We are pleased to announce Adam Norwood has been selected to receive the 2016 Cathy Lester IT Excellence Award, which recognizes someone with an enduring track record for excellence!
Adam is a Senior Software Developer/Analyst with the Law School. Below are some excerpts from his nominations.
Adam is smart… really smart. He works hard, caring about each aspect of what he is involved in. His creativity is inspiring, and he is self-taught. He often surprises us in his contributions to solutions and in his collaborations across this campus. There is a precision in everything he does. He believes his work and what he does here at UT matters. He is one of most honest and kind people I have ever met. The last two years have been intense and a time of struggle for the whole web team at the Law School here. We had embarked on a complete redesign of our website, which also included moving us to a new and first-time CMS, WordPress. Adam led all the architecture, technology know-how, and IT execution on this project to success. Adam was an active participant in defining this new environment on the UT Web committee and an integral part in regards to the testing and documentation for this new tool. As the implementation began, Adam also became a resource for other departments transitioning to this new environment. He was and is an excellent partner that made it possible for all the other people and pieces of this major project to come together. His skills, knowledge, and patience brought organization, clarity, and priority for our transition. I have always appreciated Adam’s skill and quick assessment of a situation, whether it is a process issue or interpreting code written by others. He was a previous chair of WITI, the Web Technologies and Infrastructure Committee. He also served on the Web Infrastructure Project Steering Committee. He is currently serving on AIC, the IT Governance Architecture and Infrastructure Committee. He has a sterling reputation, known for his integrity and good natured personality. Considering his technical expertise, his attention to detail, the contributions he makes to the Law School and main campus initiatives, an ability to mentor and teach, and his ability to listen and relate to whomever the audience is, he is a prime example of IT excellence. We cannot imagine life here without him.
We are pleased to announce Jimmy Bradshaw has been selected to receive the 2016 Cathy Lester IT Rising Star Award, for someone early in their IT careers who shows extraordinary promise!
Jimmy is a Software Engineer with ITS Applications. Below are some excerpts from his nomination.
Jimmy is one of kind. Deep technical talent, a balanced business perspective, and engaging personal expression make him invaluable. He’s got a terrific ability to see and understand the further ramifications of an approach. He is so enthusiastic about best practices, good design and well written code, it’s contagious. Jimmy remains involved in the education program, and often goes in person to see developers and discuss their needs.
While generous with his time, and a great teacher and mentor with an ability to make people feel included and appreciated, what really strikes you is that he is passionate about solving problems. Responding to an inquiry about problems with Oracle connections, Jimmy noticed that the way we had designed Oracle connections did NOT work as we had supposed – a very subtle detail that had eluded all of us until then. He also developed the solution to the problem.
When the volume of processing for the online Course Schedule became greater than the current PyPE infrastructure could handle, Jimmy recognized the need for an additional server. He got the analysis and the solution done in about six hours. He configured the new host in such a way that the capacity more than doubled and could be configured intelligently using his newly available resources. The configuration changes are now documented for use by all stewards who might need to perform the operation in the future. And to top that, today there is an automated script for that purpose.
Jimmy is definitely committed to quality. He has a sincere appreciation for the Change Board reviewing his proposed changes because, he says, it conveniently brings together a cross-functional workgroup. He communicates with developers across campus via support email for PyPE and the Python users list. He led the way when the prospect of changing the VM destroyed the confidence of the developers on my team. His plan has singlehandedly saved hours of frustration.
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.
• Chris Caillouet (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Budget Office) – Chris’ ability to learn and apply new technologies quickly, as was the case with Budget Commitments system using Python/Django and ERP UI, is something for which he is well known. But he continues to promote excellence in the Natural and Adabas arena, such as sharing little-known tips and tricks with others and helping new trainees learn Natural editor shortcuts through the “Taming the Natural Environment” paper. Chris’ sincerity and compassion make him an asset to his team and our community.
• Paul Grotevant (Information Technology Manager, ITS Applications) – Paul chaired the steering committee for UT Austin Drupal Camp and provided exemplary service, not only through strategic vision and leadership for the group and event, but also as technical lead. He is widely respected for technical skill, knowledge of the university environment and culture, and his ability to work effectively with a wide range of people at all levels of the organization. Paul readily shares his knowledge and well-considered opinions in a way that encourages collaboration and cooperation.
• Dan Horgan (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – Dan’s business users appreciate his commitment that goes above and beyond in making sure that the university is well represented to the wider world and that our students have accurate and meaningful academic documents. His ability to break down complex problems into manageable solutions gives him the ability to maintain and keep anything running. His easy-going demeanor makes him very approachable and his ability to interact well with decision makers makes him a great advisor.
• Tom Marx (Database Administrator, Development Office) – Programmers can’t accomplish much without data, and Tom’s countless long hours and weekend work sessions ensure that his teammates have the data they need. He has an incredible attention to detail that ensures a level of quality for everything we do. And his work ethic is such that everyone on the team knows that if Tom is working on it, it’ll get done and done well.
• Susan Telge (Senior Information Technology Manager, Financial Information Systems) – Susan is dedicated, knowledgeable, and supportive, and does everything she can to further the mission of the University. She is supportive of new analysts and anyone else who needs help and has offered guidance to countless co-workers. She has been a mentor and teacher and essential in keeping the business side of the University working smoothly for years through her programming, debugging, and general knowledge of UT business processes.
• Helen Tsai (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Financial Information Systems) – The FIS management team relies quite heavily on Helen’s flexibility, quick learning, and great productivity for many urgent “small” projects. We appreciate how Helen can dive into these unfamiliar business processes and provide great solutions quickly for our clients. She recently spearheaded an effort to create high-level documentation for all 22 areas that FIS supports to assist new team members in understanding the relationships between all of our business processes.
• David Voegtle (Senior Software Engineer, Development Office) – David is one of the brightest people on our team, not only because of his vast programming knowledge, but also because of his work ethic. With coding, David focuses not just on getting the job done, but on getting it done as efficiently and cleanly as possible. He pushed me to modify my code and make it more than just “fine;” he pushed me to make it great.
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 (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – Marjorie exceeds all expectations, is proactive in supporting her clients, is an avid tester and teacher, ensures that her team members are well-informed, and is a vital member of our staff. Marjorie not only designs, develops and delivers her projects on time, she also makes sure that everything she produces is accurate. Marjorie is an enormous asset to our team, always willing to help others.
• Anne Gaskill (Software Developer/Analyst, Financial Information Systems) – Anne’s initiative, thorough attention to detail, superior customer service, and interest in solving business problems enable her to excel in our fast-paced environment and mark her as an emerging leader on our team. Anne has a tremendous combination of commitment to quality, determination to exceed expectations, super quick analytical skills and a firm project management style.
• Dennis Harvey (Senior Web Developer, Development Office) – Dennis does whatever it takes to make our team successful, whether that means long hours or learning new skills. His diligence has earned him many fans among our clients. Every person on our team feels reassured when they know that Dennis will be working on projects with them.
• Matthew McCrary (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Development Office) – Matthew has quickly become an indispensable member of the Development Office technical team, and has assumed a lot of responsibility for its main application, VIP. He is very good at conducting conflict-free meetings that stay focused on the matter at hand and at getting buy-in as well. Matthew is always improving his technical skills and expertise.
• Luke McEneny (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – Luke doesn’t do anything without understanding why he’s doing it, questioning whether it’s the best way, and proposing a better approach. He made checking prerequisites during registration so much more efficient that registration is no longer at the top of the list of resource hogging web applications. Luke’s an innovator, a crack programmer, and a hard worker, and he never fears taking on a new challenge and seeing it through.
• Dan Mestas (Software Developer/Analyst, Development Office) – Dan is very thorough and during my training helped me to succeed by guiding me to make my projects shine. He’s a wonderful friend and has definitely made me feel more at home at UT.
• Caroline Taylor (Training and Education Coordinator, ITS Applications) – Caroline’s kindness, remarkable and genuine friendliness, thoroughness, and excellence inspire those around her to do better. Her commitment to serving the University, her peers, and her direct reports shines through her every interaction. In her current role, she is dedicated to helping the trainees in her education program become outstanding employees.
• Geoff Valdes (Software Engineer, Financial Information Systems) – Geoff tirelessly advocates for best practices that will save developer time and resources, as well as creating quality products for his customers. A former team member says that “Geoff is a leader on his team with regard to adopting new techniques and tools, and improving workflows and processes like automated testing.” He is passionate about technology, his job and about producing quality work.
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 several members designated from the Administrative IT Leaders group: Rainbow DiBenedetto and Dustin Slater for Excellence and Steve Rung and Julienne VanDerZiel for Rising Star. Scott Mueller and Matt Jorgenson served as a prior honorees. We wish to express our deepest appreciation to these volunteers for serving on the selection committee.
Please join us in congratulating Adam and Jimmy, and all the talented and 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.
Cheryl Fuller, on behalf of the Cathy Lester IT Excellence Committee
Dana Cook
Sara Gore
Brick Jones
Matt Jorgenson
Dick Levan
Helen Mayhew
Louise Nelson