Jeri Zelke, Environmental Studies and Women’s Studies academic department associate, has been named the recipient of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh 2013 February STAR Award.
Zelke was nominated by M. Elsbeth (Misty) McPhee. Portions of her nomination follow:
“Jeri is a truly outstanding staff member and colleague. She has the difficult task of serving two programs on campus so she has two supervisors and two groups of faculty tugging at her time. But she does this with grace, energy and lack of complaint. Despite how incredibly busy she is, every time I walk into Jeri’s office with a request, she greets me with a smile and an, “I’d be glad to do that” attitude. In fact, she will almost always drop what she’s doing and take care of my request immediately. Not only does she effectively juggle an overwhelming work load but she does a GREAT job on everything. Unfortunately for her, she is so easy to work with and good at her job that I ask far more from her than I have asked of others in this position.
“Not only is she extremely competent and helpful, she works far above and beyond the call of duty. Recently, we’ve had to ES student events with pizza and Jeri stayed late just to make sure it arrived, was delivered, and everything was taken care of.
Christie Launius, of Women’s Studies, also said:
“A couple of general observations: Jeri has a tough assignment, in that she splits her time between two programs. She manages to do a wonderful job for both programs, balancing the differing needs, schedules, cultures, and personalities of both, seemingly without effort. She does a fabulous job of keeping it all straight and running smoothly. I have also been really impressed with her generosity in helping out Kim, the LTE for the Social Justice and African American Studies program. Jeri seems to have done a fantastic job of mentoring her.
“More specifically, I am impressed with the fact that Jeri consistently goes above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak. She has been a huge help to me as I have been heavily involved in planning a state-wide conference here on campus. To give just one small example, I asked for her assistance in getting parking passes for faculty traveling here by car from other UW campuses, and she not only procured the passes, but contacted Parking Services and requested that they cone off space immediately next to Sage so that our visitors wouldn’t have to drive around searching for an available space. She also volunteered to greet them as they arrive so that they wouldn’t have to find our office space and then go back down to their cars with their hang tags.
“In sum, Jeri is a delight to work with, and I feel very strongly that her outstanding work should be recognized by our campus community!”
The CSAC Awards & Recognition Committee submitted this announcement. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to contribute calendar items, campus announcements and other good news to UW Oshkosh Today.