PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 19, April 20, 2006

Nine honored with Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award

By Abby Cañeda, News Bureau Student Intern

Nine staff employees were honored with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award at a banquet April 17. The award recognizes exceptional performance; each recipient receives $2,000 and a plaque. Recipients’ names are inscribed on a plaque displayed in the Personnel Services Office. Past winners are listed on the office’s Hall of Fame Web site.

Permanent staff employees with at least two years of service or retired employees in status appointments during the calendar year can be nominated for the award by faculty or staff members or students. A committee appointed by the chancellor recommends finalists. The chancellor gives the final approval.

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Barbara C. Balbach

Barbara C. Balbach, accountant IV in the School of Chemical Sciences, has worked at the UI for 20 years. As head of the accounting section, Balbach oversees financial transactions and records in one of the most financially complex units at the UI. “Her operation supports 280 faculty and staff members, 350 graduate students and 1,200 undergraduate majors and several thousand non-majors,” said Thomas B. Rauchfuss, director of the school, in nominating Balbach.

Balbach is answerable to 55 faculty members for their research and endowment accounts. “With the recent decline in state support, our unit is increasingly reliant on new revenue streams,” Rauchfuss said, “and the two most important ones are federal grants and endowment income. The school’s major success in these two sectors is significantly attributable to Barb’s management skills.”

Effective management of endowments requires coordination with the foundation, fund recipients, regulators and development staff members. Balbach regularly examines the funds to ensure that the specific intentions of the donors are being honored. Her team also monitors all grant submissions.

In addition to fund management, Balbach also supervises staff members that assist faculty members with the organization of research proposals, sub-awards and many other contractual agreements. 

Balbach is a valuable resource whose expertise is routinely sought. For example, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Administration asked her to help implement a new sponsored-project tracking system and she also led the implementation of the BA3 reporting platform in conjunction with engineering units.

“What may be most impressive about Barb is her ability to remain calm and take things in stride, said David C. Shoemaker, associate director of budget and resource planning, in a letter in support of her nomination. “She’s always able to find a solution to even the most vexing issues and she invariably does so in a quiet and relaxed manner.”

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Stacey Ballmes

Stacey Ballmes, staff secretary, started working for the UI College of Law as an Extra Help employee in 2002 and was permanently hired in the same year.

“Stacey raises the bar when it comes to work performance,” said Heidi Hurd, dean of the College of Law, in a nomination letter. “She readily accepts additional responsibilities and performs her job competently and professionally with little or no supervision.”

Ballmes has been promoted twice in three years and is the managing editor of the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, now the world’s leading English-language labor law journal.

Ballmes performs, supervises, advises on and directs all work involved in the production of the journal, including assistance to the general editor. She is responsible for maintaining the journal’s budget with the college’s business office, finding and maintaining funding sources, organizing conferences and ensuring that all program functions adhere to the UI and state of Illinois guidelines. She also helps coordinate and implement unit policies and acts as a contact person for all questions regarding the program. Occasionally, she provides technical assistance to other units within the college when requested.

In addition to Ballmes’ position as managing editor, she also is an assistant for four faculty members. Ballmes prepares legal arbitrations, legal briefs, books, articles and manuscripts. She also obtains copyright permission for course materials, prepares and administers exams and serves as a contact for students. 

Matthew Finkin, professor of law, said in his letter of support: “Stacey is invaluable. She performs consistently, above and well beyond the call of duty, only in superlatives. It is unimaginable that the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, or the recently instituted Program in Comparative Labor and Employment Law & Policy, could function without her. She is singularly responsible for the esteem the College of Law is now held in labor law circles worldwide.”

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Shirley E. Barnhart

Shirley E. Barnhart, assistant manager and textbook manager at the Illini Union Bookstore, started working at the UI in 1965.

“It is Shirley’s job to provide the campus community with all required and recommended course materials in proper quantities on a timely basis, to satisfy the needs of both students and staff for courses at the UI,” said Willard Bredfield, bookstore director. According to Bredfield’s nomination, Barnhart makes the decisions about each item stocked, physical arrangement of the sales floor to accommodate ease of sales, inventory management, management of personnel and delivery of service.  And, while most large universities stock 3,000-3,500 different textbook titles a semester, the UI stocks 5,000-5,500 titles each semester.

Barnhart also has been responsive to bookstore changes that benefit customers. These changes include a Web site on which students can order their textbooks called the “Lowest Textbook Price Guarantee Program,” the Textbook Reservation Service, and the latest – a pilot program in which the bookstore provides textbooks for the library without the library having to purchase books and place them in their permanent collection.

Students and parents appreciate the textbook reservation program. In the fall semester of 1995, Barnhart processed and held seven orders of students after phone requests from their parents. Now, the program processes more than 6,000 reservations annually.

The bookstore’s Web site provider has awarded the Illini Union Bookstore the largest college store Web sales award for four years in a row.

“Shirley is a self-motivated manager who loves what she does and consistently goes those extra miles it takes to keep her stakeholders happy,” said Ed Slaznik, director of the Illini Union, in a letter of support. “She is amazingly dependable …  anticipates the needs of many of her regular customers, and while she accomplishes all of what she does with a relatively small staff of four, she is the consummate team player.”

Click photo to enlarge Photo courtesy Janis Blout Janis K. Blout

Janis K. Blout started working for the UI as a secretary for Fulton County Extension and advanced to community worker in 1993. Blout is responsible for the overall management of the Fulton County 4-H Program.

Her responsibilities include planning workshops, camps and other events, including 4-H shows; processing entries for county and state fairs; recruiting and screening new 4-H volunteers; 4-H leader training and support; and many other 4-H program duties. Fulton County is one of the largest in the state for State Fair livestock entries, and Blout makes sure they are complete and accurate before submission.

Blout has taken an active role in promoting 4-H to the community. Attendance at 4-H leader training meetings has grown 160 percent since 1996. The 4-H Foodstand, which Blout oversees, has nearly doubled its profits during the past 10 years. New events have been created, including Performing Arts Night, 4-H In the Great Outdoors and 4-H Federation outings. Blout coordinates these events along with Farm Safety Day Camp, 4-H Super Sunday and 4-H Fun Outings to Concerts and Theme Parks.

According to the UI Extension Contact Reports, 9,617 youth were reached during the 2004-2005 4-H program year. Of those, 4,308 were reached directly by Blout. The number of 4-H participants in Fulton County is the highest it has been in 10 years.
The Fulton County 4-H General show is a large event every year with hundreds of projects on display. Blout worked to get extra volunteer help to make the event more efficient, increasing the number of volunteers from about 40 to 75. 

“Janis is an outstanding Extension professional who has effectively demonstrated her ability to coordinate the local 4-H program and to network with community leaders, Extension colleagues, and local agencies and organizations,” said Rhonda J. Ferree, Extension unit leader, in a letter of support.

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer David W. Foley

David W. Foley joined the department of theoretical and applied mechanics as a laboratory mechanic trainee and now works as an instrument maker. Foley makes, fits and assembles components of laboratory equipment. He also tests, operates and supervises their use. An instrument maker “uses basic and advanced machining tools and methods to fabricate parts and specimens of difficult geometry with exceedingly tight tolerances” and “is capable of working with unusual and new materials, such as high-strength metals and composite materials,” according to James Phillips, professor and associate head of theoretical and applied mechanics. Foley also works with shop customers to clarify and optimize proposed designs and methods and trains and supervises other employees.

Foley supports and enhances the efforts of faculty members and students to fabricate equipment for their scientific investigations. He also assists the department as the principal machine operator of its large mechanical testing machine, a UI resource that serves industry in Illinois and throughout the Midwest by applying calibrated loads to such engineering components as wire rope, crane hooks and scaffolding.

Foley also serves as a great resource as researchers from across campus, and industrial customers approach Foley to construct and repair their strain-gaged load cells. His expertise in this method makes this resource available to the university. He fabricated and helped design a calibrated strain-gaged load cell that enables faculty members to maintain critical force-measuring traceability to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Foley interacts with UI students at all levels and assists faculty members every semester in department courses. He instructs students giving them practical working knowledge of techniques and applications to real-world engineering problems. In addition, he draws hundreds of spectators during the annual engineering open house by using the large testing machine to crush concrete cylinders.

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Harold Merkle

Harold Merkle, building service worker for the Division of Campus Recreation, has worked at the UI for 22 years. On his own initiative, Merkle has assumed many roles. He checks for maintenance and repairs on basketball hoops, nets, protective pads and other equipment and cleans the backboards on a regular basis. He orders all supplies and equipment for the needs of the building service workers and makes arrangements for any repairs or maintenance. He also assists student employees with opening facilities.    

“Our student staff loves him,” said Craig Stinson, associate director of Campus Recreation, in his nomination of Merkle. “… His sense of humor and genuine caring make him a favorite of everyone he works with. He makes all of our days better by simply being here.”

Merkle spends time at four facilities: the Intramural-Physical Education Building, Campus Recreation Center East  Building, the Ice Arena and the Outdoor Center. He checks to see what needs to be done at these facilities after his daily chores have been completed. He helps load and unload trucks, assists with putting up outdoor equipment and assists the wheelchair basketball team in early morning practices.

Merkle also acts as a tour guide and recruiter when parents bring potential students to the UI and staff members from other programs visit. He is a key member of the staff when planning events that include groups or individuals from outside the UI, including the Black Homecoming Dance, the Malaysian Games, late night activities, summer camps and the Urbana Intervarsity Christian conferences.

“His unwavering dedication to the university, this department and most importantly to the students is immeasurable,” said Robyn M. Deterding, associate director of Campus Recreation, in a letter of support. “Harold is a very motivated individual and he performs in a manner that shows confidence, enthusiasm and humor.”

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Darwin L. Miller

Darwin L. Miller, communications specialist III for the Technology Services Group, is responsible for more than 500 computer systems running the Windows operating system in the department of computer science. His duties include installation, maintenance, testing, troubleshooting and operational support of the systems. Miller is responsible for the development, installation and maintenance of the department’s Windows server infrastructure. He supervises two part-time student system administrators who assist him and also is involved with the department’s building automation system at the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science.

Miller is usually the technical person that  works with new employees to help them get started in the department. “Darwin is a motivator and keeps you on your toes,” said Rich Myers, a former staff member for the Technology Services Group. “He is very knowledgeable and possesses both technical and practical skills that many who work with him also learn. Many of the skills I’ve learned from him I use every day.”
Miller works to keep the Windows machines as patched and up-to-date as possible. This has prevented many lost hours of research and class preparation. He tests beta-versions of new security tools and applications to deploy software. His automation efforts have made it possible for his staff to effectively manage a large number of machines.

“Darwin is conscious about looking ahead for changes down the road,” said Chuck Thompson, manager of systems services for computer science. “He looks for problems before they happen and tries to prevent disasters before they occur. Darwin has had a significant impact on quality in our organization.”

Miller completed all the course work to be Andover Controls Certified and has passed the Windows professional and the Windows server exams. He is studying for his networking exam and is working on his Microsoft Certified System Engineer certification.

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Lou Ann Miller

Lou Ann Miller, electron microscope technologist IV, has been working for the UI College of Veterinary Medicine for almost 18 years. Miller single-handedly runs the Center for Microscopic Imaging that supports more than 25 faculty members across campus and provides diagnostic microscopy for the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Carle Hospital and users at other institutions.

Miller’s duties include sample preparation, training, scheduling, advertising, billing and maintenance. She also repairs computers, learns and teaches new software and deals with clients. She is the only person on campus who does biological preparation, imbedding and staining for transmission electron microscopy. She schedules the many users of the confocal microscope and also serves as an adviser and trainer to researchers and students on the use of the microscope.

Miller created a Web site for the center that provides information about services, procedures and charges. She has automated the center’s billing system and has developed a Web-based sign-up system that allows users to reserve equipment easily.

Miller also has been part of several major discoveries. Her skill with immuno-electron microscopy aided in a discovery that has resulted in a large collaborative grant and a National Institutes of Health submission that will investigate the role of this receptor in male reproduction. Miller also aided in another discovery that is the core focus of a grant recently awarded on the UI campus to explore a possible method to speed blood clotting that could be a therapy for heart disease and stroke.

“All who have worked with her recognize her skills and dedication to quality,” said Edwin Hahn, associate dean for research and advanced studies at the College of Veterinary Medicine. “She commands 100 percent respect and admiration from all who depend on her service. She has taken added responsibility in stride and improved efficiency to make up for growing numbers of clients and reductions in staff.”

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Sherry Miller

Sherry L. Miller has been an administrative secretary in the Office of Facility Management and Scheduling since 2002. Before that, she played a key role in the operations of the School of Integrative Biology.

Miller’s responsibilities include scheduling 400 general purpose classrooms, amounting to about 15,000 record changes per semester; interacting with more than 120 departmental schedulers to allocate instructional space; and training all campus and departmental schedulers in the use of the Banner system. She provides data to campus administrators on classroom use and enrollments and prepares the operations calendar for production of the courses catalog and class schedule.  She also is the primary trainer for all processes related to creating the class schedule and provides initial training for all new departmental schedulers.

The conversion to the Banner system at the UI was both a software change and an entire academic shift of basic course information. Miller contributed to the change of 7,200 catalog records to new numbers and subjects. Because there was no automatic procedure to integrate old and new data, Miller motivated and supervised a staff of six Extra Help employees over a period of three semesters to manually enter 50,000 course and section records into the Banner system. Also, until the campus implemented a new “bolt-on” scheduler, Miller scheduled each and every general classroom by hand for three terms.

“Through her careful guidance and attention, all of this activity from 117 different academic departments comes together and is posted in the online class schedule by the sixth week of every term,” said Carol Malmgren, interim registrar for the Office of Admissions and Records. “It’s one thing to do one’s own work well and to be successful on a defined team project, but in our decentralized university community, it takes a special skill to inspire others, impart knowledge and integrate efforts across disparate units. Again and again, Sherry rises to this challenge.”

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