2nd Annual Staff Excellence Awards Ceremony
Click the video above to be taken to this year's pre-recorded Faculty Awards & Recognition Ceremony, or see below for a list of our seven staff members who took home the final prizes this year, in no particular order:
Winner #1 - Sarah Burton
Sarah is an Administrative Operations Manager in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition.
Sarah is the beating heart and caring soul of the GI division, serving as Dr. Fang’s right hand and managing all administrative aspects of the division, including faculty scheduling and troubleshooting any issues that comes across her desk. She also lends her services as an amateur advisor and counselor for those in need of a sympathetic ear. Sarah has been a member of the GI family for over ten years and has rose quickly through the ranks and other jobs assignments due to her superb work ethic and her need to expand her responsibilities and skills. No person or problem is too small or too large for her to tackle.
Some of Sarah’s notable achievements include the creation of Elevate, a monthly newsletter highlighting staff and faculty publications and other achievements. She also saw an opportunity to help the community and organized the first holiday party for her division that featured a silent auction, resulting in over $7000 raised for Utah Refugee Connection, a local immigrant support organization.
To quote one of her nominators: “No one is more dedicated and more effective in promoting the GI division’s academic, clinical, and research missions. I can say in my 20 years at the U, Sarah is the best employee I have encountered by far.”
Winner #2 - Maribel Cedillo
Maribel received six total nominations from six members of her division. Her many nominations are a testament to her effectiveness and competency as the Research Program Manager of the Division of General Internal Medicine.
Maribel has helped not only to support, but to define and create the research and scholarly mission of the Division of General Internal Medicine. She has created a website compendium of resources to assist faculty with data management, analysis, and dissemination. Creating this content and supporting faculty submissions has since led to a tangible increase in the number of abstracts, manuscripts, and grants submitted and accepted and funded in the division. Her contributions have even been recognized with co-authorship and acknowledgements on several General Internal Medicine abstracts and manuscripts – an incredible accomplishment!
Many of her nominators note Maribel’s positivity, warmth, and professionalism. She goes beyond the call of duty to ensure that research projects continue to move forward, all with a smile on her face. She also helps faculty seek out opportunities to demonstrate their scholarly work on a national level, and is a key contributor to the Utah StARR program, a multi-departmental award that has created opportunities for residents in DOIM and other Departments to have additional research training during residency.
Winner #3 - Gina Gregovich
The third recipient of 2020's Staff Excellence Awards is Gina Gregovich, a Clinical Research Manager in the Division of Epidemiology.
Since 2019, Gina has coordinated the organization and management of the Greater Intermountain Node’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) clinical trials. The Greater Intermountain Node, or GIN, seeks to expand infrastructure of the NIDA network by developing and testing interventions for opioid use disorder and preventing overdoses. Gina has been instrumental in GIN’s success and growth, helping the program to receive several competitive grants resulting in approximately $22 million in funding to GIN and other partners at the University of Utah. This incredible work would have normally been undertaken by several staff members, but with COVID-19 and other staff hiring challenges, Gina managed to find success working largely on her own.
Gina demonstrates exemplary leadership skills among GIN’s twenty affiliated staff members. She has received praise for her effective leadership style, where her concerns are for the person, and not just job performance; she takes meaningful time to kindly and empathetically reach out and help staff members succeed, and routinely facilitates the professional development of others. She has put the needs of her team and important research above her own and has made great sacrifices, working evenings and weekends, to ensure the further growth of GIN.
Her nominator notes: “Ms. Gregovichs’s outstanding performance as the GIN coordinator is a testament to her leadership and her acumen as an organizer and colleague. Simply put, the GIN would not have accomplished so much if not for her outstanding achievement and performance in such a short time.”
Winner #4 - Mencily Lee
Mencily is the Administrative Manager in the Department’s Central Administration team, and is the Executive Assistant to our Department Chair, John Inadomi.
In a year that has been anything but normal, Mencily has provided the Department of Internal Medicine with unwavering support and stability. From the rapid transition to working remotely in response to COVID-19, to onboarding a new Department Chair during the pandemic, to coordinating other various activities as Dr. Inadomi’s right-hand, Mencily has remained highly organized and exceptionally poised during these challenging times. Her nominator notes her unique ability to retain and recall relevant and accurate information; without missing a beat, she is at the ready with valuable insights into upcoming major decisions, key players, and peripheral changes across all of U of U Health, making her in invaluable asset to our department.
Mencily is also a mentor to many administrative staff in the department, providing training and extra support when necessary. In providing fantastic mentorship, Mencily not only hones her own skills, but also elevates the competencies of all our divisions’ teams while creating a culture of consistency, reliability, and accountability that ripples across the entire department. She is unfailingly pleasant, calm, and responsive no matter how stressful the situation or urgent the request. She is not one to settle for the status quo, and is always looking for creative ways to improve processes and communications in the department.
Winner #5 - Vikas Patil
The fifth recipient of this year’s Staff Excellence Award is Vikas Patil, a Data Scientist in the VERITAS research team housed within the Division of Epidemiology.
Vikas’ hard work and commitment to his position have resulted in many successes for the VERITAS program over the years, including the preparation and completion of numerous oral and poster presentations, the acceptance of four manuscripts, and the award of numerous grant applications, including a recent Sergey Brin Family Foundation grant for $1.3 million dollars. His diligence and knowledge serve him well in solving complex problems, and he has been instrumental in instituting work flows to increase the quality of data generated by research.
His expert knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment to his role and the important research he conducts sets Vikas apart from colleagues in similar positions. He is relentless in his efforts to provide services, resources, and support to others, including those he may not immediately work with; his gentility and approachability makes him a stellar colleague and an essential member of the VERITAS team.
To quote his nominator: “Vikas is one of those rare individuals that you encounter very infrequently in life – he is highly intelligent, inquisitive, motivated and creative. Everything Vikas works on is always better when he is done with it. He is not only an asset to the University of Utah, but an asset to future scientific exploration.”
Winner #6 - Kelly Peterson
Kelly is a Senior Data Architect in the Division of Epidemiology, where he applies his considerable talents in the domains of research and healthcare operations in his dual roles with the University of Utah and with the US Department of Veterans Affairs Health System.
While an exemplary staff member under normal circumstances, this year Kelly has consistently gone above and beyond in the face of a charge from VA leadership to develop a national COVID-19 surveillance tool to inform system-wide decision-making. Building something like this under intense time constraints and in a constantly changing landscape was a monumental task, but one that Kelly approached with enthusiasm, creativity and energy. Despite heavier responsibilities over the last year, Kelly managed to submit several grants, keep existing research projects afloat, publish papers describing his work in building, and lift everyone else’s spirits in the process.
Nicknamed “Safety Dad” by those who know him best, Kelly is finely attuned to the needs of others, and is always the picture of fortitude, hope, and optimism. While the source of his boundless energy is unclear, it is clear to his team is that he is their heart and conscience, guiding them to switch gears on different projects when necessary, promoting collaboration, providing insightful feedback, and brainstorming new grant and project ideas to elevate his team to further successes.
To quote his nominator: “Kelly has sacrificed much in his dedication to Veterans and his belief that science and goodness can save people. He has not donned the uniform of the armed services of our country but, in our observation, his manifest heartfelt commitment to his work is perhaps only superseded by the best of those who have.”
Winner #7 - Shelly Turner
The last recipient of this year’s Staff Excellence Award is Shelly Turner, an Administrative Program Coordinator in the Division of Rheumatology. Shelly has received a record seven nominations for this award, the most of any staff member in the short history of our Staff Excellence Awards.
According to her nominators, Shelly’s work ethic has streamlined operations in Rheumatology’s front offices and subsequently has expanded the breath of administrative support the division is able to provide to their faculty, fellows, APCs, and fellow staff members. She wears many hats in her administrative role, assisting with scheduling, maintaining American College of Rheumatology registrations and coordinating ACR events, arranging travel, and even stepping into interim roles outside her position when duty calls.
She is a remarkable self-starter, and has a knack to make things happen before she is even assigned the task in the first place. If she doesn’t know how to solve a challenging issue or approach a task, she first seeks out the information she needs to propose potential solutions and implement changes with little prompting from others. Shelly’s quick thinking and attention to detail has led to several instances in which she has saved the division money; in a similar vein, there have been many instances where her acute administrative skills and knowledge of U of U Health processes have saved faculty members from massive headaches and research-related setbacks.