September employees honored

Cassandra J. Cooper
Unclassified employee of the month

Started at KU: Cassie Cooper joined the School of Business staff in 1998 as coordinator of the newly established Italy Programs office.

Current title: Associate director, supervising two program coordinators, an associate program coordinator, a classified assistant and several student assistants.

What that means: The business school is the lead school for a consortium of 34 schools across the country, each of which sends students and faculty to the Italy programs. Cooper is responsible for program management, oversees all tasks for the coordination of several programs and supervises all accounting and budgeting for the office and the maintenance of the Italy Programs Web site.

Notable: Each year Cooper visits 10 to 20 of the member schools, familiarizing herself with the school and its faculty so she can guide students more effectively. She also organizes regular conferences for consortium members. The fall 2001 conference in Italy drew 40 participants from more than 20 schools; this year’s conference likely will include twice that number.

Recent feat: On Sept. 11, 2001, 50 undergraduate students were in transit to Italy. Cooper talked to their parents and monitored the travel of each student, and was able to report that they all had arrived safely in Italy.

Georgia Damis
Classified employee of the month

Started at KU: Georgia Damis joined the KU staff in 1981 as a word processing typist in the School of Social Welfare.

Current title: She is now an administrative specialist in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

What that means: Damis is the budget manager and accountant, maintaining and reconciling all accounts, preparing payroll forms, processing graduate teaching assistant appointments and handling KU Endowment Association accounts. She maintains personnel files, evaluation records and grade records; responds to undergraduate and graduate student inquiries; coordinates the schedule of classes; and monitors enrollment to adjust the availability of class space as needed. In her role as office manager, she recruits, interviews, trains and supervises student hourly employees.

Notable: Damis’ peers say she can correct grammatical mistakes and tell a person just in time that he has a cowlick. She also will give advice on interpersonal problems and other problems at work while scrupulously taking care of office paychecks.

Recent feat: Damis routinely hand-carries materials to various campus offices on behalf of long-distance graduate students, while providing personal contacts and helping students with administrative tasks.