May 2024
Patty Farmer
Patty Farmer is truly an extraordinary individual dedicated to Knoebel Events, making it one of the best in Denver. She earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Events Industry of Colorado. She is an amazing teacher in the classroom who truly cares for her students and the staff. She is loved by her staff, colleagues and students. She has an impeccable record of performance excellence as the director of Knoebel Events and is truly an amazing leader and mentor to staff and student-managers.
Nominated by: HG Parsa
Lynn Rooney
Lynn is a spectacular resource for students who are exploring their career paths and looking to connect with local hiring partners. Her background in employer relations brings such a wealth of knowledge to our career coaching team and the student experience. She is always willing to “go the extra mile” for our Daniels students and I’m so thankful to have her as a colleague.
Nominated by: Alison McCarty
Tina Torres
I’d like to recognize Tina for excellent management and planning of events at the Burns School. Events run best when planned well but often involve quick problem-solving. As a recent example, Tina had to plan for an advisory board meeting on a day when no parking was available and the weather was wintery mix. She thought of creative and comfortable ways to get these VIPs around campus efficiently. We rely on her thoughtful judgement!
Nominated by: Ceci Smith
April 2024
Becca Gilliland
Becca is always helping the OCM team with her proactivity! She’s quick to provide information and always does it with a smile. On top of that, she organized and uploaded the 200+ photos captured during the Reiman School of Finance’s trip to Belize for us to use on social media. Thank you for all you do, Becca!
Nominated by: Will Albach
Cecille Lyman
Cecille is our marketing superhero! She joined Exec Ed not too long ago as our marketing and sales manager, and hit the ground running since day one. She is amazing at taking our wild, sometimes caffeine-fueled ideas, and transforming them into compelling messaging for our clients. Besides being really good at her job, she’s an awesome colleague and a great presence in the office. I’m very happy to have her with us!
Nominated by: Camila Angelim
Kat Vick
With the longest commute at Daniels, it’s hard to fathom how Kat finds the time for all of her roles and responsibilities at the College. In addition to her day job at the dean’s office, Kat works tirelessly for the Staff Advisory Board, FUN Committee, Daniels Dean Search Committee and some other things I’m certainly missing. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that she spends her free time taking classes in the PMBA program. So, thank you, Kat, for all you do for Daniels!
Nominated by: Nick Greenhalgh
Ceci Smith
I’m writing this to recognize and commend Ceci Smith on going above and beyond to assist our students. On a recent student trip to India, Ceci stepped in and took an ill student to get medical care, which is not an easy task in the middle of Pune, India. She also made special flight arrangements allowing her to fly with a student who had expressed anxiety about international travel. They had a wonderful time and now the student can’t wait to travel again. Ceci also goes above and beyond to make sure our students are offered multiple opportunities to connect with industry experts and job opportunities. She truly cares for all of our students and makes extra efforts to reach out and assist whenever possible. We are very lucky to have such a caring and diligent person like Ceci in our school.
Nominated by: Lora Hacker
Stephanie Van Cleve-DeHerrera
Stephanie is a superhero. She supports all hospitality students in finding all their work, internships and post-grad job placements. Her dedication to student success is inspiring. She forges and maintains all the employer relationships Fritz has, and she is always willing to help any of her peers. We are all so grateful for her support of the Firtz community.
Nominated by: Lauren Sepulveda
March 2024
Ruby Pierce
We appreciate how easy and fun it is to work with Ruby around the engagement of our industry partners and alumni. Ruby is always up to collaborate, think through process improvements and partner on programming, outreach and events. She works so hard, so diligently and, of course, she is always such a pleasure to work with too! Thank you, Ruby for all that you do to help connect our partners and alumni with faculty and students!
Nominated by: Kate Dillon and Cody Sherrod
Nicole Gleason
As Burns School advisor, Nicole goes out of her way to make our students feel heard and cared for. She has a wonderful, caring way about her that makes each of the students she advises feel special. She is supportive of not only their academic goals but their personal goals as well. She works whatever hours it requires to make sure each student has been taken care of and is set for the upcoming quarters. Nicole helps our school be successful, and we appreciate all of her efforts!
Nominated by: Lora Hacker
Becca Gilliland
As a newer staff member, I’ve had loads of questions about University processes, procedures and resources. Becca made herself available right away to point me in all the right directions. She is always open to connecting the dots and lending a hand, and is a truly invaluable colleague. Thanks, Becca!
Nominated by: Kelly Baug
Amy Foss
Students often share with me how kind and knowledgeable Amy is when they need to adjust their schedule, their major/career goals, or accommodate their schedule with other needs. She has actively and effectively guided students toward success-creating manageable goals to increase their GPA, their wellbeing and their access to resources. Her work is integral to academic advising at Daniels, and everyone she works alongside loves her for both her kindness and excellence. She goes above and beyond to not simply do her job well, but to create a supportive culture within Daniels for both her colleagues and students.
Nominated by: Jess Singleton
February 2024
Meredith Dart
Meredith provides a much-needed strategic perspective and works diligently to continually improve how we operate. She is resilient in the face of challenges and always brings an innovative mindset to problem-solving.
Nominated by: Victoria Brunson
Leslie Rivera
Although she joined Daniels less than a year ago, Leslie has been incredibly effective assisting with searches to fill senior leadership positions as well as helping with a wide variety of tasks for the benefit of the overall College. She is always willing to help, making herself available in many ways. Her joyful personality is a great plus for life on the 6th floor!
Nominated by: Lorenzo Patelli
Hannah Hansard
Hannah has worked so hard with her colleagues on Staff Advocacy Board to make the Daniels experience better for all staff. She is always thinking of new ways to get feedback, including the survey that she created and helped send out last week. I love her passion for staff retention and can’t wait to see how she continues to make Daniels a better place!
Nominated by: Zoe Jackson
Bailee Gardunio
This year, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Race and Case. As assistant director of MBA experientials, Bailee was tasked with organizing and facilitating this unique case competition with over 10 student teams from Daniels. Given this was her first year organizing and overseeing this event and it being a special anniversary, Bailee stepped up to the challenge in true Daniels fashion. Congratulations on the terrific level of participation and providing this memorable experience for our students.
Nominated by: Lowell Valencia-Miller
Kelly Baug
Kelly helps our office stay on top of the latest in faculty research for our newsletters and other communications. She is organized, detail-oriented and does such high-quality work!
Nominated by: Lorne Fultonberg
January 2024
Melissa Archpru Akaka
Melissa is obviously so passionate about research! I’m sure her job description doesn’t say anything about doing weekly Q&As with faculty about their research, building a space like The Lounge to connect and discuss learnings throughout the College, thinking through new ways to spread the word about what amazing things we’re doing at Daniels…the list could go on. Her passion for what she’s doing is obvious, and it goes above and beyond what has been tasked of her. Congrats on a successful soft launch of The Lounge, Melissa!
Nominated by: Randi Eskanos
Rachel Lim
In the four months that Rachel has been with Daniels, she has made her mark by creating a thesaurus for all things academic advising that has significantly improved efficiency and streamlined communication between various advisors and teams.
Nominated by: Tarini Sharma
Kate Dillon
Hannah has worked so hard with her colleagues on Staff Advocacy Board to make the Daniels experience better for all staff. She is always thinking of new ways to get feedback, including the survey that she created and helped send out last week. I love her passion for staff retention and can’t wait to see how she continues to make Daniels a better place!
Nominated by: Claire Haugen