An outstanding employee from each of TCU’s eight divisions comprise the finalists for the Chancellor’s Staff Award for Outstanding Service. The honorees will be recognized and winners officially announced to the campus at the Welcome Home Celebration Aug. 23.
Created in 2003, the award recognizes a staff member for exemplary service and contributions to the welfare of the campus community. Last year’s recipient was Ike Ukaegbu, senior associate athletics director for compliance.
“I am very grateful for this honor and still surprised to have received it,” he said when the award was announced. “We have tried to create a culture in which we understand the expectations of our coaches, staff and student-athletes; provide them with accurate, consistent and timely information about NCAA rules; maintain professional and respectful relationships with them; deliver what we promise; communicate clearly; and solve problems.”
Teamwork was undoubtedly a factor in the 2021 division finalists. Following are comments from their nomination forms:
Academic Affairs: Joanna Schmidt, interim director of the Koehler Center
“As the current interim director of the Koehler Center, she worked tirelessly (literally hours!) to make sure all faculty were certified to teach online during the pandemic. I don’t think student learning could have happened without Joanna and her team last year. Through the course of the year, they certified over 1,000 faculty and instructors and had over 1.3 million hits on their website, which offers support for both students and faculty who use TCU Online.”
Advancement: Peggy Lawrence, administrative program specialist in the Office of Loyalty Giving
“When a colleague retired this year and I was handed the budget, I struggled figuring it out. She invited me over (masked up) and she proceeded to show me step by step how she does it. And then she went beyond that to provide me with a screenshot packet of how to do it. This proved to be invaluable.”
Athletics: David Gable, associate athletics director for Sports Medicine
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, David’s knowledge and expertise in the sports medicine field set the tone for how we operated as an athletics department to ensure health and safety protocols were being followed amidst a global pandemic. The way David led TCU Athletics through COVID-19 became a model for other institutions nationally to follow.”
Brite: Erin Houchin, director of Brite Housing
“In his unique role as housing director on the east side of campus, Erin has been a valuable resource to the entire campus during the pandemic … His care for the health of those remaining on campus was evidenced by his thoughtful communication to residents, his helpful conversations with campus leaders and his continued energies day and night to address the ever-changing context for his employees and residents.”
Finance & Administration: Rodney Baker, manager of Facility Services
“When Rodney accepted the charge to replace and assume the partial duties and responsibilities of the top three levels of management in our department, it was at an extremely challenging time … I feel that he has more than met the challenge, has elevated the participation of supervisors and assistant supervisors and has provided a ‘listening ear’ to the complete Facility Services staff and our clients.”
Human Resources: Shelli Mathis, payroll manager
“Through Shelli's leadership, she has identified numerous process improvements, documented the payroll operation procedures, implemented a variety of new processes during COVID and enrolled in graduate school … She has improved our communications with our campus partners and is always available to them with assistance and guidance. Shelli embodies the kindness, helpfulness and willingness to serve that is a hallmark of TCU.
Marketing & Communication: Megan Murphey-Jones, director of marketing
“Specifically, she worked regularly with the university’s public health group, Student Affairs, the Student Government Association and many others to plan and execute more than a half dozen Connected Campus mini campaigns, including the tremendously popular Protect the Purple. She is easy to work with, listens to and truly considers feedback from others, and is highly respected among her colleagues.”
Student Affairs: Sean Taylor, director of Emergency Management
“Sean led our university through an international pandemic, extreme winter weather, multiple vaccination clinics and care coordination/contact tracing for thousands of students. As an office of one, he built relationships with several university leaders to develop communication efforts, recruit contact tracers, assist in care coordination and several other distinctive tasks to lead us in the pandemic.”
Learn more about the Chancellor’s Staff Award on the chancellor’s website.