Operational Excellence celebrates one year of progress
Four staff members were singled out for outstanding contributions to the advancement of Operational Excellence’s mission and goals.
September marks the first anniversary of Operational Excellence, a University-wide program to improve administrative processes and support the University’s key mission of teaching, learning and research.
Employees who have been involved on the teams in the design and implementation of Operational Excellence initiatives, including those focused on hiring, procurement, travel, research and student employment, celebrated improvement and a changed culture across campus at an event earlier this month. Four staff members were singled out for outstanding contributions to the advancement of Operational Excellence’s mission and goals.
“We initially had planned to present this award to one person, but with so many high-quality submissions and deserving individuals, we ultimately decided to give an award for each of the three categories for which we solicited nominations: improvement, collaboration and leadership,” said Rick Wernoski, senior vice provost for business operations.
The inaugural winners are:
- John Medlin, senior purchasing agent, procurement services operations, and Sara Reese, senior talent acquisition partner with the Office of Human Resources, shared the
leadership award for “building and leading enthusiastic and skillful teams and/or championing innovative initiatives”; - Dani Burns, budget analyst, School of Medicine, received the award for collaboration, “establishing partnerships and contributing to an environment to effectively solve problems by sharing knowledge, ideas and solutions”; and
- Rich Arnold, senior director, human resources information management, won the improvement award for “advancing continuous improvement in administrative operations through the design or implementation of tools, processes and services.”
