Nominee's Name: Sara Rivera
Nominee's Unit: College of Engineering - Payroll Analyst
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

Often times weeding through the complex administrative systems at UCB can make finding seemingly simple answers hard to find. Sara has helped me promptly and thoroughly find answers to all of my questions while generally being a friendly and positive person. Her knowledge of the administrative system has made this process all the easier and more efficient.

Nominee's Name: Anne Krysiak
Nominee's Unit: ERSO
Criteria: Team Player

Customer Service Example:

While I was out of the office this month, Anne backed me up and took care of my portfolio. She respectfully and promptly dealt with my faculty and their requests, and she always loops me in early when my faculty don't forward emails for reporting. Time and time again, she's helped me and is a pleasure to work with. So glad she's on my team.

Thanks so much, Anne!

Nominee's Name: Gwen Lindsey
Nominee's Unit: ERSO RA
Criteria: Team Player

Customer Service Example:

Due to issues with a proposal and with my family situation, I was in great need of quick help with a closeout for one of the PIs whom I was managing temporarily. Gwen graciously offered her help taking over. I know she has a heavy workload and I do appreciate for her willingness as well as her quick action and capability.

Nominee's Name: Sam Wong
Nominee's Unit: ERSO T&E
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

Recently, Sam received a Travel Reimb. Request of which required a copy of the "paid" Airfare receipt. The Grad Student (who just happened to be from a sister UC Campus) was extremely rude, and told him that was none of his business (among other choice words). When the PI heard of this, he called to commend Sam for his patience, apologizing for the Travelers behavior & wanted to express his sincere appreciation for his excellent customer service. He wanted me to know, and to relay to Sam, this behavior was not acceptable & that he was grateful for the professionalism Sam displayed. Hearing from a PI, acknowledging ones Customer Service, is very special, & especially nice, for one of our newest Staff members. Thank You Sam!

Nominee's Name: Wendy Kung
Nominee's Unit: ERSO B&FS
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

We just received a very last minutes beverage credit card order for tomorrow's delivery. I contacted Wendy right away about that request.

Wendy is able to work on this request right away. She contacted the Dept. within 5 minutes to obtain the required information and she processed the request online in 15 minutes. I am amazed with her abilities.

This is not the first time Wendy "saves the day" for our customers. I would like to give her a shout-out here. We are glad to have her in our team. Thank you Wendy.

Nominee's Name: Alice Wong
Nominee's Unit: ERSO Team 2 Procurement Supervisor
Criteria: Problem Solver

Customer Service Example:

I can't say enough good things about Alice Wong. She continuously comes up big for us. Recently she helped us figure out a billing issue with our off-campus property where PG&E hadn't charged us for the correct amount. I know Alice is very busy but she was able to help resolve our issue within a few hours! Alice has also helped us expedite orders that we need in a timely manner. She is one of the best and I always enjoy working with her!

Nominee's Name: Jennifer Stone
Nominee's Unit: ERSO
Criteria: Problem Solver

Customer Service Example:

Jennifer Stone has put forth tremendous work on the Payroll Suspense issue. She's been working in the early mornings to late in the evenings, including the weekends leading up to her vacation. Her efforts reduced the Payroll Suspense account from over $300,000 to just over $20,000.

She systematically developed a process to monitor payroll suspense which alleviates this burden from others in the organization. She's been very instrumental in notifying others on the ERSO team of necessary actions to take in order to address suspense issues. Managing suspense is a burden for everyone but with Jennifer's focus she has really made a difference for the team. THANK YOU!

Nominee's Name: Sarah Gaugler (Runyon)
Nominee's Unit: ERSO Research Administrator
Criteria: Team Player

Customer Service Example:

Four ERSO RAs have passed Certified Research Administrator test in June 2019. Leslie Goldstein created the original semester long weekly study session and provided us all the study materials. But Sarah Gaugler went above and beyond and took the initiative to create another weekly study group to help out her fellow colleagues. Along with her we went over various CRA practice questions available on Quizlet and other websites. She also provided various study tips and best practices. All these, especially while discussing and going over various questions, has truly helped us in gaining a better understanding, and preparing for the test.

Nominee's Name: Damon Hinson
Nominee's Unit: ERSO Research Administrator
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

Recently my PI needed to upload his lab's food invoices starting March 2018 on ERSO Intranet. He contacted the Work-study student but she was off that day. Damon being her supervisor was also copied on that email. Before I had a chance to reply to the email Damon already reached out to my PI and went all the way to Stanley Hall to collect a box full of invoices. He sorted them out chronologically, removed the ones that were already paid, and made a list for all the missing ones. Not only that, he also contacted the restaurant bookkeeper for the missing invoices, then completed eight entertainment forms, get them signed and uploaded them on the Intranet for my PI to approve!

Damon is not only a great PRA, excellent mentor and a helpful team lead and colleague; he is always there for everyone! He definitely deserves a Staff Salute for always going way above and beyond to help all our faculty at any time.

Nominee's Name: Sherrell Collins
Nominee's Unit: HR
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

I wanted to take a moment to recognize your employee - Sherrell Collins. I have been working with her on a recruitment matter and I wanted to recognize the effort she put forth in obtaining all of the necessary information to ensure that this was a good fit for the department, as well as giving the internal applicant the benefit of the doubt by accessing as much information that was accessible to her to give him a fair chance in this recruitment. There are not very many people who go above and beyond as she did in this situation.

Great job Sherrell!

Nominee's Name: Damon Hinson
Nominee's Unit: ERSO RA
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

I needed someone to cover me and Damon stepped up to the plate when I asked him.

What makes this a stand out moment is I had a DARPA proposal that was on its way out the door to the sponsor this very day and SPO decided some adjustments needed to be made. Damon was able to make this happen smoothly. I know I can rely on Damon covering me fully ever needed.

Nominee's Name: Sarah Gaugler
Nominee's Unit: ERSO
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

Sarah is my office-mate, and since my first day in this office (almost 10 months ago), she has taken me under her wing. I consider her my adopted RA Mentor. She has taken time out of her day, almost every day, to advise me on something, teach me something or simply answer my millions of questions. She has shared all of her best practices and her organizational tips with me and has prepared me for a larger workload in the future by doing so.

She has an extraordinarily large portfolio and she’s always busy, but she always makes time to walk me through the processes I’m learning for the first time, sharing all of her knowledge. All of my post-award experience has come from her training and I am profoundly grateful for her time and her patience.

Nominee's Name: Angela Brito Baldwin
Nominee's Unit: ERSO
Criteria: Team Player

Customer Service Example:

When I was out for about 2 weeks, Angela kindly agreed to take on 2 of my proposals while I was out. She made sure everything was submitted on time even though we were up against tight deadlines and working under difficult circumstances. She also diligently watched my T&E and BearBuy queue. She took on a lot of work that was not hers and did not think twice about it.

She is always willing to help out and take on projects to assist. She's full of energy and is a treat to work with.

Thanks so much, Angela. YOU ROCK!

Nominee's Name: Larry Polito
Nominee's Unit: ERSO Purchasing
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

Larry went WAY above and beyond for his efforts in negotiating and mitigating risk for an agreement with a translation company for an upcoming workshop.

Attendees of the UCB hosted workshop required equipment for listening to a translator for their meeting. The company required the equipment to be set-up a day prior to the beginning of the meeting; however, the company was asking Berkeley to take on the cost of replacing any lost or stolen equipment (valued at $10K) and the hotel could not guarantee the room would be completely secure.

Larry did not accept this risk and explored many avenues to mitigate the risk for Berkeley. He had conference calls with the vendor, hotel, and Department requester to explore options that would reduce Berkeley's financial risk. In the end, the UCB Research Group had students sleepover in the meeting room, to ensure the equipment was secure.

I’d say the equipment is safe thanks to all of Larry’s efforts. Great job, Larry!

Nominee's Name: Jorge Perez
Nominee's Unit: ERSO T&E
Criteria: Anticipates Customer Needs

Customer Service Example:

Jorge provided excellent customer service to Professor Gadgil and his visitor, who submitted a travel reimbursement request for his visit to Berkeley. The wire transfer payment for Professor Gadgil’s visitor was sent to the wrong individual by Account Payables. Jorge took the lead to resolve and troubleshoot the re-issue of the payment by coordinating with the visitor, Accounts Payable, and PI. He sought frequent status updates from Accounts Payable and relay the information back to the visitor and PI. This took multiple communications over a period of several months.

Through Jorge’s excellent customer service, he demonstrated through his actions that efforts were being made to correct the error and instead of having an irate customer, both the visitor and PI were appreciative of his efforts (and me).

Jorge, thank you for your excellent customer service.

Nominee's Name: Mark Bell
Nominee's Unit: ERSO S&R
Criteria: Above & Beyond

Customer Service Example:

I was out of the office and received an urgent time sensitive request for students from India visiting UC Berkeley for the Global Leadership Program at CED. The Hyperwallet Cards provided to the students for subsistence while in Berkeley were not working and the program coordinator was desperate for assistance. After receiving my out-of-office response, she contacted the recommended email alias for help.

Mark Bell saw the call for help and immediately jumped into action. He reached out to our campus contact to help resolve the issue, while keeping our CED customer in the loop during the resolution process. Thanks to Mark’s quick action and problem solving, the cards were functioning again.

Mark, thank you for your excellent customer service and your commitment to the team.

Nominee's Name: Mary Courtney
Nominee's Unit: ERSO Purchasing
Criteria: Demonstrates Commitment

Customer Service Example:

2019 International Solid-State Circuits Conference is being held in San Francisco in February. This is a very popular conference with our EECS graduate students and we received over 30 requests for conference registration with an early bird registration of January 27th.

Mary Courtney was assigned all of these conference requests and she provided excellent customer service meeting the registration deadline and ensuring the registrants were enrolled in the appropriate tutorials, short courses, events, demonstration sessions, etc. I cannot stress enough the effort and attention to detail Mary demonstrated to enroll all of the students in by the conference deadline and reconcile all the charges too.

Mary, thank you for your efforts in supporting our customers. Great job, Mary!

Nominee's Name: Hannah Holloway
Nominee's Unit: RA
Criteria: Demonstrates Commitment

Customer Service Example:

Hannah just worked with a CGA supervisor to clear a long swept fund (from 2016). This took perseverance on her part to keep pinging CGA about getting this done, and today Hannah succeeded! Kudos to you, Hannah!