what she talk and talking what she walk."

It is an honor and a privilege to nominate Liz Clark for this recognition. Liz does a tremendous job supporting student internships for CASL. She provides a warm and welcoming presence to students and is a fantastic public face of the university to the community partners where we place interns.

I have worked with Liz for years, mostly when she was in the Humanities Internship office, where she placed so many of our WGST students. I spent numerous hours with her brainstorming the best opportunities for our students and checking in as those students moved through the internship process. I always recommended Liz without hesitation to every student in CASL that I met. "Even if you are not in the Humanities," I would say, "you should consider getting an internship through Liz's office."

Every student I spoke with afterwards thanked of for this recommendation. This is no surprise because Liz is great at what she does. She is brilliant at finding great opportunities for our students in cultural, non-profit, social service, and corporate settings. She also does a fantastic job of making students she was working with - many of them first generation and/or returning students - feel comfortable and confident in their positions. In addition she has been a great support to the skill building activities they were engaged in with their internship classes.

When I was director of WGST I was delighted to see that many of the internships that Liz found for my majors and minors led to positions after the students graduated. The work she did was crucial in helping them translate the skills they had in college to real-world career and social change work. She is one reason why so many of our WGST alums are so successful.

Liz is not one to bring attention to herself, but she is most deserving of recognition and that's why I am nominating her.

I want to highlight and acknowledge the outstanding work done by the Dean’s Office staff (Sue Gedert, Nada Bachir, Kiara Marshall, Brandon Wulf, and Angie Palek). The number of times that I have witnessed this group, or individual members of this group, stepping up to assist a student, faculty member, or a staff colleague are too many to count. They are the most conscientious, diligent, customer-focused, helpful group of individuals I have ever had the privilege of working alongside.

Their commitment to the college and to its collective success is second to none. They go above and beyond in everything that they do. I know that they will continue to provide the college and our new Dean with the best service imaginable.

Thank you all for your support and for all that you do for CASL! I will miss working with each and every one of you.

Kiara has been exceptionally helpful with our planning for a Faculty Senate retreat in late August. She has gone far beyond basic assistance to suggest additional ways to make our event more efficient, comfortable, & productive. She is a great asset to the office, and we appreciate her!

Kiara and Liz have enthusiastically agreed to take over the Drupal ambassador role for the college, which oversees the 400+ CASL webpages and the 25 Formstack forms, upon my retirement.

Both are currently spending time learning the programs and the "behind the scenes" set up of the forms and webpages. These new duties are in addition to the numerous responsibilities they already hold ... Kiara in the Dean's Office and Social Sciences Dept. and Liz in the Internship Center.

As they both have good knowledge of the college structure and personnel, I have the utmost confidence in them both to do a terrific job!