An individual and team have been selected as the recipients of the second annual President’s Staff Innovation Award.
Randi Johnson and Emalee Maus of the University Housing MCard Office are the recipients of the team award for creative use of existing resources and student advocacy to create a welcoming environment for new students.
Their innovation resulted in process efficiencies that now allow students to receive their MCard, a symbol of membership in the U-M community and a gateway to services through the university, when they arrive on campus for new student orientation.
June Sullivan, administrative manager of the Michigan Surgical Home and Optimization Program, will receive the individual award for innovations that help empower patients to reduce risk and improve outcomes following major surgery.
She led the design and implementation of the program, which leverages technology to help improve the health of patients before surgery and provides tools to help them back to everyday life as soon as possible following surgery.
Their innovations will be honored June 2 when President Mary Sue Coleman presents the awards at the Voices of the Staff annual meeting. Sullivan will receive a $2,000 award. Johnson and Maus will share a $3,000 prize.
The President’s Staff Innovation Award was created in 2013 to honor staff members who find creative solutions to improve efficiency, productivity, cost savings, health or culture at the university. Two awards are presented annually and both teams and individuals may be nominated.
“I am awed by the creative work that is being done each and every day by the staff at this great university,” Coleman said. “It is a source of tremendous pride and pleasure to me to be able to recognize the innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, collaborative partnerships, and creativity demonstrated in the nominations that were submitted for this year’s award.”
Nominations were reviewed by the Voices of the Staff Program Management Team to select the individual and team finalists. The winning individual and team were selected by Coleman and notified of their winning innovations in a letter from her.
Coleman also will recognize six finalists for the individual and team awards at the award ceremony. They are:
Individual Award finalists
• Pat Brainard, unit administrator, Civil and Environmental Engineering.
• Joanna Kroll, director of career development, School of Information.
• Tim Kennedy, automation services manager, Building Automation Systems.
Team finalists
• NCRC Facilities and Operations CoGen Team.
• UMHS Department of Radiology Cross-Sectional Interventional Radiology Team.
• College of Engineering Division of Integrative Systems + Design Content Management System project team.
