Awards Presented at Employee Luncheon

The 2012 NMU Faculty and Staff Recognition Luncheon took place Tuesday, April 17. It honored faculty, staff and retirees for their years of service to NMU. Excellence-in-Service and Distinguished Team Awards were also presented.

Recipients of the Excellence-in-Service Award (pictured left to right with NMU President Les Wong) and a brief description of why they were nominated follow: Linda Riipi (Clinical Sciences) was influential in the continued accreditation of four clinical programs, the addition of two new programs in the department, the addition of a bachelor of science option for students with extended associate degrees in health sciences and continued affiliations with numerous healthcare partners throughout the Midwest; Anita Oakland (Dining Services) is an important contributor to Dining Services and is a dedicated, dependable employee who stays on task and is focused, knowledgeable and always positive; Greg Carrier (Public Safety) holds numerous certifications above state standards to be a law enforcement officer in Michigan, teaches Rape Aggression Defense, is an instructor at the NMU Regional Police Academy and has helped the Marquette City Police solve several crimes; Jon Barch (Center for Student Enrichment) promotes and raises awareness of the Student Leadership Fellowship Program on and beyond campus and served on a committee charged with developing safe international service trips; Christi Etelamaki (for her former position with Health, Physical Education and Recreation) is student-friendly, knowledgeable and courteous and made regular changes to the department’s web page; Andrew Beaulieu (Learning Resources Division) helped with many of the Instructional Design Technology initiatives, implemented his designs for the active learning classroom in LRC 108 and created the interfaces for student and instructor stations; and June Nelson (Human Resources) upgraded the UltraTime timekeeping system and launched the Electronic Personnel Action Forms (EPAF) for student employees. Not pictured is Jim Thams (Engineering andPlanning), who coordinatedthe facility reconstruction work for WNMU’s digital upgrade project, is the project manager for NMU’s new academic building and reused NMU’s outdated light towers at the WiMAX tower in Harvey, saving NMU several thousand dollars.

A Distinguished Team Award was given to the Development Education Advisory Committee, which includes (from left) Carol Anderson (English), Ken Culp (Mathematics and Computer Science), Paul Duby (Institutional Research), Carol Bell (Mathematics and Computer Science) and Laura Soldner (English). Not pictured are team members James Gadzinski (ACAC), Gwendolyn Hetler and Rosanne Parks (Mathematics and Computer Science). This committee worked to identify and recommend practices and procedures to increase the long-term performance and retention of new freshman being admitted on restricted status.

The second Distinguished Team Award went to the committee for the anthology, “Voice on the Water: Great Lakes Native American Now.” Members included (from left), Grace Chaillier (Native American Studies), Cindy Paavola (Communications and Marketing), Jaspal Singh (English), Amy Hamilton (English), Michael Letts (Art and Design), April Lindala (Native American Studies), Shirley Brozzo (Multicultural Education and Resource Center), Rebecca Tavernini (Communications and Marketing) and community member Echoe Deibert. They produced an anthology of the Native American experience in Michigan, including various writing formats and artistic elements. Excerpts are on the Native American website and 1,400 copies were distributed to Michigan public entities.