The Staff Distinction Awards recognize the outstanding contributions of School of Medicine staff members, and consists of five total awards:
- Four Individual Excellence Awards, presented to a single recipient each
- One Excellence in Collaboration Award, presented to a team of two or more staff members
Who is eligible?
The Individual Excellence Awards are open to all benefits-eligible School of Medicine staff members (both classified staff and UAP; full-time and part-time employees).
For the Excellence in Collaboration Award, nominated teams must contain at least two benefits-eligible staff members who have played an integral role in advancing the project or initiative. Entire departments or service units may not be nominated.
For additional details about the awards, including the award criteria, please see the full descriptions in the Award Overview section. VCU Human Resources will review all nominations to ensure eligibility with each award's respective criteria.
Nominate an individual or team
Nominations for the 2026 Staff Awards have now closed. Please join us in celebrating our staff and nominees at the award ceremony and recognition event in MMEC's Tucker Auditorium at noon on May 20.
RSVP for the May 20 awards ceremony
Key dates
- April 6: Nominations open
- April 24: Nominations close; all application materials, including supplemental materials, due
- May 20: Awardees announced at awards ceremony and recognition event
Overview of awards
A total of four Individual Excellence Awards will be given out as part of the Staff Distinction Awards.
Award
- $1,000 and a recognition plaque
Eligibility
- The Individual Excellence Awards are open to all benefits-eligible School of Medicine staff members (both classified staff and UAP; full-time and part-time employees). Please note: Staff members who hold dean/vice president level positions (e.g., assistant deans, associate deans, interim deans or interim vice presidents, etc.) are not eligible.
Criteria
- To be considered for this award, the recipient must exemplify behaviors, actions, and outstanding contributions that strengthen the value-driven culture of the SOM. The recipient must regularly exceed expectations, have made contributions to the core values, and displays them through their various works to positively impact the SOM.
- An exemplary nominee demonstrates sustained excellence in their service, has made significant contributions, and/or possess special qualities and attributes, such as:
- Cultivated a reputation as the go-to person for job related matters by displaying expert knowledge of various policies and guidelines, enthusiastically assisting those in need, and holding themselves to high standards in all they do.
- Self-motivated to solve problems as they arise and possesses a deep and thorough understanding of job duties and functions.
- Provides the highest level of knowledgeable support and a highly effective communicator.
- Exhibited strong work qualities such as dependability, excellent multitasking ability, a consistent “can-do” attitude, and maturity under stress.
- A highly approachable personality, displays empathy towards others, and a consistently thoughtful approach to difficult situations.
- Expertly accomplished myriad miscellaneous responsibilities with outstanding time management, high productivity, and attention to detail.
- Solved challenging problems by demonstrating creativity and innovation.
Requirements for nomination
- A nomination form that describes the nominee’s alignment with the specific criteria of the award using characterizations and examples.
- A minimum of two, but no more than four, letters of support from peers, coworkers, supervisors, or unit/division leadership.
One group honor, the Excellence in Collaboration Award, will be awarded as part of the Staff Distinction Awards.
Award
- There will be a total of one team award presented. There will be one trophy distributed to the team and the monetary award will be split evenly amongst the eligible VCU staff members of the team. Each team member will receive a certificate for their accomplishments.
Eligibility
- Nominated teams have to consist of two or more eligible SOM staff members (full or part-time benefited VCU employees) working together with exceptional effectiveness to accomplish a specific task or project. The eligible SOM staff members must have made significant and identifiable contributions to the completion of the project. Only the members of the team who are eligible VCU staff employees will receive the monetary award.
Criteria
The purpose of the Excellence in Collaboration Award is to acknowledge outstanding, high-performing, multidisciplinary team efforts and approaches that contribute to advancing the SOM. The multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary team model should embody and exemplify a sustainable, collaborative approach that aligns our collegial community with our mission of discovering and sharing knowledge to advance our environment. This team may approach their work in the following ways:
- Establishes effective partnerships across multiple levels of the organization.
- Builds consensus in decision-making.
- Shares knowledge or information contributing to group success.
- Increases the success of team(s) through cooperative problem-solving.
The recipients of this award demonstrate the significant impact that teams have made on the institutional priorities and how their teamwork reflects the institutional values through collaboration. The team should have a clear sense of purpose and goals, aspire to standards of excellence, demonstrate effective leadership collaboration that empowers and support team members.
Nominees will be evaluated on their actions that surpass meritorious performance in their job. The following criteria will be considered:
- Exceptional contributions toward efficiency and effectiveness of operations: Setting high standards and achieving great goals and how this affects others, such as:
- Developing new and creative ways to reduce waste or improve operational efficiency
- Improving service to stakeholders (such as students, patients, alumni, employees)
- Outstanding service to the university community and/or visitors: Providing service/outreach in addition or outside of normal team duties, such as:
- Contributing to public service and outreach
- Delivering exceptional service to university projects or on committees
- Incorporating various community centers and neighborhoods into recruitment, retention, or programmatic efforts
- Utilizing campus cultural and resource centers as service options for students, staff, and faculty
Requirements for nomination
- A nomination form that describes the team’s alignment with the specific criteria of the award using characterizations, examples, and metrics.
- A minimum of one, but no more than four, letters of support from non-team members. Each letter should reference how the team made an impact within the SOM institutional core priorities, and how their teamwork and projects demonstrate institutional values. Letters must include all members and describe how they work collaboratively for the benefit of the SOM. The nomination statement should also:
- Explain the importance of team effort to the group’s overall success.
- Identify how the project/work supported the mission of your unit, department, or university.
- Define the project/work, its timeline and identify its goals/objectives.
- Define the steps taken to reach goals or milestones.
- Explain the group’s dynamics (e.g., how did the team communicate internally, make decisions, assign tasks, distribute workload, interact with management, handle conflict, etc.)
- Describe how the team measured progress.
- Describe the results of the team’s efforts, clearly detailing the achievements of the team that exceeded the stated goals/objectives
Questions?
Contact us at somstaffawards@vcuhealth.org.
Previous award recipients and nominees
(Note: Award recipients denoted in bold)
- Jody Hedstrom, Senior Program Specialist – Dean’s Office, Faculty Affairs
- Denny Henson, PCM Education Administrator – Practice of Clinical Medicine
- Kristin Canipe, Simulation Educator – Center for Human Simulation & Patient Safety
- Thomas Myrick, Project Manager, SOM Web and Communications Team – Dean’s Office, Communications Team
- Shirley Johnson, Senior Research Program Manager – Internal Medicine
- Jasmine Cousins, Student Affairs Coordinator & Assistant Registrar – Office of Medical Education
- Joy Jones, Senior Financial Aid Counselor – Office of Medical Education
- Mary Rosenthal, Program Coordinator – Office of Graduate Education
- Risham Qureshi, Pediatric Clerkship administrator – Pediatrics
- Erica Memoli, Senior Clinical Research Coordinator – Pediatrics
(Note: Award recipients denoted in bold)
LMS Implementation Team
- Eric Ellis, Director of Educational Systems & Analytics – Office of Medical Education
- Chuck Alexander, Educational Systems Specialist – Office of Medical Education
(Note: Award recipients denoted in bold)
- Sarah Camus, Senior Lab Technician II - Department of Internal Medicine
- Roberta (Nancy) Fogg, Fiscal Administrator - Department of Microbiology and Immunology
- Laura Hazlett, Experimental Research Operations Manager - Department of Surgery
- Jodi Humpage, Department Administrator - Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology*
- Molly Hyer, Ph.D. Director of Research Development and Innovation - Institute of Women’s Health*
- Marcus Johnson, HR Faculty Administrator - Department of Internal Medicine
- Steve Kuchta, Applications and DevOps Engineer - Dean’s Office SOMTech
- Kathryn Leonard, Director of Research Administration Shared Services - Dean’s Office Research
- Tom Myrick, Project Manager - Dean’s Office Communications
- Joey Noble, IT Manager - Dean’s Office SOM Technology*
- Dana Rajczewski, Communications Specialist - Department of Family Medicine*
- Tony Sessoms, Simulation Technology Specialist - Center for Human Simulation and Patient Safety
- Hayden Snead, Simulation Technology Specialist - Center for Human Simulation and Patient Safety
- Aaron Wallace, Financial Manager - Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Jie Xu, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist - Department of Pediatrics
(Note: Award recipients denoted in bold)
SOM AV/Classroom Support
- Caelen Bausone, Academic Technology Specialist - Dean’s Office SOMTech
- Jay Brazelle, Senior Supervisor - Dean’s Office SOMTech
- Todd Sentz, IT Analyst - Dean’s Office SOMTech
- Chris Williams, AV Systems Engineer - Dean’s Office SOMTech
- Justin Woods, Academic Technology Specialist - Dean’s Office SOMTech
SOM Business Operations Shared Services
- Alex Josephs, Financial Analyst - Dean’s Office Finance and Administration
- Lori Pfister, Director of Business Operations - Dean’s Office Finance and Administration
- Emma Robinson, Financial Analyst - Dean’s Office Finance and Administration
SOM Business Intelligence (BI)/Analytics Dashboards
- Kate Loomis, BI Analyst - Dean’s Office SOMTech
- Bhavesh Patel, Director of Application Services - Dean’s Office SOMTech
SOM Research and Educational Missions
- Dylan Chaplin, Financial Specialist - Dean’s Office Finance and Administration
- Alex Josephs, Financial Analyst - Dean’s Office Finance and Administration
- Lori Pfister, Director of Business Operations - Dean’s Office Finance and Administration
- Emma Robinson, Financial Analyst - Dean’s Office Finance and Administration