Hello I'm Kristin Cacchioni,
interim executive director for human resources on the Okanagan campus.
It is my great pleasure to announce the winners of our Staff Awards of Excellence. Each individual
winner receives a certificate and $2,000, and the team award winners will share $5,000
in prize money and will also receive individual certificates. Once again this year, we received
a large number of incredible award nomination packages. A total of 20 nominations were received,
all of them worthy of an award. This number is a true reflection to both the incredible
dedication of our staff and the important role that recognition holds in our workplace.
While we are only able to recognize six recipients, I want to thank everyone for
their contributions in nominating staff and encourage you to continue
doing so as these awards wouldn’t be possible without your hard work.
I also want to make special mention of the dedicated members of our Awards Committee:
Lois Marshall, Jenica Frisque, Adrienne Nolan, and Pauline Potocky – who had a particularly
challenging role to select only 6 award recipients from the many amazing nominations.
Enhancing the UBC Experience (Customer Service) is awarded to an individual who has accomplished some
or all of the following: Improve the value and efficiency of the services they provide;
maintain a consistently high quality of service to UBC Okanagan including faculty, staff, students,
and alumni; anticipated clients needs and potential problems and acted to proactively
resolve; created new cost-effective and/or innovative methods for performing day-to-day
activities; displayed exemplary problem-solving skills; served as role models to others through
openness to new ways of doing things and consistently positive interactions.
This year we have awarded two recipients under this category. The first award for
Enhancing the UBC Experience is Joel Thiessen, from UBC Studios.
As a Senior Emerging and Digital Media Specialist, Joel has enhanced the UBC Experience in many ways.
The nominators describe Joel as approaching all tasks with a high level of respect,
value, and efficiency in the services he provides. Joel goes above and beyond to ensure he is
available. Students enjoy his sense of humor, and his compassion when they struggle with technology.
He has demonstrated his ability to be a role model and mentor in his work with students.
Joel was nominated by Fiona McDonald who has said Joel has shown to be consistent in delivering
a high quality of professionalism and skills and thrives on interacting with others as well
as being able to anticipate the various needs of those he works with. Joel is proactive and
collaborative in how he presents solutions to technical problems as well as being innovative
with and for the UBCO Community which contributes positively to the financial capacity of UBC. His
collaborative spirit enhances UBCO every single day and this energy and passion is what makes
our campus thrive. All of these contributions continue to show how Joel is an ideal role model
in the UBC community. Thank you, Joel, for your incredible contributions to our campus.
The second award under the same criteria of Enhancing the UBC
Experience is presented to a recipient who exemplifies the qualities of this award.
Lucia Boersma, the Assistant to the Director in Athletics and Recreation,
is the second award recipient for Enhancing the UBC Experience. Lucia was nominated by
Tom Huisman. Lucia embodies this award whether it be by welcoming new student-athletes and
staff members to the department, or knitting Heat slippers for newborns to the Heat family.
Lucia brings a ‘family-caring’ approach to her interactions with all. She shares her time with
all of her co-workers and does so to ensure that tasks are accomplished and deadlines are met.
Lucia illustrates what a team player and a leader are.
She takes on challenges and finds solutions to difficult situations or tasks.
Lucia is known as “Mama Luus” to student athletes and epitomizes a high standard of service
by always putting the needs of the students’ first. She consistently goes above and beyond
her regular duties to ensure student athletes have a positive experience at UBC Okanagan.
Lucia has enriched the lives of many by providing an inviting, safe and inclusive environment.
Thank you, Lucia, for all that you do for us at UBC Okanagan and beyond.
We have awarded two recipients under the category of leadership. Both of these recipients have
demonstrated leadership excellence through their tenure on the Okanagan campus. Leadership is
awarded to an individual that accomplished some or all of the following: Establish and
maintain exemplary and inclusive people practices; provided a sense of purpose, vision and mission
for their co-workers and/or staff; positively influenced others to build consensus and action
around departmental or organizational objectives; managed and led change initiatives effectively;
achieved sustainable results; invested time and effort in coaching and/or mentoring .
This year we have awarded two recipients under the category of leadership. Both of these recipients
have demonstrated leadership excellence throughout their tenure on the Okanagan campus. Our first
recipient for the Leadership award is Phillip Bond – Director, Student Engagement and Learning, and
was nominated by Robyn Bunn. Phil is an exemplary leader who has had a positive impact on staff,
students, faculty, and community partners in his roles in AVP Students Portfolio. Phil demonstrates
and facilitates multiple types of collaborations and partnerships. In his former role as Manager of
the Community Service Learning (CSL) program, he developed the CSL program by working closely with
colleagues at the Vancouver campus and with local community organizations to ensure the program
would follow a sustainable and mutually beneficially model.
Phil strives to create a warm and inclusive space in the Student Experience Office,
and takes the time to get to know student leaders each year.
The SEO staff and many other colleagues know that they can rely on Phil’s compassionate
support and guidance through any challenging situation, be it personal or professional.
Thank you Phil for your leadership through more
than a decade of mentoring and inspiring leadership.
Our next recipient of the Leadership award is Roger Wilson – Director, Health
and Wellness who was nominated by not one, but two individuals, Michelle Lowton and Nancy Guy.
Although nominated by two separate people, common themes soon became clear in both nominations.
Roger shows exemplary and inclusive people practices. He continues to take complicated
student cases and to provide weekly supervision and mentorship to the counsellors to ensure they
have the support and guidance necessary to provide exceptional service. Roger is open
and honest about changes within Student Health and Wellness therefore allowing staff to feel
supported and informed. He consistently works to ensure he is providing the best vision and
mission for his staff. Furthermore, Roger has led the team through an incredibly difficult year,
all while maintaining a successful Health and Wellness service to students. He consistently
goes above and beyond his regular duties to provide a safe space to debrief and consult,
and he regularly fosters a comforting and lighthearted environment,
despite the challenging work associated with the department.
Roger, thank you for your service to UBC and for your leadership in all the work you do.
Okanagan Campus Spirit is awarded to department colleagues or interdisciplinary
group or committee members of three or more people, that have demonstrated the following:
Consistently demonstrates enthusiasm, dedication, perseverance, and excellence in the face of
challenge; works collaboratively encouraging participation and openness while sharing ideas,
responsibilities, skills, resources, and credit across UBC; promotes a positive work environment
characterized by support, respect, trust, and collegiality; understanding their role within UBC
and uses an agreed-upon approach to achieve its mission or project outcome,
and integrate effective meeting skills, problem solving tools,
planning techniques, and conflict resolution strategies to achieve directed results.
Our final award is the Okanagan Campus Spirit Award, which is being awarded to two teams
this year. This award reflects that we often achieve much more when we work within a team.
I am delighted to announce that the first team to receive this year’s
team award goes to the International Programs and Services Advising Team
which includes: Saher Ahmed, Sebastian Kolesar, Qin Xue and Danai Belanger.
Nominated by Philipp Reichert for their incredible work since the team was formed in 2017 when they
all began as new UBC staff members. This past year’s enrolments of graduate and undergraduates
included over 2400 international students from over 100 countries around the world.
This rapid increase has meant that as a team, they have had to adjust their advising practices
to ensure they were able to meet the needs of the rapidly growing student population,
including group advising sessions, workshops, connecting with off campus stakeholders and
government agencies to support students and campus partners. These IPS advisors play a key role
in the international student experience at UBC’s Okanagan campus and are often the first point of
contact during JumpStart as well as throughout their studies when international students have
questions and/or need support. A number of students who provided contributions for
this nomination highlighted the fact that the IPS office felt like a home
and a family that was there to support them through the ups and the downs.
The IPS team is an exemplary example of a diverse team who bring their own experiences,
unique perspectives and genuinely care about each other, the work they do, and the people serve.
Thank you, Saher,
Sebastian, Qin and Danai, for embodying the Okanagan Campus Spirit – Congratulations.
The second team receiving the Okanagan Campus Spirit award this year is one
of the largest team’s we have given an award to. This team was nominated by Roger Bizzotto
and with a reinforcement by Marla Macdonald. The team receiving the second Okanagan Campus
Spirit award goes to the Facilities Team consisting of thirty four members.
The COVID--19 pandemic has had significant global socioeconomic impact. These impacts
affected many organizations and the people within them differently.
When most were asked to work from home to contribute to the safety of others,
critical functions of the campus remained regardless of a pandemic.
The nature of work conducted by the Facilities staff involves on-campus attendance. At the outset
of the pandemic, plans were quickly organized to assist those that would work from home while at
the same time, assembling plans and implementing measures to create and maintain safety measures
for critical functions such as research, food services, animal care and operations
and maintenance of critical infrastructure. The management team in Facilities have been
outstanding, ensuring continuity of business functions between their respective areas
of responsibility and their integrations with other units and contract services, while also
ensuring their teams are cared for physically and emotionally. When the Facilities team learned that
essential teams were returning to campus, they worked hard to ensure that all safety precautions
were met and that the buildings internal lay outs were appropriate for their needs.
I think we can all attest that the facilities team has consistently demonstrated enthusiasm,
perseverance and excellence in the challenges presented to them over these past 18 months.
Thank you to the entire Facilities team for all your hard work over
the past year and for all your efforts to keep our UBC Okanagan family safe.
That brings to an end the announcement of the recipients for this year. This has been an
extraordinary year, we have all been challenged to continue meeting the needs of our students,
staff and faculty and the recipients of these awards exemplify the commitment and hard work
that goes on each and every day, whether it is on campus or remotely from our homes.
Congratulations once again to all our recipients.