Campus Kudos
Campus Kudos celebrates and acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of our talented and hard-working faculty, staff, and students.
President Kevin Hall will recognize the people receiving Campus Kudos at informal celebration events throughout the academic year.
Kudos are shared with our campus community so we can all learn more about the great things happening at UVic and the people that make up this institution.
The next Campus Kudos will be in November 2022.
Nominations
The UVic community is made up of people and groups doing amazing things every day to make a difference in our world and on our campus. We want to celebrate the many kinds of contributions—small or large, visible or unseen—that make UVic a great place to work and study.
Please nominate faculty, staff and students who have:
- Made a significant or creative contribution to the campus community by going above or beyond their role,
- Are engaged with the wider community and working to make Greater Victoria a great place to live, work and learn, and/or
- Have received significant external awards for scholarship, learning, teaching, research or community contributions.
There is a very simple nomination process:
- Please fill out the Campus Kudos form to let President Hall know about the achievements of current faculty, staff members, or students.
- You can submit a nomination whenever you identify someone who you think deserves kudos—deadlines for upcoming events will be published in the Campus Checklist.
Nominations may be submitted at any time.
The November 2022 Campus Kudos event has a full slate of nominees. Any nominations submitted at this time will be considered for the April 2023 event.
Recipients
Lori Nolt - Director of Student Awards and Financial Aid
- Modeling patient, compassionate and courageous leadership supporting the needs of students, especially those who deal with financial hardships.
Mary McCue - Director's Assistant and Office Administrator for the First People's House
- Making people feel comfortable and at ease. Ensuring the First People's House feels like a "home away from home," especially for visiting Elders.
Lori Shaw - Immigration Coordinator for the Office of General Counsel
- Went above and beyond her duties to secure a playwright and her family from Zimbabwe, navigating flights, hotels, quarantine, and even meeting them in Vancouver when they arrived.
Philip Cox - Communications Officer, Faculty of Humanities
- An extremely skilled strategic thinker with a deep commitment to collegiality, collaboration, equity, diversity, Indigenization, and decolonization.
Diane Sam - Cultural Protocol Liaison, Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement
- Critical to all UVic's cultural protocol, Diane often goes out of her way to support events like the 215+ Remembrance Ceremony, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the Indigenous Welcome to the Campus, calling on her personal networks to ensure success.
Melvin Peters - Director of Administration, Faculty of Humanities
- Melvin has gone above and beyond in supporting mentoring HUmanities faculty and staff, building strong relationships, and advancing the work of equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and decolonization.
John Threlfall - Communications and Special Projects Officer, Faculty of Arts
- Consistently goes above and beyond in offering his creativity and ingenuity to many initiatives on campus, improving our campus culture as a fun and better-informed space for all.
Legacy Art Galleries Team:
Nicole Achtymichuk, Gillian Booth, Shannon Lake, Katie Hughes, Orvis Starkweather, Lorilee Wastasecoot, Caroline Ridel, and Roger Huffman
- Moved swiftly and safely to be one of the first public venues on campus to open during the pandemic demonstrating dedication and passion for supporting arts and culture in our community.
Library Custodial Services:
Mike Gillespie, Dave Collins, Chris Sawatsky, Thai Le, Jimmy Aquino, Dave Gellatly, Rodrigo Solomon, and Ruenruedee Nimwilai
- With a unique combination of fearlessness and positivity, this team made it possible for those working and studying in the libraries to continue doing so during the most challenging times during th pandemic.
Decolonizing Description Task Group:
Laura Doublet, Ry Moran, Jane Morrison, Lisa Petrachenko, Pia Russell, and Dean Seeman
- Actively set out to change aspects of an outdated and offensive global vocabulary, guided by a set of principles that prioritize respect, diversity, and improved representation in describing Indigenous-focused material across the Libraries’ collections and resources.
Copyright and Scholarly Communications Team:
Inba Kehoe, Emma Hilliard, Jennifer Ashmore, and Mary Macleod
- This team scanned the university landscape to determine the extent to which the Libraries’ licensed electronic resources were being used, identified 327 titles being used in 270 courses, which resulted in a savings of near $630K for UVic students.
Rapid Test distribution & COIVD-19 Logistics Teams:
Adam Taylor, Janice Johnson, Melanie Groves, Kim Fawthorpe, Michelle Peterson, Tom Downie, Patrick Seward, Rob Johns, Boriana Tzatcheva, Ron Proulx, Ron Kozan, Nav Bassi, Ben McAllister, Andy Mavretic, Pam Richards, Vanessa Cartwright, Anisa Montgomery, Jaclyn Davidson, and Chandra Beaveridge
- These teams made sure employees and students could pick up packs of rapid tests for COVID-19 during a time when kits were scarce, handing out more than 10,000 kits over a period of 7 days. They also coordinated the free UVic mask program in partnership with Student Affairs, the furniture and equipment protocols to support remote offices with Facilities Management, the vaccine attestation follow-up program, and much more.
Internal Communications Team:
Ethan Perriccioli, Julie Sloan, Christina Harris, Lindsay Gagel, Ali Baggott, Krista Boehnert, Mel Carter, Mallory DeMille, Denise Helm, Mel Groves, Alicia Kaiser, Erin King, Christine Howard, and Rain Scott
- This team's work was crucial in directly supporting the university’s ongoing and rapidly changing Covid responses for the past two years. Available at all hours, 24/7, they ensured the entire campus community was both promptly informed and prepared at every stage of the pandemic developments.
Parchment Project Team:
Kellee Strom, Kjalen Hansen, Christine Howard, and Melanie Carter
- This team developed a modern parchment worthy of UVic's outstanding graduates today and in the future through cross-Canada research on best practices. Key objectives included adding graduate’s primary area of study, an embossed gold seal, inclusion of UVic's Territorial Acknowledgement and enhanced security features.
- Doing impressive work supporting undergraduate student faculty members, chairs, and directors, and impacting the campus community in the Tri-Faculties.
- Working hard in support and care for the community.
- Successfully assisting colleagues, students, and the program Chair. Jennifer has enhanced media presence, provided problem-solving solutions and support in all aspects of running the department.
- Helped streamline the posting process of a record-breaking number of job postings in UVic Careers over the past nine months by suggesting additional improvements to the current process, by reviewing posting requisitions quickly and by expediting time-sensitive requests.
- Developing an Indigenous implementation plan for each of the faculties that responded to UVic’s Indigenous Plan and the Strategic Framework as well as the TRC Calls to Action.
- Created the strong and strategic appearance of Aspiration 2030 that included representation of all UVic’s impact areas and honoured Carey Newman’s artwork.
- Development and maintenance of the University Systems Contracts Database which processes supports a continuity of services and cost savings for all central IT equipment, licenses, and services.
- Maintaining and improving the research support services provided to faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in the Faculty of Human and Social Development, including an increased workload of new COVID-19 related research projects.
- Supporting students and faculty with experiential learning opportunities, community-engaged courses/research, and professional development.
- Keeping the lights on and meeting the needs of both campus users and community groups using the facility while protecting the health and safety of everyone who comes to the Farquhar Auditorium.
- Helping students, colleagues, and staffs with advising students so that they get the most out of their education at UVic.
- Managing a significant fundraising portfolio while also being open and available to mentor other fundraising professionals.
Cat Price — Assistant to the Associate Dean, Advising-Humanities, Science & Social Sciences
- Assisted students through academic support with tri-fac programs, ensuring staff safety, knowledge, and training in all practices.
- Building a learning program exclusively for UVic. The “Learning that Shifts U” employee learning program has six learning series and a total of 30 courses (plus electives) that are designed and developed by and for UVic employees to support the UVic competencies and UVic’s strategic priorities.
- Contributed towards sustainable procurement and leadership at UVic and cultivating sustainability in procurement. He developed the Supplier Code of Conduct that emphasizes UVic’s commitment to global leadership in environment, social and institutional sustainability and outlines expectations for suppliers to integrate corporate social responsibility approach to their business practices.
- Leadership and contributions in the purchase of the IT related software agreements for UVic. Supported negotiation and execution of various complex system involved procurement contracts for the University such as procurement of services for One Card program and Thrive Health
- Successfully launched the Banner 9 Student Registration system for Summer Session 2022. They worked to install, configure, modify, test and document the new system in order to ensure a seamless transition for students and for the staff who support registration.
Ian Case — Ceremonies and Events
- championing arts and culture on campus despite the challenges of the pandemic, including building and maintaining strong local partnerships such as with the Victoria Symphony.
Carmen Welta, Amanda Hawkins, Richard Toogood, Mandy Pearce, Wendy Joyce, Heather MacLennan, Ruth Adam, Vugar Mehraliyev, Kathleen Garland and Bob Fleming — EducationPlanner BC admission application project team
- successfully integrating a new province-wide application process for our prospective undergraduate students
Ashley de Moscoso and Tara Britt — Classroom Safety Ambassador Program
- leading the creation and coordination of the very successful Classroom Safety Ambassador Program to support COVID-19 safety protocols throughout the 2020-2021 Winter and 2021 Summer Sessions
Susan Lewis and Kane Kilbey – UVic COVID-19 Transition Team co-chairs
- leading our university through the pandemic — from navigating the pivot to online learning through overseeing our safe return to campus this fall
Bruce Kilpatrick, Erin King, Cara Segger, Heather Warren, Beth Doman, Amos Rowsell, Len Collins, Cathie Walker, Ali Baggott, Kim Dias, Kelly Clark, Lindsay Gagel, Cecil Blakeslee, Robin Sutherland, Craig McNaughton, Ray Choo, Ethan Perriccioli, Dorothy Eggenberer, Sejr Andersen and Ivan Petrovic — UVic.ca redesign project team
- displaying dedication and commitment to excellence throughout the multi-year project that resulted in an award-winning new website for UVic
Jodie Walsh – Centre for Global Studies
- being “the glue that holds the centre together” and commitment to the university shown through generously supporting other areas of campus operations and sharing institutional knowledge during the pandemic
Gord Lyall – History PhD candidate
- facilitating the inaugural Faculty of Humanities Student Research Forum and supporting graduate student research assistants across the faculty
Garry Sagert, Scott Thompson, Ivan Petrovic, Rizwan Bashir, Lance Grant, Nav Bassi, Marcus Greenshields, Laurene Sheilds, Mariel Miller, Craig Scharien, Alex Warrington, Hajime Kataoka, Becca Edwards and Katy Chan — UVic Systems and the Division of learning and Teaching Support and Innovation
- deploying Brightspace, a new learning management system, within 60 days to respond to the challenges of remote learning during the pandemic, and implementing new classroom technology to prepare for the return to campus
Lawrence Lu & Peter Cassar — Facilities Management Waste Reduction
- helping the university manage and keep up with the ever-changing COVID-19 pandemic health and safety protocols in extremely short timelines so the university could continue to serve our students.
Rob Hancock — Anthropology & Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement
- going above and beyond to be an agent of change at UVic in support of Indigenization and decolonization across the institution and for mentoring Indigenous students, staff and faculty.
Alexandrine Bourealt-Fournier — Anthropology
- work and scholarship in the service of Anthropology while teaching grad and undergrad courses, acting as Chair and honours advisor, and editing Anthropologica journal.
Marc Bavin — Office of Global Engagement
Robyn Fila — Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives
- developing successful grant proposals that resulted in $1 million for student mobility programs.
Tine Lathouwers — Human Resources
- swiftly assembling the campus Rapid Antigen Testing Clinic while handling a huge caseload of Remote Work Agreement requests.
Carolyn Choo, Timothy O'Gorman, Simon Farrow, Bert Timmermans & Michael Caudwell — Theatre, Libraries & Facilities Management
- quickly and creatively lighting the Mearns Centre for Learning — McPherson Library in orange to reflect UVic's commitment to truth and reconciliation, and to display our grief and solidarity with Indigenous communities across the country.
Bruce Ravelli — Sociology
- scholarly and teaching contributions that inspire students and demonstrate how sociology can help promote a better world.
Jeanie Gunn, Jennifer Wong, Morgan Slavkin, Mira Cvitanovic — Ceremonies and Events
Alex Solunac, Flemming Sorvin, Luke Mynott, Mike Thomas, Jeff Birmingham, Jordan Forbes, Eugene Deen — University Systems AV Tech
- amazing and knowledgeable assistance in running events and for quickly becoming experts in delivering remote and hybrid events during the pandemic.
Danielle Mulligan — Development
- leading UVic's Giving Tuesday campaign to greater and greater heights each year and receiving the CASE Rising Star Award in Philanthropy for her early career successes.
Liz Eby, Samantha Krzywonos, Amanda Taylor, Nicole Boulet & Danielle Mulligan — Development
- working during the pandemic to receive their Certified Fund Raising Executive designations.
Samantha Knudson — Fine Arts
- consistently demonstrating compassion and collegiality in all of her work. She made it possible to hold in-person classes during the pandemic; provided supports to students unable to travel home over the holidays due to travel restrictions and was instrumental in welcoming four Syrian musicians.
Steve Gorham — Human Resources
- working with openness, authenticity and outstanding commitment to making UVic a positive and productive place to work for everyone.
Neil Burford — Acting Associate Dean Academic, Faculty of Science & Professor, Department of Chemistry
- a long career of service, leadership and mentorship in his department and faculty, at UVic and across the scientific community
Mike Figursky — Manager, Production Services, Farquhar Auditorium
- research and leadership in developing safe work plans that allowed the Farquhar to continue to serve the School of Music and host the Victoria Symphony’s virtual season
Anne Hung — English student
- led a team of multi-year students to develop a peer mentorship project for over 80 incoming students who wouldn’t be able to meet other students during COVID-19
Fawzan Hussain — Engineering student
- first-year engineering student who used 3D printers to create and deliver 1,545 pieces of personal protective equipment to over 30 organizations across B.C. during the pandemic. Fawzan received the BC Medal of Good Citizenship!
International Student Services Team — Tricia Best and Carmencita Duna
- provided welcome, supports and community to international students during the pandemic through self-isolation assistance, virtual engagement and peer-to-peer connection programs
Rob Iuvalé — Supervisor, Science Stores, Faculty of Science
- supporting his team while helping to keep lab research going during COVID-19
Dean Karlen — Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
- developing a new, highly successful, statistical model for COVID-19 epidemiology
David Leitch — Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry
- organized a team to produce hundreds of litres of Health Canada approved hand sanitizer that was donated to local hospitals
Michael Lines — Learning and Research Librarian, UVic Libraries
- making connections between local schools and the university since 2014 with his Bookbinding for Kids workshops
Andy Mavretic — Director, Occupational Health, Safety & Environment, Human Resources
- coordinating the creation and implementation of the over 700 safe work plans that have kept us safe working on campus during COVID-19
Office of Student Life Team — Priyanka Lopez, Gavin Gao, Raquel Slotten, Angi Ross
- developed the New Student Connect Program that provided an online university community to over 3,000 first-year students from all over the world
Residence Services Team — Kathryn McLeod, Chad Dalrymple, Rose Marie Roxburgh, Terry Forst
- responsible for bringing 840 first-year students to live on campus this year and supporting their student experience with innovative and safe student life programming
Joni Richardson — Programmer, Intramurals & Outdoor Recreation, VIKES Athletics
- instrumental in developing an approach to virtual esports/video gaming participation that is now taking seed with other institutions and grabbing hold in the rest of Canada