On Oct. 28, President Salovey and Linda K. Lorimer presented 35 Yale staff members representing nine key initiatives with the Linda K. Lorimer Award for staff excellence and distinguished service to the university.
Salovey noted that the employees’ unique and important contributions represent the true sprit of Yale: innovation, leadership, teamwork, commitment, and exemplary service.
A list of the award winners and their citations follow:
Yale Police Officers: Daniel Cavanaugh and Martin Parker Jr.
Demonstrating extraordinary service, these officers performed heroics that saved the life of a student and also saved her home from extensive fire damage. In doing so, they exemplified courage, teamwork, and initiative.
The Workday project leadership team: Nancy Creel-Gross, Ronald Lipkins, Marc Ulan, Jacqueline Tucker, Julie Grant, and Anna Maria Hummerstone
The Workday implementation project was the ultimate collaborative effort. This team’s leadership and extraordinary contributions made a successful launch possible.
Yale Medical Group: Sally Thibodeau, Eileen Pepe, Michelle Colaccio, Lisa Burwell, Rasheda Danzy, John Johnston III, Mary Mulqueen, and Michelle Pagan
Contributing to the development of the new pre-authorization process, this team earned the trust and collaboration of all clinical departments, yielding more than $1 million in annual savings and at the same time increasing patient satisfaction.
Recognition of Significant Cybersecurity Risk: Elvin Torres
By noticing suspicious activity on our Outlook servers and investing his own time to investigate the problem, Torres deflected a major cybersecurity risk to Yale’s systems.
Yale University Art Gallery team: Jill Westgard, Linda Jerolmon, Elizabeth Landau, Valerie Richardson, Laurie Laliberte, and Brian McGovern
By thinking creatively, the team allowed the gallery to make its paid memberships free, leading to an eight-fold increase in members and simultaneous gain in revenues.
Alumni Schools Committee: Bowen Posner
In seeing the opportunity to transform the system by which our alumni interviews are collected, Posner helped to dramatically improve both the ease of gathering interviewers’ input and the overall quality of rater evaluations.
Yale Bakery Team: Keri Logan, Edna Betzner, Gary Gulino, Joseph “Rusty” Hamilton, Pedro Rivera, Rhonda Myers, and Bonnie Hill
This team saw the opportunity to respond to a long-standing student interest in more vegan food options, developing desserts that are not only healthy but also delicious — and, in the process, drawing national attention to our culinary expertise.
Emergency Management Services: Maria Bouffard
With an organization of just two, Maria inspired and built a truly world-class team of staff volunteers across campus, leading our efforts to provide safety, coordinate responses to disasters, and protect the essential functions of the university.
Yale School of Music team: Michael Yaffe, Rubén Rodríguez-Ferreira, and Kathryn Gonzales
By teaming to develop the innovative Music in Schools Program, they have reinforced Yale’s connections with the New Haven community and earned us national recognition for this model of cultural leadership