Nominee's Name: Esther Feng
Nominee's Unit: Human Resources
Criteria: Team Player
Customer Service Example:
I enthusiastically nominate Esther for a Staff Salute. August and September are months when the Student Hiring Teams workload is tremendous due to the start of the Fall semester. The team was down staff at a such a critical time and Esther willingly stepped in to assist. Esther used to be a part of the Student Hiring Team so she was able to hit the ground running with helping out the team while also maintaining her own high volume workload. Thank you so much Esther for not only being a team player but going above and beyond!
Nominee's Name: Miriam Kader
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
Miriam graciously volunteered to help train two RAs who had an urgent need to execute a business contract, neither of whom had ever done one before. She very quickly organized a crash course for two grateful RAs. Thank you Miriam!
Nominee's Name: Alberto Marcelo
Nominee's Unit: Human Resources
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
I am pleased to nominate Alberto in recognition of his above and beyond efforts assisting CDSS HR with urgent last minute hiring for three new lecturers prior to the start of the semester, and to ensure they were onboarded before classes began. These efforts ensured a smooth start to the semester for hundreds of students. In addition to this immense help, he has also recently lent his time in helping us figure out the best way to implement complicated multi-layered faculty appointments into UCPath. His knowledge of campus HR systems and willingness to troubleshoot issues and provide guidance has been invaluable to us, and we are delighted to nominate him for this staff salute.
Nominee's Name: Saleem Hasan
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Team Player
Customer Service Example:
I am pleased to nominate Saleem as an outstanding team player in recognition of his exceptional contributions and unwavering support to our team. This month, he truly went above and beyond, not only assisting me, his supervisor, with a proposal submission but also helping his colleagues by effectively managing numerous proposal-related questions from the lead institute and guiding the PI accordingly. His keen ability to troubleshoot issues and provide guidance has been invaluable. Saleem’s willingness to lend a helping hand immediately after returning to work from illness has fostered a collaborative environment, enhancing our team's productivity and cohesion. Therefore, I nominate him for this well-deserved recognition.
Nominee's Name: Chelsea Miller
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
Recently, there has been an increased focus on timely research report submission, which has resulted in more follow-up emails from our sponsors for late reports. While progress and final research report submission is a PI responsibility, Chelsea has gone above and beyond in following up with her PIs when we are contacted about late research reports. She guides her PIs until the reports are submitted. She also maintains an open line of communication with SPO, so we know when late reports will be submitted. I appreciate the work that Chelsea does each and every day. I’m glad to have her as a colleague in research administration!
Nominee's Name: Mark Bell
Nominee's Unit: Reimbursement Services
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
I nominate Mark Bell for his outstanding achievement in designing an innovative tool to assist our staff and community in calculating shared rooming expenses. Mark's tool addresses the complex challenge of dividing costs among multiple travelers with varying stay durations and different payees who initially covered the expenses. This tool has significantly improved the accuracy and efficiency of our expense-sharing process, providing clarity and saving valuable time for everyone involved. Mark's dedication and technical expertise have made a lasting impact, greatly benefiting our organization and community.
Nominee's Name: Veronika Blair
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
Veronika is most deserving of the ERSO staff salute for her heroic efforts responding to a very last minute and intense request by NSF regarding a $15M proposal. The amount of work necessary to respond to this request was intense and extremely stressful. Veronika did all that she could dealing with the various subaward contacts, of which there were many, alerted leadership and responded appropriately to NSF. She gave up a day off, worked like crazy and met the deadline. Her efforts were so greatly appreciated by the PIs and all those who were involved. Thank you, Veronika for your outstanding commitment and most definitely for going above and beyond. Cheers to you!
Nominee's Name: Emily Martinez
Nominee's Unit: Human Resources
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
With the departure of the Math AP Analyst for non-senate appointments several months ago, Emily has repeatedly stepped in to help myself and the department to navigate one of the busiest times for non-senate appointments and activity. Emily continuously goes above and beyond by showing exceptional commitment to the needs and intentions of our department by helping to solve problems (example: coordinating a visa and subsequent transition from Postdoc to Project Scientist for one of our appointees), anticipate the department's needs and intentions (example: closely reviewing the requests I've submitted to ensure that actions are implemented correctly as was the case in processing retroactive payroll adjustments for one of our lecturers and several of our senate faculty members), and continuously demonstrating her willingness to be both a team player and a leader. I am truly grateful to have Emily's support and guidance and feel that without her as sistance these past few months, we would not have been able to navigate this period as smoothly as we have.
Nominee's Name: Swati Shah
Nominee's Unit: Payroll
Criteria: Problem Solver
Customer Service Example:
One of my faculty needed assistance with CalTime, and I reached out to the ERSO Payroll alias to seek assistance. Swati was SUPER quick in providing a comprehensive answer to the faculty in addition to providing job aides and video links. The response was detailed and clear, and she also offered to meet the faculty on zoom to further assist if the faculty still had questions. It was practically immediate and so helpful. Very grateful to have Swati on the Payroll team - I really appreciate the assistance!!
Nominee's Name: Kimberly Citalan
Nominee's Unit: Human Resources
Criteria: Demonstrates Commitment
Customer Service Example:
Last week ERSO HR had a very tight deadline to submit a mass funding file which impacted a large number of UC Path records. Kim helps prepare a mass upload file weekly, but this week we had a higher volume of lines on the report than normal, and a tighter deadline. Kim worked closely with the controllers office to submit the file, manage an issue that came up with it, and get it resubmitted, all in time to meet the deadline. She dropped everything to ensure this got done and did it excellently. Kim saved the day, I am very grateful for her dedication.
Nominee's Name: Robert Rainey
Nominee's Unit: Computer Support
Criteria: Problem Solver
Customer Service Example:
A huge thank you to Robert for resolving the connectivity nightmare at my campus desktop. Astoundingly, I could not connect to anything at my CAMPUS desktop --- while on campus, after the power outage on Wednesday, 5/22/14. Robert performed IT-Magic and everything works again, hooray ! Bonus-Magic --- the printer malfunction got fixed today too.
Nominee's Name: Marie-Frantz Wallmark
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
Just wanted to give a shout-out to Marie-Franz Wallmark! While preparing a NSF proposal with 4 investigators - 1 of them would not load. I put out an sos email or asking for advice on how to start troubleshooting. Marie responded & even took the trouble to scrutinize the document to see what the exact problem was that I had not noticed.
Nominee's Name: Alice Wong
Nominee's Unit: Purchasing
Criteria: Problem Solver
Customer Service Example:
Alice Wong is an excellent employee. It is much easier to navigate the ever changing landscape of guidelines here at CAL with Alice's help. Time and time again Alice has gone above and beyond to help us at the zero hour with last minute emergency requests. She has also helped us figure out better options for vendors and supplies that save us money in the end. I really appreciate her friendly and can-do attitude and her ever willingness to help us. We really couldn't do what we do without her.
Nominee's Name: Alice Wong
Nominee's Unit: Purchasing
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
Alice was such a great help and went above and beyond with a quick turnaround request the day of the deadline for the CRA exam registration for an RA. She quickly stepped in, set up a zoom call with the RA, and handled the registration the day of the registration deadline. So grateful to her and Cynthia for making this happen so quickly while I was out of the office and for ERSO covering the initial exam costs. Thank you!
Nominee's Name: Janet Vela
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Above & Beyond
Customer Service Example:
I had an urgent deadline for an NSF grant proposal. I stopped by Janet's office and she pushed her other work aside and worked with me the rest of the day to get the grant submitted by the end of the day - which involved reaching out to multiple people and hours of work. I was extremely grateful for how she went above and beyond to get the proposal in in time. This also meant her other work was pushed back, and also it meant she stayed late in the office. This is why I nominate her for this award.
Nominee's Name: Noriko Katagiri
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Demonstrates Commitment
Customer Service Example:
I have always admired Noriko's endurance and strength in regards to her Work life. She is committed to providing the best support to her faculty and her co-partners she works with. She often goes above and beyond when it comes to the needs the faculty require. Faced with difficult challenges she knows who to go to and who to ask. Her efforts should always be recognized and remembered. She will be missed greatly after her retirement this month (April 2024).
Nominee's Name: Alice P. Wong
Nominee's Unit: Purchasing
Criteria: Anticipates Customer Needs
Customer Service Example:
Over the last nine years, Alice Wong is always helpful, patient, and quick to answer questions or fix things. I always feel happy and informed when I work with Alice Wong. She is a tremendous asset and supporter of the mission of the University of California at Berkeley.
Nominee's Name: Daniel Morgan
Nominee's Unit: Payroll
Criteria: Problem Solver
Customer Service Example:
Problem Solver AND Team Player! Daniel was super helpful with a time card issue for a postdoc in NE. The postdoc reached out, unsure of whom to contact, regarding a miscalculation of PTO for his renewal appt. I forwarded the request to ERSO Payroll and by the next day, Daniel had already worked to troubleshoot and submitted a UCPath ticket. The very next day Daniel informed the postdoc of the resolution and when the postdoc would see the update. Daniel went a step further and informed me as to how this error happened AND that he'd communicate to ERSO HR to ensure this doesn't cause issues for others in the future. Thanks so much for the prompt help, Daniel, and for reminding our other functional units so that we can all work better together. Much appreciated!
Nominee's Name: Chelsea Miller
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Team Player
Customer Service Example:
I have worked with Chelsea in the Astronomy department as an RA for many years. This month, I worked on a fairly complex proposal and Chelsea was instrumental in helping me answer many of questions that were arising for me. I would ask her for advice and guidance on specific topics such as budgeting for participant support and stipends, and she was committed to helping me find the answers. I could not have gotten through this proposal preparation without her support and teamwork. Chelsea is an exemplary RA and team player and I am so thankful for her willingness to help a fellow RA with the complexities that arise in proposal preparation. Thank you Chelsea!
Nominee's Name: Heather Murthy
Nominee's Unit: Research
Criteria: Team Player
Customer Service Example:
I’ve begun working with Heather more since Earth and Planetary Science was added to my portfolio. I’m frequently impressed by Heather’s tenacity. She takes charge of the requests that are assigned to her and coordinates with her PIs to ensure that proposal and award actions move forward in a timely manner. Heather is willing to ask questions when she needs more information and keeps an open line of communication between SPO and the PIs. She’s a great partner in research administration!
Nominee's Name: Lawrence Polito
Nominee's Unit: Purchasing
Criteria: Problem Solver
Customer Service Example:
Prof. Daniel Stolper contacted Purchasing alias email to resolve a past-due invoice payment issue in Dec 2023 and again in Jan 2024. Larry was able to resolve the payment issue with the related parties promptly while keeping Prof. Stopler and the Dept manager updated. Prof. Stopler praised Larry via email - "Thank you so much for handling this so quickly, professionally, and painlessly on my end. It was a real pleasure working with you (or really, you just handling it without issue!!!)." Good Job, Larry. Thank you for resolving this case in a very short time.
Nominee's Name: Dan Matsuoka
Nominee's Unit: Computer Support
Criteria: Demonstrates Commitment
Customer Service Example:
Beginning of this new year, bmail IT team started to reject unauthenticated mail claiming to be from @berkeley.edu and @erso.berkeley.edu, unless we sign all the outgoing mail with the DKIM key. This sudden policy change created a lot of confusion and disruption to the ERSO operation. While I was scrambling to deal with this change, Dan not only helped me to work on the bounced message on the Sympa server end and also handle the users communication. Due to the complexity of the ERSO email system, it took a few days (day and night) to get these urgent changes added into our systems. Dan helped me with testing our email servers and responding to my email requests for several days and evenings. His dedication and commitment to resolving issues with the ERSO email system, including assisting with bounced messages and testing email servers, are commendable.
Nominee's Name: Wendy Kung
Nominee's Unit: Reimbursement Services
Criteria: Anticipates Customer Needs
Customer Service Example:
I enthusiastically nominate Wendy for her outstanding customer service. She consistently provides detailed, clear, and anticipates customer's needs which is evident by her meticulous and thoughtful manner in which she addresses questions from our email alias. Wendy consistently goes above and beyond, providing detailed responses that not only answer inquiries but also demonstrate a deep understanding of our customers' needs. Wendy's exemplary communication skills contribute significantly to our positive customer experience. Her attention to detail and thoughtful approach set a high standard for our customer service team. In recognition of her exceptional contributions, I wholeheartedly endorse Wendy for her commitment to excellence in customer service.