MENTOR
AWARD:
Becky, who was nominted by two of the employees she supervises, won the
mentoring award for her "selfless work" in helping others achieve all they
can. A ceremony honoring Becky as AP Mentor of the Year took place Wednesday, April 2, at the Ensminger Pavilion on the WSU campus. The
award/reception event was part of the Women
& Leadership Forum.
GRANT AND CONTRACT AWARD:
Those who attended the honoree luncheon on Feb 7 were able to hear the praise
that other administrators had for Becky, IPN's Finance Manager.
Dan Nordquist, who presented the award at a special luncheon in early February
for the SPA group, told the audience of Becky's outstanding contributions to
this arena.
"Becky is absolutely terrific," Nordquist told those at
the luncheon, quoting from some of the praise Becky's nominators wrote about
her. "She’s intelligent, clever, energetic, and possesses many other
positive attributes that make her a whiz at what she does.
"Becky is the most knowledgeable, skillful, highly-efficient and
professional staff I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I know
things will be taken care of once Becky is on the task.
"Becky has become a 'go to' person for the faculty in the IPN Department.
Having over a 25-year history and perspective of working at one department
at WSU has allowed her to understand all the university systems to make life
easier for her faculty – including personnel/payroll, purchasing, travel,
property inventory, budgeting, proposal development, award management, and a
slew of other duties we all love, i.e., relocation, VISA processing, lab
renovations, and export controls!
"She is always on top of the departmental finances, and has an incredible
knack for anticipating situations regarding grant budgets, new positions in
our labs, and virtually all of our needs, large and small. A common
recommendation in our department is to 'talk with Becky, she knows
everything.' And after working with her for the past 15 years, I
wholeheartedly believe there is nothing she can't either already do or
figure out how to do. Becky keeps our IPN department moving forward
smoothly and seamlessly!
"Becky’s knowledge of the university, extramural funding agency regulations
and good business practices are invaluable to grants management and all
manner of fiscal operations in our department. Her skills enable my
colleagues and me to devote more of our time to scholarship and teaching and
less time to the minutia of financial management. Becky’s contribution along
these lines looms very large in the life of today’s biomedical researcher,
who must spend more and more time filling out forms, applications, progress
reports, etc. etc. etc. I should add that Becky also is invaluable in
dealing with personnel issues, whether related to grant finance or not.
"She’s the exemplar of service to others. 'Others' include her peers across
the university, the staff she supervises, and the faculty of the department
she serves. She approaches everything with a 'How may I help you?' attitude.
The IPN Department has a great staff that reflects this same attitude, and
much of that is due to Becky’s example. Her generosity with her talents
across the university – whether with respect to grants administration,
immigration, or staff culture and workplace environment – also makes WSU a
better place.
"I have been active in research and teaching at WSU for 34 years. I
can say without any hesitation that I have relied on Becky Morton more than
any other person to help me track, account for, and efficiently utilize my
research funding. In fact, before Becky came on board, I don’t know how we
managed! She always is completely professional and entirely ethical.
In summary, she is an invaluable 'world class act,' and pleasure to work
with 'face to face'!”
Congratulations, Becky!
