Employee Recognition

2025 Employee Shout-Outs

• June
  • Koogle and Kelsey, Student Engagement: Thank you for taking care of the staff by making us pancakes before staff development day. Amazing way to start the day!
  • Nick Pierce, Library: Nick made it through his first Academic Year at Champlain! He’s a great addition to the library team and has brought much valuable knowledge from his previous institutions. He walked into a bit of chaos but took it all in stride while reviewing workflows and looking for ways to improve current processes. His competence and poise has been an invaluable addition to the team.
  • Nichole Martin, CCO eLearning: A shout out to Nichole Martin on the CCO eLearning team! Nichole has this amazing ability to spot challenges and create custom AI solutions that make our work flow so much smoother. Her proactive approach means she’s always thinking ahead for the whole team’s benefit. Nichole’s thoughtful problem-solving and genuine care for making everyone’s work easier truly embodies what makes the CCO eLearning team thrive. Thank you, Nichole!
• May
  • Murat Gungor, Faculty, CSI: As an academic coach, I hear student perspectives on many classes and many professors. Students consistently describe Professor Murat Gungor as a great teacher – but equally important, I have heard from numerous students about how he handles it when they fall behind. If they don’t turn in an assignment or two, he reaches out to check on them, asks them to come in and make a plan, and supports them to complete their work, even if it feels overwhelming or they’re in struggle. Recently, a student told me, “If I could take ALL my classes from Murat Gungor, I would.” Thank you for taking exceptional care of our students, Murat!
  • CCO eLearning Team: Sharing a shout-out to the entire eLearning team, for stepping up to the challenge of transitioning our graduate courses from an 8-week to 7-week format. Special thanks to Erin Meenan for managing the process with agility and keeping everything on track. Kudos to all involved for helping us tackle this challenge with creativity and care!
  • Pat Boera, Bruce Bovat, Zeke Davico, Cory Davis, Renae Desautels, Bethany Dietrich, Liza Geduldig, Linda Goodrum, Angela Koukoulas, Nick Pierece, Kerry Shackett, Megan Sheldon, Sarah Stack, Susan Waryck, Kyra Yu: A heartfelt THANK YOU to all the amazing volunteers who helped make this finals week’s Lemonade Stands a success! Your time, energy, and friendly smiles made finals week a little brighter for our students. Because of you, our community was reminded of the power of support and kindness. Thank you for helping us turn life’s lemons into lemonade!
  • Multiple folks in Information Systems: CCO eLearning sends a big shoutout of thanks to the IS team. Their technical expertise and responsive support have empowered us to work smarter, innovate faster, and implement sustainable course design, development, and delivery solutions. Special thanks to Diana Matot, Ginger Pressey, Chris North, Cooper Fellows, and JJ Anderson. And, extra-super-special thanks to Sue Ragusa!
  • Donna Swartout, Student Success Team (Accessibility and Academic Coaching): Donna is an exceptional leader whose relaxed, inclusive, collaborative style encourages teammates to excel in our areas of strength, use work flows that work, and connect with each other in meaningful ways as we move toward important, well-understood, and clearly articulated goals on behalf of students. Thank you for making our work lives so much more rewarding – and for helping students with your unwavering advocacy.
  • Leslie van Wagner, Student Success/Academic Coaching: Leslie is exceptionally skilled at the things that matter most, humble about her capabilities, incredibly supportive of her colleagues, and generous with sharing her wisdom. We can also count on Leslie to say what needs to be said, speaking diplomatically and forthrightly about even the most sensitive of topics. Thank you Leslie for being the incredible colleague you are!
  • CCO Advising Team: To the CCO Advising team and everyone who helped make the Mix n Mingle a success, thank you! It takes a lot of work to coordinate this event and it means the world to the attendees, most of which have never been on campus or to VT before. A huge thank you to everyone from program directors and department chairs to marketing, advising, academics, volunteers, and other staff- you make the magic happen!
  • Kaitie Catania, Trad Marketing: Kaitie is doing an extraordinary job distilling an entire institution’s worth of changes, plans, hopes, and dreams into concise, effective messaging for our audiences. She makes it look easy, but Kaitie is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the college behind the scenes. Thank you so much for your hard work and brain power, Kaitie!
• April
  • Catherine Durkee, Enrollment Management: Catherine has been such a huge help to the EM team as we prioritize data-driven strategy!!
  • Nate & Alex, Compass: Nate & Alex are doing an amazing job supporting students at every stage of their Champlain journey with all sorts of questions. They are the foundation of so much of what keeps this community running!
  • Joey Conti, Physical Plant: Thanks Joey for your help in setting up the MIC terrace! You made sure it happened in a way that was respectful of studying students, which I’m sure is appreciated. It’s been great to see students back out in the sunshine, all thanks to your help.
  • Julia Blanding, Christian Konczal, Anthony Rivers, Kyra Yu, Division of Student Affairs: Thanks to this thoughtful diligent group in helping to craft a new anti-hazing policy for the Champlain community. Their efforts took abstract and complex US Federal legislation and helped translate it for our community to help make Champlain a safer, healthier, and more respectful place to live, learn, and work. Thank you for all of your hard work!
  • IDX Dining Hall, Mail Center, HUB Desk, MIC Front Desk, President’s Office: Thank you to the named offices for their support in sponsoring a vase of teal ribbons for the 2025 Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) Teal Ribbon Campaign. Your efforts in support of this campus-wide initiative help raise awareness, visibility, and support for survivors and rejecting all forms of sexual violence. Offices interested in supporting future SAAM events can contact the Title IX Office at titleix@champlain.edu.
• March
  • John Ware, IS: John was incredible in helping switch over a truly tired and dying laptop for me this past week. Not only did he recognize the deadlines I was under and come to me to make the transfer happen, but he checked in the next day to ensure everything was installed and working smoothly. John was calming, patient, and kind on top of knowledgeable and efficient. Thanks so much for keeping me up and running and for helping us stay on track to hit deadlines on some important work for the College. I couldn’t be more grateful!
  • JJ Anderson, IS/Champ Support: Thank you for helping the PC team fix the issues with the Tuition form. Your wisdom, assistance, and patience during this process has been greatly appreciated!
  • Hannah Puryear and Ashley Taylor, People Center: Prioritizing their week to assist on the Oracle revamp project at crunch time! Stepping out of their comfort zones and being amazing team players.
  • Wayne Buttles, IS: WAYNE FOR PRESIDENT! Wayne is one of the hardest workers, his commitment and dedication, especially to the revamp project is incredible. He is willing to step out of his area to understand pieces to improve his piece of any puzzle. He makes “automagic” succeed and has the patience of a saint, plus he’s fun to work with! You’re a genius!
  • Ed Schlack, Mail Center: Ed is a rockstar!! Thank you for keeping all our mail moving out and coming back in, and especially for doing it all by yourself this week with no Student Workers.
  • Rebecca Cole and Jen Perlee,?IS: Creating a system improvement for one of our CCO application processes, which will greatly improve processing time. Previously, this was a longer, manual process for staff. We can now complete much quicker in order to get an applicant an updated application and decision.
  • Molly Bove, Linda Goodrum, Jean-Marie Severance, Academic Affairs: Molly, Jean-Marie, and Linda have worked hard this academic year to keep things running smoothly as we manage so many changes. With their team reduced to only three, they’ve worked tirelessly and regularly gone above and beyond to continue to support our students, faculty, and the college as a whole. So much of what they do is done quietly and behind the scenes and not always obvious to the rest of us. Thank you!
  • Ed Schlack, Mail Center: A huge thanks to Ed for intercepting an important package that was somehow lacking a name and keeping it safe for pick-up! He is truly a lifesaver!
  • Jennifer Kennelly & Kenny Pho, Finance: THANK YOU so much for always being so patient with our endless Oracle questions, P-card purchase issues, budget & finance problems, etc. AND, most importantly, for always doing it with a smile and a quick response time during your own very busy days. You two ROCK!
  • Hallie Pixley, Campus Operations: Hallie has been crushing it as of late and on the regular. As with many events of high intricacy, I’m sure that this most recent Admitted Students day came with its share of challenges. Preparation alone takes arduous effort, refinement, and patience. And even with such onerous practice, it’s still Vermont and you still might get snowed on. But, Hallie Pixley is no fair-weather hero. When it comes time to get the work done, she shows formidable ethic, and dexterous capability. The Ides of who? — she sayeth unto those non-believers. Hallie, strong work and keep crushing.
  • Library Reference Team, Library: Thank you for helping me find locate NYT articles and NYT blog posts through the library databases. It saves me and my students time. A+ for the reference desk.
• February
  • James Lang, Helpdesk: James came in on his day off during the power outage to get the network core running again, saving the day.
  • Josh Corrow, Tim Van Woert, Jason Cone, Conor O’Brien, Darrin Pillsbury, Joey Conti, Lisa Mazz, Danelle Berube, Kelsey O’Connor, Heidi LeBrun, Nic Anderson and Kaylee Sullivan: These incredible team members went above and beyond to bring the Burton Winter Jam at Champlain to life last Thursday. Over 300 people turned out to enjoy exceptional skiing and riding, food trucks, vendor booths and good cheer. This event would not have been possible without the many hours of thoughtful planning and day-of execution contributed by this team. Thank you for your attention to all the many details and ESPECIALLY for your resourcefulness in gathering and spreading snow and quick thinking in the midst of our event-day power outage. In the words one Champlain student attendee, “This [event] is my proudest Champlain moment.”
  • Kate Reid, Trad Marketing: Kate is handling a huge job with grace, patience, and determination! She’s had an incredibly positive impact here from day one. She’s a smart, supportive, forward-thinking leader who is doing an amazing job inspiring her team and using data to find the right path forward. THANK YOU, Kate, for your hard work and strategic thinking!
  • Liz Kutka, CCO Advertising: Liz took several hours out of her evening to work on making the first CCO Research Night a reality–and a success! Liz was there to support, help troubleshoot, and greet students who joined. From the library: “We are definitely planning more research help and outreach events in the future, and tapping into the knowledge and professionalism of your team has been key to getting that initiative off the ground.”
  • Leslie Van Wagner, Megan Sheldon, Elaine O’Reilly, Michael Coleman, SMART Space: What an incredible team! The SMART Space provides extraordinary support to students every day. Their work is so important and I am so grateful they are available to students. SMART Space: thank you for all your work – especially during this busy midterms-season! You are awesome!
  • J.J. Anderson, IS: Thank you to JJ for saving us from frustration on processing Tuition Waivers for employees. JJ showed extreme patience in following our ramble of the process. JJ went above expectations by creating a document with step by step instructions for anyone in the People Center to pick up and process the Tuition Waivers. Many thanks.
• January
  • Rebecca Cole, IS: Thank you for all your help with CCO projects! We appreciate you!
  • Kathi & team, GMHEC: Even if they don’t see Champlain’s shoutouts themselves, I want to express my profound gratitude to Kathi and the GMHEC staff for listening to an issue I had with our healthcare options and helping me get that issue resolved. I was nervous to even bring it up because I didn’t think anything could be done. It’s no exaggeration to say that this is life-changing for me—I feel valued and cared for as an employee and as a person. Thank you!!
  • Jimena Huaco, Institutional Research: Jimena recently lead a small group through some deep data dives so that the College would be prepared for some regulatory changes. She worked tirelessly to get the data prepped and then submitted. I grateful for her dedication, attention to detail, and can-do attitude while we navigated this complicated work. Jimena is awesome!
  • John Earp, IT: Thank you John for answering my text over break and coming in and dealing with the emergency phone issue, also for all you do for us at physical plant.
  • Jimena Huaco, Tara Arneson, Katrina Bennett, Cullen Bostock: Can we get a round of applause for the amazing crew who wrestled those new federal reporting requirements to the ground?! You navigated the red tape, deciphered the jargon, and emerged victorious. Seriously, thank you for your hard work and for keeping your sense of humor throughout!
  • Tony Calacci & CPS Team, Campus Public Safety: Tony and the CPS Team encountered a significant campus challenge related to radio coverage and support for our campus community. They were tenacious and diligent in their resolve to brainstorm and problem-solve till they discovered a resolution that met the needs of our campus community and was financially savvy. Thank you to Tony and the CPS Team for your continued dedicate work on this challenge and so many others. We’re thankful to have each of you here!
  • Tara Arneson, Pat Boera, Cory Davis, Zeke Davico, Bethany Dietrich, Renae Desautels, Joe Eastman, Liza Geduldig, Linda Goodrum, Danielle L’Esperance, Natasha Murray, LaKysha Patnode, Nicholas Pierce, James Quinlan, Megan Sheldon, Kerry Shackett, Warren Sides, Sarah Stack, Matthew Stattel, Kaylee Sullivan, Susan Waryck, Leandre Waldo, Kyra Yu: A heartfelt THANK YOU to all the incredible volunteers who made this year’s Lemonade Stands a huge success! Your time, energy, and warm smiles brightened finals and the first week of classes for our students. Your efforts reminded our community of the power of support and kindness. Thank you for helping us turn life’s lemons into lemonade!