KU to name two employees of the year

Ceremony to honor faculty, staff

Classified employee-of-the-year candidates Elaine Eklund, accountant I, has worked in the CLAS administrative services office for the last nine of her 22 years at KU. Her responsibilities include processing appointment and payroll materials, preparation of the college's annual budget, and working with the college's various unit staffs to update and establish estimates for departmental restricted fee income accounts. She also processes classified staff appointments for the college, is responsible for reporting time and leave, and maintains restricted fee accounts and inventory records for the office. Frederic J. Gutknecht IV, media coordinator for Instructional Development and Support, is an eight-year KU employee. Frederic and the two full-time staff members he supervises are responsible for all media equipment and materials, including resources for the addition of more than a dozen new media-enhanced classrooms and auditoriums over the past year. Wayne Hathaway, assistant paint shop supervisor for student housing, has worked for KU for 11 years and has been a member of the Student Housing Department for a year. As an assistant paint shop supervisor in housing, he responds to painting requests, plans the paint schedule, maintains a database of already painted rooms and orders supplies. Under Wayne's leadership, more than 300 student rooms and several commons areas were painted over the summer break. Two major projects, the interior painting of Amini and Templin halls, were also completed. Beverly Herrman, custodial supervisor I, has been employed in facilities operations housekeeping for more than 10 years and is housekeeping supervisor for Murphy Hall, with duties in Summerfield, the Military Science Building and the Multicultural Resource Center as well. As a working supervisor, Beverly is directly responsible for cleaning specific areas of Murphy Hall, including the theatre green room and two performance halls. In addition to routine daily cleaning, Beverly and her staff clean the performance hall seating areas after each performance. Beverly also has taken on additional assignments. She joined a housekeeping team of employees who were bused to Kansas City to help clean the KU Medical Center during a severe staff shortage and frequently responds to emergency call-ins. Sandee Kennedy, office specialist in the history department, came to KU 25 years ago as a word processing typist in the word processing center of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She joined the history department staff in 1986 and currently serves as the department's administrative officer and assistant to the chair. Sandee recruits and trains classified personnel and is responsible for supervising and evaluating their performance. She devised new training procedures and in 1997 implemented a personnel evaluation system. Each year Sandee organizes the annual student awards banquet, prepares the department's weekly "Newsnotes" and coordinates the external newsletter, "History at Kansas." Lucinda Koester, office assistant IV in the band division of the Department of Music and Dance, became a member of the KU staff in 1979 and has seen thousands of band members come and go in the 20 years she has been managing the band office. She is responsible for payroll and purchasing, supervising student employees, making travel arrangements for the band and managing several funds. She also acts as an informal recruiter and alumni liaison. Cindy often works extra hours on weekends, making sure the band has everything it needs for performances or trips. She is in charge of making all travel and lodging arrangements. Gwendolyn Leonard, accountant II at the Natural History Museum, joined the KU staff in September 1975. After Gwen joined the Natural History Museum staff in 1983, she kept up with a doubled accounting and payroll workload, and the state's move to a biweekly payroll further increased the demands on Gwen's time. Gwen helped develop a new half-time payroll specialist position description, participated in the interview process, trained the new employee and is now responsible for supervision. LaVerta Logan, office specialist in the School of Law, began her KU career nearly 20 years ago as a clerk III in student records, then served for seven years as a secretary II in Legal Services for Students. She has been an office specialist with the Office of Career Services in the School of Law since 1996, maintaining databases on students, mentors, employers and universities, posting employment opportunities and gathering annual employment statistics. She also assists with on-campus interviewing and helps coordinate the mentor program for first-year law students. LaVerta has been active in the university's Black Faculty and Staff Council, serving as fund-raising, social and cultural committee chair from 1994 to 1996. She also raises funds for the Lawrence Area Reunion Committee and worked part time at Joe's Bakery. Larry Miller, laboratory education technician, joined the chemistry department in 1987 as a utility worker and has been a laboratory education technician since 1993. He staffs and oversees the analytical chemistry stockroom, works in the chemistry maintenance shop to fabricate and repair equipment and assists chemistry faculty members in their large lecture classes. Larry's preparations for chemistry lectures are thorough, and he often organizes supplies for analytical chemistry lab experiments two weeks in advance. He trains the students who help him in the stockroom to adhere to safety regulations and he conducts semiannual safety inspections of the laboratories and office spaces. Larry frequently rescues lost students and campus visitors by escorting them to the correct building or room. Carl Mitchell, refrigeration and air conditioning service technician I in the Facilities Operations air conditioning shop, has been a KU employee for more than 30 years. He began as a janitor in what was then Building and Grounds and has held a variety of positions. Carl is responsible for monitoring the water treatment program for the 36 cooling towers on campus. He runs tests, calibrates controllers and pumps, checks inventory, visually inspects equipment and keeps others informed about the program. He now controls the chemical program, which affects the cleanliness, efficiency and longevity of the cooling equipment, and identifies areas where upgrades are needed, avoiding excessive investments. Laura K. Moeller, accounting manager of the Student Housing Department, first worked for KU as a student. Today, she is the senior professional staff member responsible for student housing's reports, accounting and accounts receivable for a $20 million budget. Laura plans and monitors the work of more than 20 support staff members. Her responsibilities include improving existing systems and providing training for new and consulting staff. She also serves as the primary student housing contact with the KU business office. Laura served on a team to select her department's new information database management system and is now the primary contact for the vendor's programming staff when upgrades are developed. She also is an active volunteer at her daughter's school. Roberta Trowbridge, office specialist, has worked in the Schiefelbusch Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic for more than 12 years. She oversees the day-to-day management of the office, which comprises six clinical faculty members, 25 student clinicians and approximately 100 clients. In addition to hiring and training student assistants, Bobbie completes the office billing and is the liaison between the clinic and a number of physicians and insurance companies. She is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with more than 70 agencies that provide referrals and services or are resources for the clinic's clients. Outside the office, Bobbie is a fiscal reviewer for the Inter-Agency Coordinating Council for the State of Kansas, participates in the Mother to Mother program and is a lay reader and study group leader at her church. Unclassified non-teaching employee-of-the-year candidates

Elaine Eklund Frederic J. Gutknecht IV Wayne Hathaway Beverly Herrman Sandee Kennedy Lucinda Koester Gwendolyn Leonard LaVerta Logan Larry Miller Carl Mitchell Laura K. Moeller Roberta Trowbridge