Achievements

Details

Jim Bennett, Program Coordinator II, W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience

If there is one person who knows the names of everyone in the W. M. Keck Center, it is Jim Bennett, and everyone knows Jim as he is the ‘go-to’ guy whenever help is needed.

Printer out of ink, see Jim. Can’t get your email to work, call Jim. Swipe card, not functional, Jim knows what to do. Coming to an Open House program, Jim will have coffee and cookies ready for your arrival. Stranger in the Center … you will get a warm welcome and kind assistance from Jim. If anyone truly exemplifies dedication and excellence in their work and in their relationships, it is our W. M. Keck Center Program Coordinator Mr. Jim Bennett.

Jim has worked in the Keck Center for almost ten years. Each year, as he has grown in understanding about the work and activities of the Center, he has become increasingly valuable. When he sees something that needs to be done or someone who needs assistance, he does not wait to be asked, but is right there to help. Every day he makes a difference.

Here are just a few examples:

The Keck Center offers tours to a wide variety of people and groups – people who are injured and their families, prospective Rutgers students, international guests, high school groups, FIGS classes, transfer students, etc. Jim works closely in training our undergraduates to give tours including how to be ‘bilingual’, that is, to be able to talk science to both scientists and lay people. And when a request for a tour comes up unexpectedly, Jim always is willing to step in and give a tour himself.

In October 2018, the Keck Center hosted the International Association of Neurorestorology (IANR), the first time this organization has met in the United States. In addition to his on-going responsibilities, Jim served as registrar and key trouble-shooter. His helpful attitude and welcoming spirit calmed attendees, many of who were in the United States for the first time. At the end of the conference, several of the speakers took time to thank Jim for his help. After the conference he continued to play an essential part in keeping accurate records, paying bills, and other follow-up.

Jim is well-known and deeply respected in the community of people who are spinal cord injured and their families. He is the primary moderator for our CareCure website, the most active spinal cord injury website in the world. In this role, he takes all questions seriously and responds with respect. If he doesn’t know the answer, he has the knowledge and care to direct people to the correct resource; sometimes to make it easier, he initiates the contact for them.

Because of who he is and what he does for the Center, Jim Bennett was given the seldom granted Spirit of the Center award for his exemplary service to the entire center. For the same reasons of service well beyond just ‘doing his job’, Jim is very worthy of receiving a SAS Staff Excellence Award. 

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Mercedes Diaz, Senior Administrative Assistant, Department of Philosophy

Mercedes Diaz epitomizes high standards of service excellence and success in her work as the Graduate Administrator for the Philosophy Department and senior administrative assistant supporting the Department Chair, Graduate Director, Graduate Admissions and Placement Directors, and the Business Manager with countless tasks, projects, and initiatives.

In 2018, Mercedes exceeded her performance and service during a time of transition for the department. As the department administrator was retiring and a new undergraduate assistant being hired, and a new Director of Undergraduate Studies assumed office, Mercedes was the one true constant for academic year 2017-2018. Her strong work ethic helped the Department through a turbulent time of retirement, reorganizing, and recruitment. Mercedes went above and beyond in 2018 to support faculty, students, and the educational community of customers, as their comments show: "Her interactions are always positive, pleasant, and cheerful," “Mercedes’s dedication to serving the needs of the undergraduate and graduate students is exemplary.”

During the spring semester, the department also held over ten major events, conferences, and lectures where Mercedes took initiative and extreme dedication to see each of them through successfully with oversight of logistics and administrative management. She exemplified grace under pressure for creating and maintaining a positive atmosphere for all, taking initiative to support others, providing advice and guidance, and encouraging others – what a great team player!

She continued to provide formal and information advice to legions of undergraduates in her role as Advisor to Sigma Tau and the Honors Club; as well as former graduate students as they were moving on in their professional lives. Mercedes has also served as the longtime assistant for the Rutgers Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy. The Summer Institute is a seven-day residential program designed to encourage undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in academic philosophy, give students a better idea of what graduate studies in philosophy is about, introduce students to the various areas of specialization in the discipline, and explore various perspectives on what it means to be a professional philosopher. She has displayed remarkable leadership qualities and excellent communication and organizational skills. In this capacity, she goes beyond the call of duty. All who have been involved with this award-winning program have called special attention to her contributions.

Mercedes leaves an optimistic lasting impression with everyone she encounters; she embodies staff excellence in service, initiative, and outstanding performance, particularly noticeable and appreciated during the entire year where it was essential. Mercedes is a longstanding employee who demonstrates a powerful commitment to the department, SAS, and the university in everything she does.

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Jennifer Flaherty, Senior Department Administrator Supervisor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Department of Linguistics, Department of Italian, and The Language Center

 Elizabeth Folk, Senior Department Administrator Supervisor, Department of French, Department of Classics, Department of German, Russian, and East European Languages and Literatures, Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures, Comparative Literature Program, and Cinema Studies Program

Elizabeth is an outstanding employee consistently demonstrating excellent service to all six departments that she is assigned to. Her ability to juggle multiple departments and more specifically work with multiple department chairs, a diverse staff, and a wide range of students is inspiring.

Elizabeth impresses with her enthusiasm, knowledge and work ethic when working on the budgets and budget forecasting for her six departments. Her detailed accounting, reconciliation and ability to analyze the finances and future expected revenue and expenses for each unit helps guide the Area Dean in turn to help and advise the chairs to think strategically about their funds. Throughout this past year, Elizabeth has taken the initiative to develop and facilitate new policies and procedures to ensure the smooth operation of not only her departments and programs, but the departments, centers and programs housed in the new academic building. Some examples of this include working with University personnel and SAS IT on the signage and digital media displays that guide all faculty, staff, students, and visitors to classroom locations and special events. Elizabeth developed and set up rules and policies for the digital media displays in the Academic Building. She initiated and facilitated meetings with University Facilities to correct signage in the building that was causing confusion for students (not knowing how to get to classrooms and offices for specific departments) and for delivery of mail and packages (UPS and FedEx were being dropped off in the wrong wing of the building).

Elizabeth has shown herself to be a terrific team player and has taken a leadership role in representing all occupants (faculty and staff) on a variety of issues that have arisen in the new academic building. Elizabeth has also been effectively managing other efforts involving all the departments. The first one includes creating an event calendar for all the language department offerings. In meeting with all of the language departments for the academic planning meetings, it was realized that there are many events happening that may be of interest to all of the language community at large. Elizabeth has been working with SAS IT on creating an electronic calendar of events where all language department administrators can enter their information to form a cohesive “one stop shop” for the major events that would be of interest to a broader audience (as opposed to being advertised to just those affiliated with the originating department). She has also effectively coordinated shared expenses for a combination of the 12 departments and programs residing in the Academic building.

In summary, Elizabeth’s dedication to her departments as well as to SAS is exemplary. she has successfully built good relationships with her chairs, staff, and students to ensure successful outcomes for issues brought before her. Elizabeth Folk richly deserves the SAS award for Staff Excellence.

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Lisa Iorillo, Senior Department Administrator Supervisor, Department of Sociology

  Sarah Laboy-Almodovar, Department Administrator Supervisor, Criminal Justice Program

Sarah Laboy-Almodovar has been at Rutgers since she began her studies here as an undergraduate over three and a half decades ago. What sets Sarah apart is her indefatigable appetite to make everything around her better for the students, faculty and staff at Rutgers. Sarah has been the Academic Advisor and Program Administrator for the Program in Criminal Justice for the past 19 years. In this capacity, she oversees the undergraduate careers of our 850 majors, coordinates schedules for the twenty-five or so full and part-time faculty who teach our courses on three separate campuses, and tends to the myriad administrative tasks of running a program.

Sarah shepherds our students through with a minimum of fuss and what can only be described as a herculean effort. Each year we graduate approximately two hundred and forty students and a few years back Sarah proposed that we mandate that all students with 90 or more credits meet with her in the Fall semester of their senior year to have a “graduation wellness check.” Sarah visits classes that have seniors, sends out emails and schedules meetings with every senior in the program. On those hectic days she arrives early, and stays late, and forensically goes through each student’s transcript to ensure that everything is in place for them to graduate. For some students the meeting is short, but others are with Sarah for a considerable period of time. Uniformly the students are very positive about the meeting All the things Sarah does, as part of her job or just because she loves Rutgers and its students, set a gold standard for administrators and advisors.

Sarah is a terrific mentor to other staff. She innovated several new initiatives, such as the student groups Criminal Justice Organization and Criminal Justice Honor Society, a peer advising program for all Intro to Criminal Justice students. Program Directors can come and go, but Sarah is the rock upon which the Program stands and will provide the continuity necessary for such a thriving unit.

A final way in which Sarah demonstrates her mastery of her craft is the way in which she takes care of the many faculty that serve the Program. Sarah coordinates the schedule for each faculty person, and ensures that they have what they need in terms of amenities, technology, and assistance to teach to the best of their abilities. There is no question that Sarah cannot answer and no request that she doesn’t try her best to grant.

In closing, Sarah Laboy-Almodovar embodies the very best of Rutgers. She is super at her job, and is absolutely dedicated to the students, faculty and staff of the Program in Criminal Justice. Each year at the senior celebration, Sarah is the last speaker of the evening for our graduates as it is only fitting that the person who has done so much for the students be the one to give the final benediction. Just as the student’s recognize her contribution to their educational experience, it is fitting that SAS recognize Sarah for her excellent service to the program, school, and university.


David Maiullo has served the Department of Physics and Astronomy for over 33 years as Physics Support Specialist in charge of the Physics Lecture Hall (PLH), developing, maintaining, and often inventing the numerous demonstrations that are used to complement the lectures and presentations given in the PLH. In that capacity, David continuously performs at the highest level of excellence and professionalism. He provides high-quality supervision and training for a large-number of Rutgers undergraduates in setting up and maintaining the numerous lecture demonstrations used in physics lecture courses. Not only are these students receiving important hands-on training in the principles and phenomena of physics, but they are also preparing for their future careers. For example, a long-time student worker with a 2016 Bachelor’s in Physics was hired by Arizona State University as their physics demonstration coordinator, showing the value of working in Dave’s special environment, and increasing the visibility and national appreciation of the Rutgers Physics program.

As demonstration specialist, David supports courses which are constantly incorporating more demonstrations as faculty revise their curriculum, and increase the frequency, variety, and use of the demos in their classes. In addition, David collaborates with our Machine and Electronics Shops, creating many more beautiful and well thought out demonstrations that become part of our collection. Some of these are now the ideal model of a successful demonstration copied by other Physics Departments around the country.

David is also an excellent ambassador for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, SAS, and the University as a whole. For the past 20 years, Professor Mark Croft and David have presented the Faraday Holiday Lecture in December, typically attracting over 1400 attendees. On his own initiative, David typically performs over 40 public physics demonstration shows for K12 schools, libraries, 4-H groups, and senior centers. The Faraday Show is now one of the signature events on Rutgers Day.

David has also supported numerous events held here at the University for the New Jersey Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers, providing equipment, demonstrations, and student support, and teaching many NJ high school teachers how to build and perform various physics demonstrations and was in charge of the large two hour physics demonstration held in front of over 500 attendees at the 2016 Summer AAPT meeting.

Another remarkable achievement of David’s is the Off-Broadway version of his immensely successful traveling physics demonstration, called “That Physics Show,” which has been bringing physics to life in a Time Square theater for more than three years. This past summer David was awarded the 2016 NYC Drama Desk award for “Most Unique Theatrical Production” in NYC. Over 300 performances of That Physics Show have exposed 33,000 attendees to physics. Extended indefinitely the show will continue to expose physics, physics demonstrations, and the Rutgers University Physics Department to an amazing number of people over time.

To conclude, David Maiullo is an exceptional asset to the Department of Physics and Astronomy and personifies the pride and excellence that represents the best that Rutgers has to offer, and tirelessly shares those qualities across the campus, throughout the region, and across the country. He richly deserves the recognition of this Staff Award.

Christina Overmyer, Supervisor Laboratory Instructional Support, DLS Office of Undergraduate Instruction

Christina Overmyer oversees the Laboratory Instruction for The Division of Life Sciences’ Office of Undergraduate Instruction’s Introductory Biology Program (IBP). The IBP includes seven biology courses serving upwards of 3000 students per semester. As the IBP’s Supervisor of Laboratory Instructional Support, Christina’s primary area of responsibility is supervision and support for Biological Research Laboratory (BRL 117) laboratories; however as IBP resources, facilities, and procedures are shared and aligned through our courses, she also supports the Director of Introductory Biology Program, the Course Director of BRL 117, the three faculty lecturers for General Biology, the more than 50 graduate student teaching assistants in the program, the two Laboratory Operations Coordinators for BRL 117 and of course the thousands of students enrolled in our courses. She is an integral and essential part of our team. She has been instrumental in creating a positive, safe and productive work environment for faculty, staff, and undergraduate students. In addition to her excellent execution of standard duties, here is a select list from the many additional contributions in the past year. 

Contributions in support of the Introductory Biology Program in general: Christina voluntarily took the lead in managing IBP procurement and budget issues and implemented a major upgrade of the personal response system software used in IBP courses for active learning activities and assessments, improving the experience the faculty, staff, teaching assistants, and 2700+ students enrolled in our courses.

Contributions specifically in support of BRL Teaching activities: She optimized the protocol for administering the BRL 117 midterm practical exam for the Summer 2017 and Fall 2017 semesters, oversaw the response to a major academic integrity problem in the spring 2018 semester, researched and implemented the use of a new plant DNA extraction kit that halved the cost of the materials and which allowed for use of greater diversity of plant species provided greater quality results, and managed student designed research projects so that the students did not need to redesign or abandon the project that they wanted to pursue.

Contributions in support of graduate student teaching assistants and IBP Staff: She developed a new tool to improve TA class management by creating hyperlink sequencing files to link student data and assignments.

Contributions supporting IBP engagement in the University community: Although not elements of her job responsibilities, in the past year, she has represented the program at Rutgers RWJMS’ INSPIRE and Digital Classroom Support’s Active Learning Symposia, the Raritan River Consortium Award Conference and participated as a judge for the Waksman Student Scholars Program.

We are tremendously fortunate to have Christina Overmyer’s as part of our program. She is clearly committed to the students, faculty, and staff colleagues, and the larger mission of the University. She is an outstanding representative for both our program and the University.

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Sara Pixley, Director Supervisor, Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science

 Anuja Rivera, Administrative Assistant, Department of History

Anuja Rivera has been the History Undergraduate Administrator for two years, and in this short period of time she has emerged as an exceptionally knowledgeable, collaborative, and well-respected member of the History Department and the SAS administrative community. She excels in every aspect of her role and so often goes far beyond the parameters of her job description to make extraordinary contributions to the History Department, the School of Arts and Sciences, and Rutgers University.

In addition to scheduling, registration, and undergraduate record maintenance, Anuja is the official advisor for the History undergraduate program, which now has nearly four hundred majors, all of whom receive a warm welcome and expert advice from Anuja. She reviews transcripts and progress to degree, explains the major and minor requirements, and even provides practical suggestions on how to navigate Rutgers bureaucracy or adjust to college life.

Anuja is an invaluable resource for our faculty as well. She manages a complex scheduling process for nearly sixty faculty members each year to coordinate their teaching schedules. A recognized authority on all matters pertaining to the undergraduate program, Anuja fields myriad questions from faculty and part-time lecturers on everything from how to use the copy machine to how to help a student in crisis. Anuja also demonstrates remarkable initiative in contributing to major projects at the university level. A quick thinker, Anuja is especially adept at looking several steps ahead in a new system or process to understand its implications for established protocols. As the rollout of the new Infosilem scheduling system began, Anuja emerged as a key participant in a series of trainings held by the Scheduling Office, asking incisive questions and sharing her expertise whereupon she was invited to join an ongoing Infosilem focus group of high-ranking administrators and faculty.

At the departmental level, Anuja has increased History’s visibility and outreach to undergraduates by transforming our social media presence. Anuja maintains departmental Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, and she launched a creative initiative this fall in which undergraduate History majors were invited to take over the Instagram account for a day and post photographs related to their scholarly activities.

Anuja is at the center of History’s positive morale and collaborative work environment as well as our productive and collegial relationships beyond the department. Anuja’s expertise in CSS, ROCS, DN, and other Rutgers systems has made her an important resource for other departments in SAS. Anuja has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to strengthening community within the History undergraduate program. Determined to attract a bigger crowd at this fall’s Major/Minor Fair, Anuja revised our department’s approach to that event, creatively using social media and History-themed t-shirts to draw a far greater number of students to our table than in the previous year. Anuja also plays a major role in our department’s relatively new Public History Program, working closely with program coordinator Dr. Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan and the many students pursuing the Public History Certificate.

Anuja Rivera is the epitome of excellence as the History Undergraduate Administrator. She is the anchor of the undergraduate program and it quite simply could not function without her.