We are pleased to announce Scott Mueller has been selected to receive the 2015 Cathy Lester IT Excellence Award, which recognizes someone with an enduring track record for excellence!
Scott is a Senior Systems Administrator with ITS Systems. Below are some excerpts from his nominations.
Scott’s calm demeanor and thoughtfulness have contributed to development of great systems, and make him a wonderful collaborator on technical solutions.
Scott has worked as an operations specialist, a developer maintaining applications for FIS, a Cognos/Windows server admin for IQ, an ADABAS DBA, and a mainframe systems administrator. He has been actively involved in the ITS training program – serving as a member of the apprentice committee, a mentor, and as a challenge analyst for several years. Many developers have benefited from Scott’s guidance. What makes Scott stand apart from other analysts is his gentle demeanor, encouraging personality, and innate intellectual curiosity. In addition, he is always very responsive and willing to help… I had the pleasure of working with Scott during one of my most daunting R&D projects. Without his dedication and involvement, it would have been impossible to thoroughly assess the feasibility of the product. Scott especially was always responsive to my requests, clearly demonstrating that no question was too trivial and no task too daunting or mundane. He was very obviously vested in this initiative. All in all, Scott was not only an effective collaborator but a fantastic mentor.
We are pleased to announce Kyle O’Neill has been selected to receive the 2015 Cathy Lester IT Rising Star Award, for someone early in their IT careers who shows extraordinary promise!
Kyle is a Senior Software Developer/Analyst with University Development Office. Below are some excerpts from his nomination.
As we migrate to a CRM based on Oracle and python/django, Kyle continues to exceed expectations in coding, in critical thinking, in business analysis, and in execution… He works tirelessly on cultivating his skillset. At every point, he introduces new ideas and new thought processes for consideration. Kyle takes the initiative to demonstrate a business case and a proof of concept, and we’ve taken many of his ideas into production… A significant part of the job is learning the business process in our office. Good programmers code to function; the better ones invest the time and effort to learn the business from the client and stakeholder’s perspective. Kyle has invested that time, and might be more knowledgeable on the process than our own business staff… He possesses a true skill, but he means much more to this office than just his coding. He’s an essential part of the team.
We would also like to congratulate the other outstanding IT professionals who were nominated for this year’s IT-Excellence award. Below are some excerpts from their nominations.
· Brian Hundsdorfer (Senior IT Manager, UT Development Office) – His unassuming, calm, supporting manner has been a major factor in the job satisfaction and very low turnover of the team. Innovation is encouraged. Rising stars emerge from underneath.
· David Mok (Senior IT Manager, International Office) – The business clients of the IO partner with David constantly and rely on his great service and breadth of knowledge of the IO policies and procedures, in addition to his technical know-how.
· Kyle Royder (Lead Software Engineer, ITS Applications) – Each integration and implementation that Kyle has led has met or exceeded our targets for reliability while meeting aggressive delivery deadlines.
We would also like to congratulate the other outstanding IT professionals who were nominated for this year’s Rising Star award. Below are some excerpts from their nominations.
· Marjorie Foley (Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – She is someone that our team doesn’t hesitate to consult with on any number of tasks and issues… She has demonstrated great technical aptitude and a gift for working with clients well beyond that expected of such a recent program grad.
· Jason Oliver (Software Developer/Analyst, Financial Information Systems) – He takes on extra assignments and areas of responsibility, quickly mastering new business processes or technologies with equal ease. He has developed a breadth of knowledge across Student and Core Financials, supporting critical and complex systems.
· Eric Petersen (Software Engineer, Financial Information Systems) – FIS relies heavily on Eric to solve difficult technical problems and help mentor our other developers… Eric is an asset not just for FIS, but also for the entire developer community!
· David Strickland (Software Engineer, ITS Applications) – The quality of his solutions is consistently excellent and he takes ownership of all tasks, from the smallest to the largest, with professionalism and good cheer…He has quickly transitioned from a new developer and team member to a valued member of the IAM team.
· Geoff Valdes (Software Developer/Analyst, Financial Information Systems) – Geoff is extremely quality oriented. In his relatively short time in the developer community, he has become a leader in developing automated testing standards and best practices.
The Cathy Lester Endowment for IT Excellence promotes excellence in the administrative information technology community at the University of Texas at Austin by presenting an annual cash award to outstanding information technology analysts. Qualities the recipients possess include
- commitment to serve the University and its goals
- breadth and depth of knowledge
- active participation in mentoring and education others
- partnerships with clients to provide strategic, innovative, and effective technical solutions
- adherence to core principles and best practices and
- emphasis on the quality of results
This year’s Selection Committee included two members designated from the Administrative IT Leaders group, Steve Rung and Leslie Sitz, and Sara Gore served as a prior honoree. We wish to express our deepest appreciation to these volunteers for serving on the selection committee.
Please join us in congratulating Scott and Kyle, and all the worthy nominees, on these very high honors! Sincere thanks to all those who took the time to nominate and support IT excellence at UT. Stay tuned for an invitation to our annual CLL IT-Excellence celebration.
Helen Mayhew, on behalf of the Cathy Lester IT-Excellence Committee