UNCW Staff Award for Excellence
2013 Nominees
The 2013 Award Recipient was Trisha Tinney!
Following is the winning nomination and a full list of nominees…….
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Trisha Tinney, Health Promotion
Outstanding State Government Service
Katrin Wesner
It is a pleasure to nominate Trisha Tinney, CHES, for the 2013 UNCW Staff Award for
Excellence. In May 2013, Trisha was awarded the Student Affairs Outstanding Service
Award, and as a result is the division's nominee for this year's UNCW Staff Award for
Excellence.
There are many examples of Trisha's unselfish devotion to her job and to the students at
UNCW; she truly is an employee that goes above and beyond to make the students lives
better on their way to success.
Trisha has been the Health Educator at UNCW since January 2007. Each semester when
we review the work of Health Promotion I continue to be so impressed with the work that
Trisha has done. Her service to the department is unparalleled, she is the employee I
know that I can go to with any request, big or small, and she will willingly pitch in. This
could be from creating a poster for a new program or disease that is present on campus,
responding to a request for information, researching a new trend, compiling data, serving
on a search committee, or helping at the desk when we are short staffed.
Trisha routinely exceeds expectations and responsibilities. Why I think Trisha is
particularly deserving of this award this year is the work she did to .make the health fair a
reality. Creating a campus wide health fair aimed primarily at students, but alsobenefitting staff and faculty, had been a goal for us since early 2007. Trisha and I started
within weeks of each other in 2007 and this came up at our first one-on-one meeting.
Over the years, Trisha did her homework on what would make a successful health fair,
watched the work of the Worksite Wellness Committee that put together a smaller scale
health fair for faculty and staff and worked to build buy in from other stakeholders on
campus. When the climate was right last spring she began planning in earnest.
Trisha engaged the peer educators in developing the list of campus and community
partners to invite, identifying student entertainment groups to include and designing a
marketing and evaluation plan.
Trisha worked to cultivate a group of stakeholders and created a steering committee
including Aramark, Campus Recreation, HAHS, the School of Nursing and
Environmental Health and Safety. This group also helped identify groups to invite and
programs to include. While the main focus was on students, there was also an effort to
make the event inviting and relevant to the faculty and staff, whether for their own
wellness or that of their family.
Trisha is a perfectionist, she is always making sure that what she has completed is
accurate and represents current research. She works hard to remain current in her field
and teaches the peers the importance of the same. Her follow-through is exemplary,
returning work very quickly after receiving an assignment. She role models to the
students who work with her the importance of loving your job, being respectful,
representing your organization well, being true to yourself and thinking outside of the
box.
Trisha is the main advisor, mentor and supervisor to the Health Promotion peer
educators. Her work with them is a great example of how she creates an environment of
openness and acceptance, hi health care it is critical to be non-judgmental; to create an
atmosphere were students can talk to you about anything. Trisha works hard to teach the
students the importance of this and is a great role model. Much of the work that HP does
is around sexual health and involves frank discussions about sex, abstinence, birth
control, STIs, etc. Not only do students feel comfortable talking to Trisha, but she teaches
her peers to be approachable as well and to refer students to professional staff when
needed.
Another example is to watch the development of the peer educators from initial hire
through training to their first presentation on their own. Trisha meets each student where
they are and helps develop the skills they need to succeed in the classroom.
Trisha is always willing to bring the health promotion message to the greater community.
She has worked with Isaac Bear staff and students on projects, and this year brought peer
educators to a community in Porters Neck to work with local youth around wellness.
Trisha believes that it is a great learning opportunity for our peers to be exposed to a
broader audience than just on campus. Colleen Pate, the Global Career Development
Facilitator at Isaac Bear, has asked Trisha to present to several groups of Early College
Career Counselors, to showcase the collaboration between Health Promotion and Isaac
Bear.
Trisha's commitment to bringing UNCW to a larger audience is also evident on the
national stage. This May she presented at the American College Health Association
(ACHA) meeting in Boston, MA, along with Courtney Simmons, our campus dietitian
and Melissa Heivly, a peer educator. The presentation was entitled "Recruitment,
Training, Retention: Creating Remarkable Peer Education Groups." As described above,
Trisha's work with the peer educators, from encouraging students throughout the year to
consider applying, through recruitment, selection and training, and culminating in their
success in presentations is a testament to her commitment to student success. She has
refined this process each year and it was wonderful to see the UNCW experience
presented to a national audience. Several attendees stopped me after the presentation to
tell me it was the best one they had been to at the conference, a combination of theory
and practice, with encouragement that everyone can have a successful peer program.
Trisha has also provided a variety of service to the division, including being the chair of
the Awards and Rec committee and chairing and participating on search committees,
Before the move-in volunteer coordinator was an assigned task, Trisha happily filled in
and looked for ways to make the assignment process even more efficient In 25 years in
student affairs I can easily say that Trisha is one of the top two employees I have had the
pleasure to work with. Her enthusiasm and commitment to student's growth and
education challenges me each day to be a better employee, supervisor and director. She is
an excellent candidate for the UNCW Staff Award for Excellence.
I would like to end Trisha's nomination with a quote from one of her Peer Educators: "I
seriously can't imagine the last two years without your help and support. I feel like I have
grown so much as a peer educator and a person the past few years, and a large part of that
is due to Health Promotion. Your high expectations for us help me strive for my personal
best in all my presentations, programs, and everything I do with UNCW. It means so
much to have your support and help with random things like resume writing and
applications. You have truly gone above and beyond your role as a boss!"
Nominees
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Lisa Bertini, Creative Writing
Efficiency and Innovation
Dr. Michael White
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Rob Brickels and Mike Vaccarro, Athletics
Outstanding State Government Service
Adam Keen
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Cheryl Chernis, Randall Library
Outstanding State Government Service
Jaime Huaman
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Kimberly Fisher
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Bonnie Monteleone and Dr. Pam Seaton
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Tammie Grady, History
Efficiency and Innovation
Dr. Paul Townend
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Robb Mann, Information Technology and Systems
Human Relations
Daniel Hervey
Nominee:
Category:
Thomas McCarley, Project Management
Outstanding State Government Service
Submitted By:
Ed Shuford
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Betsy McIntosh, Information Technology and Systems
Customer Service
The Banner Student Committee
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Naamah Noble, Office of the Registrar
Customer Service
Zach Underwood and Tamsen Foote
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Jarrett Piner, Information Technology and Systems
Efficiency and Innovation
Bob Greene
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Scott Piner, Information Technology and Systems
Efficiency and Innovation
George Kent
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Tom Prendergast, Carpentry
Efficiency and Innovation
Chris Randall, Tom Freshwater, Dave Olson and Lynn Medlin
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Patty Stugg, Information Technology and Systems
Customer Service
Stephanie Glowa
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Emma Kay Thornton, Computer Science
Human Relations
Dr. Laurie J. Patterson
Nominee:
Category:
Submitted By:
Trisha Tinney, Health Promotion
Outstanding State Government Service
Katrin Wesner