We are pleased to announce Juan Ortiz has been selected to receive the 2017 Cathy Lester IT Excellence Award, which recognizes someone with an enduring track record for excellence!
Juan is the ERP Technical Lead and Associate Director of ASMP/FIS. Below are some excerpts from his nominations.
Juan always has the big picture in mind when developing new applications or modernizing existing applications…. He always stresses the need to know what the end goal is before we start designing or coding. Our clients have come to appreciate this quest for the end goal and now come prepared with a description of what they want, instead of simply “do this”. Juan has the institutional knowledge of business operations and financial applications to get the right people in the room as these important and difficult issues are resolved. His stewardship and ownership of his areas of responsibility give those around him the confidence that their concerns will be addressed.
He also listens and is willing to take in constructive criticism of his ideas. There have been many times where Juan has changed his mind and agreed that a design/coding idea from someone else was the right way to go.
Another of Juan’s strengths has been in teaching us as managers how to bring up a newly graduated trainee and have them develop into strong programmers and analysts. His philosophy has always been to figure out where a person’s talents are and then see how we can structure their job so that they can use those talents.
One of the phrases I’ve gotten used to hearing is, “I have an idea”. It might be a creative solution to a technical problem or an entirely new application…. Juan is a great strategic thinker and his mind is always working to figure out how to make things better for the University. I’ve learned that anytime I hear that phrase, “I have an idea,” I’d better be ready because something exciting is about to happen!
We are pleased to announce that Megan Will has been selected to receive the 2017 Cathy Lester IT Rising Star Award for someone early in their IT career who shows extraordinary promise!
Megan is a Software Engineer with ITS Applications. Below are some excerpts from her nomination.
Megan is always willing to help and does so with a smile. I think she is an amazing example of what UT hopes to cultivate in developers, and she is an inspiration to me. She has been a major contributor to the introduction of RabbitMQ, Stonebranch, GitHub, PyCharm, and a ton of other projects and tool implementations; she is a proven thought leader among her peers. Not only is she highly skilled in the technical aspects of her job, but she is always willing to lend a hand. Many times I have seen her make “house calls” (and been the beneficiary of these house calls) to developers with a particular issue on campus just because she wanted to help and was passionate about the work that she does. I know many developers who go directly to Megan with their questions because they trust that she will treat them with respect while making sure they walk away with the insight they need to do their jobs well. Megan is one of those people who makes what we do in the UT Austin software development community possible. I wish I could properly express in words how amazing she is, but suffice it to say that she is probably the most helpful
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) Chris quickly became our go-to analyst after joining Budget IT in 2007. He has brought wit and wisdom to the team. He has helped create and implement several Budget systems, including Commitments, our first system using Python/Django. In six months! He had a steep learning curve, but Chris rose to the occasion. We were able to successfully implement our new system without any major bugs. Honestly, we could not have done it without him. Aside from learning new technology quickly, Chris is our resident Natural/Adabas guru. He seems to know all of the tips and tricks for the mainframe. And he has also made a lasting impression throughout the IT community at UT. He contributed to the HRMS project, created PHirst for the College of Pharmacy, and is currently assisting Payroll IT. His Payroll IT tasks have included assisting with the new TRS reporting system, and changes to W-2 and 1042S tax documents for 2016. What really stands out about Chris are his sincerity and compassion. When he asks, “How can I help?” He really means it. I’m not just referring to customer service. He demonstrates his helpfulness and caring ways every day to his co-workers. It’s safe to say that Chris single-handedly modernized student IT at Pharmacy. In less than three years, he created systems to handle student progress, internships, scholarships, course scheduling, teaching load assignments, and PharmD program admissions. And then came PHirst: comparable commercial systems cost $30,000 a year to license, yet PHirst can do pretty much anything they can; more so, in fact, because it takes advantage of our UT infrastructure, which the commerical equivalent cannot do. What it comes down to is this. Chris is a developer who writes clean, efficient code that makes his clients happy. If you want excellence in IT, he’s your guy.
- Haeli Colina (Senior Software Developer/Analyst) Haeli has only been in FIS for about a year, but in that short time she has become an indispensable member of the team. In addition to her strong technical work, Haeli has become the center of our team-building activities. She is a kind and giving person who goes out of her way to make others feel welcome and included, and she has especially focused on helping make our full-time remote workers feel like part of our team. The Federal Reserve project was one of the smoothest I’ve ever worked on, and this was largely due to Haeli’s success in managing it. Haeli has exceptional organizational and communication skills. She helped divide the project up into discrete tasks and documented them in Jira. She ran brief daily meetings with the development team so that she kept informed of our progress and helped us clear any roadblocks. She handled most of the communication with management and with our clients, and she always made sure that the right people had the right information without overwhelming them with details. Haeli’s role on a high-profile project married both her deep analytical and technical skills with her natural strength in managing projects, and her contribution was critical to the success of the project. One of her clients had this to say about Haeli: “I always enjoy working with Haeli! She is smart, creative, thinks outside the box and is concerned with testing thoroughly to ensure the solution is not going to create new problems.”
- Jack Conover (Senior Software Developer Analyst) –Jack Conover has an easy-going, approachable demeanor that fosters an automatic rapport with his clients and his colleagues, and he habitually goes out of his way to be both friendly and helpful. His knowledge of the workings of Payroll and of the various software systems, processes and dependencies it entails is comprehensive. In overhauling the TRAQS system for TRS reporting, his expertise and familiarity with all the moving pieces has been indispensable in keeping the project on track and the results reliable and accurate. Jack helps keep Payroll running smoothly (and UT employees getting paid) as well, by investigating and correcting unexpected mishaps; by providing clients with timely, practical responses to their concerns; and by participating in the on-going evolution of Payroll’s software systems. Jack also gives back to the community by routinely acting as instructor or mentor to employees going through technical training, and in this he exhibits the same confident, affable style that he does with his day-to-day co-workers. As his officemate of ten years, I can say he is a character of great character, a pal with lots of patience and aplomb, a sharp technical asset and all-around decent person.
- John Croslin (Senior Software Developer Analyst/IT Manager) – The impact John Croslin’s work has had on the School of Undergraduate Studies (UGS) is hard to overstate. John thinks of problems that need solving, and then develops the tools to improve and streamline the way we do business. His keen ability to anticipate where we are headed is what supports all that the school aims to achieve. The list of innovations is long: he and his team just recently introduced SEATS, an attendance tracking system that is already widely in use in Undergraduate Studies and is now being requested by peer colleges that desperately need such a solution to track student participation in classes and events. He continually installs upgrades and makes updates, and if an application goes down, he’s on the job at all hours, diagnosing the problem and getting it running again as quickly as possible. John and the web development team serve the entire school in ways that transcend program areas or silos or budgets. He’s been so successful at communicating with UGS staff and with his colleagues across campus because he’s user-focused, straightshooting, and incredibly easy to get along with. He is that very rare “tech guy” who describes the work he does in plain language and underestimates the complexity of the magic he performs.
- Paul Grotevant (IT Manager) – Paul constantly helps others by providing technical answers as well as suggesting educational materials to those who are just beginning their careers. He is the apotheosis of excellent customer service. Last fall he met our website contract deadlines and served a very demanding set of customers without breaking a sweat. He was always polite, professional, available, and responsive to our questions and provided mentorship during the handoff process. He and his team delivered a Drupal site with many complicated relationships between content types that is incredibly clean on both the front and back ends and a breeze for our content editors to use. In short, Paul partners with his business clients to deliver terrific products that adhere to best practices. He answers my boneheaded questions all the time, which is supremely helpful and demonstrates his dedication to education and mentorship. In addition, Paul knows literally everything
- Darren Holm (Senior Database Administrator) – Darren is an indispensable member of the IQ team. He embodies excellence in performance, innovation, leadership, service, and teamwork. As DBA, Darren interacts with all of the teams within IQ. Since his arrival, Darren has automated many processes to help make our jobs easier and to remove constraints, enabling us to perform necessary tasks in a more autonomous way. He is always pleasant to work with, and even though the workload is steadily increasing, he does his best to accommodate all requests in a timely fashion. Darren has also made himself available to the user community. He is able to explain highly technical concepts in a way that everybody understands. Darren is very involved in research and development as well as strategic planning. He is available 24/7, and he constantly monitors his own work for accuracy and efficiency. He is always finding new ways to improve our product.
- Blake Justice (Assistant Director for Information Services) – Blake Justice has been heading up the IT division of University Unions for years. He has mentored countless IT employees during those years, both those from the Information Analyst training program and others who were needed to keep all the IT running at The Union. I was fortunate to spend a month there after training coding with Blake (and Dan Horgan) to create the Tower Tour reservation system. I learned a lot from him. Like all of us, Blake has had to learn new coding platforms and technologies over the years and he’s done so with no complaints and with the utmost professionalism. He knows that he needs to keep the Union “ship” running at any cost and he will learn and implement what is needed. I have great respect for him and know that he has the criteria to with this award.
- Richard Krieg (Senior Software Engineer) – I have worked with Rich Krieg for 5 ½ years, and have always admired his technical expertise and his independent work-ethic. He is usually ahead of our team in absorbing and implementing new technology. We can always count on him to give us accurate and helpful advice with complex technical issues. He has been the pioneer and steward of vital IT services, and yet his contributions have not always been recognized because of his modest personality. I highly recommend him for the Cathy Lester Excellence Award. Once the decision has been made to take on the task, he assumes responsibility to lead multiple staff across campus to resolve any of the highly complex issues that can arise when dealing with multiple technical domains. A project manager says, “We love working with Rich and have increasingly counted on his abilities to listen, consider all sides, leverage a broad set of technical skills and then work patiently, steadily and methodically to solve problems.”
- Andy Loomis (Senior Software Developer Analyst) – Andy has, for a while now, served as the lead analyst for the most daunting challenge in the software develop training program. Upon meeting him, though, everyone is always disarmed and finds he is just about the friendliest person imaginable. He’ll sit 2 or 3 times and patiently go through how to do something, like implementing and testing Javascript in a project. His competence is something I would take for granted, except that his attentive feedback in code walks always leads to learning something new or updating the code to be more efficient. He is a compassionate animal advocate outside of work, he is reliable, and, as agreed by everyone who knows him, a quality human being.
- Tom Marx (Database Administrator) – Having Tom as DBA on the team has been critical to managing multiple data environments across heterogeneous services, enabling our software developers to focus on providing new and modern applications for our users. Tom has also been critical in providing integration with other areas on campus, and has been quick to adapt to the changing tool environment. Development’s efforts over the last several years to move off the mainframe could not have happened without Tom. He regularly expresses a can-do attitude, finishes complex projects with tight time lines, and handles pressure from high profile requests (e.g. regents’ requests, the president’s office, very large donors, etc.) There are few projects on our team that do not go through, at some point or in some respect, our DBA, and Tom has shown himself during his years of service to be more than up to the task. Thinking about who on a team would be a fundamental loss if they were suddenly gone (the “hit by a bus” test), unanimously this is Tom for our team. He has simply proven himself to be irreplaceable.
- Juliana Murphy (Senior Software Developer/Analyst) – Every time we take on a new challenge, it is Julie who is able to ask the important questions and guide our thinking along the right path. Whenever we have to analyze a problem, it is Julie who most effectively categorizes the work we need to do. Whenever we have to implement a solution, whether it is for an immediate or future application, it is Julie who keeps us focused on our goals and keeps us from going too far astray. There have been countless instances where we get excited about a solution that we find simple and intuitive, but then Julie chimes in with “But how does the client use it?”, and reminds us all that our own preference is not what matters most when creating a solution for someone else. Finally, whenever I have a complex problem that I want a second opinion on, the first person I think to turn to is Julie. Despite her significant workload, she is always happy and willing to help others, and can be counted on to give good, solid, and thoughtful opinion on anything she is asked about. Juliana is an incredibly supportive member of the community, particularly when it comes to mentoring and training new developers. Julie works remotely but she has continued to foster positive and great relationships across campus. When going to a meeting with her you are immediately put at ease, and you are able to focus on solving the problem at hand. This is so vital because she is the foremost expert on our current Human Resources Management System (HRMS), and she is essential to our transition to Work Day.
- Dustin Slater (Assistant Director of IT) – Dustin has been a part of the UT Austin IT community since 2004. He quickly finished the Information Analyst training program (leaving many of us in his dust) and started working right away learning the business practices of his new area. While working, he always helped as a mentor and challenge analyst in the training program. While on the ID team, he helped with important innovations and quickly rose in the ranks of UT Austin IT. That said, he was never too busy to help a colleague (like me) with an IT ID-related issue. He has a real depth of knowledge of all the IT goings on at UT and has not gotten stuck in one kind of coding or one type of technology. UT libraries is lucky to have him and I’m lucky to have him as a friend.
- Rachel Swindle (Business Analyst) – A little bit over a year ago, my business analyst left for another office and I was left with a gaping hole. This person was my external product manager and was in charge of ensuring all of our external products were integrated properly. Rachel jumped at the opportunity and the results have been nothing short of outstanding. This last year saw us planning a transition from one email marketing solution (iModules) to Eloqua. Each step had to be properly planned out. Users had to be kept abreast of changes, data had to be migrated, training classes had to be scheduled months in advance, effort had to be put in to learn the product so as to train others, the data had to be integrated into VIP, documentation had to be created, wikis established, office hourse setup, communication, security, roles, identity, etc, etc. We have successfully moved over 800 users to the new email marketing solution and I could not be happier with the work and effort Rachel put in. Rachel has worked hard with internal and external stakeholders to learn every nuance about every product we have contracts with. She has documented every detail and built a support system around each product establishing relationships with vendors and with internal clients. I have a high standard for my employees and Rachel has met and exceeded that standard. She has become an extremely valuable person on my team and one that I have great confidence relying on. I could not be prouder to nominate her for the award.
- Matt Tokoly (Senior Software Engineer) –Matt’s contributions to our software teams have been unmatched. Matt has spent the past year taking on challenging problems and implementing solutions that require deep learning of new technologies. His Facilities Management application uses several features in the Mulesoft ESB that are nuanced and technical, but provide robust async processing that has made our GUI very successful. Matt has been working diligently over the past year to mentor his teammates. I have witnessed his greater involvement with junior developers to the benefit of our department. Lastly, Matt was integral in the development of a python library called Tinyarms, a collection of common function, modules, form fields, and standards developed over time in Technology Resources that have been codified, packaged, and deployed into Artifactory. Anyone could pull this library and utilize a dearth of functions to improve a Django application. I believe Matt has exemplified the core values of this award.
- David Voegtle (Senior Software Engineer) – During my time working in the department of development, I have witnessed firsthand David Voegtle’s commitment to his team and to the University as a whole. He is one of the brightest people on our team, not only because of his vast programming knowledge, but also because of his work ethics. He has organized and participated in at least 5 different FYIs in the last year, showing his commitment to give back to the University and its community. David has helped pioneer our move to more modern and innovative technologies such as the new Angular framework and Artifactory; he is also heading our transition from subversion to Github for all our projects. Dealing with coding, David focuses not just on getting the job done, but on getting it done as efficient and as clean as possible. He adheres to best practices and encourages the team to do so as well.
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.
- Tim Bishop (Software Developer/Analyst, Financial Information Systems) – Tim’s greatest strength is his ability to dive deep into complex business processes and systems, understand them, and find ways to improve them quickly…Tim’s focus on quality has been clearly on display in each project. He has created fantastic documentation for each of these projects, done complex analysis of each process involved, built consensus for his solutions, and conducted extensive testing to ensure those solutions meet the needs of the end users and business process owners, any reporting requirements, and all system quality standards…, his genuine commitment to helping me grow as a developer…, a quick study at everything we have assigned to him, delivering analysis, code, and documentation at a higher quality than is usually found so early in his career as a developer.
- Felipe Lee (Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – Felipe has excellent communication skills, and our business users have confidence in his technical skills while appreciating that he takes the time to understand their business processes while carefully explaining what they need to know about the technical solutions. He programs quickly and tests well. He never shies from learning new techniques and he embraces the opportunity to take on new projects… He is someone who always offers help and a good solution… He will help with the most tedious of tasks, but also doesn’t shy away from exploring new tools, and is eager to help others navigate them.
- Rebekah Post (Software Developer/Analyst, Inst Reporting, Research & Info Systems) – As a technologist, Rebekah is remarkably courageous. She has engaged in a number of team efforts including relational databases, Tableau visualization authorizing and publishing, Natural/Adabas system ownership and enhancements, front and back-end web development, and SPSS statistical software. Her professionalism and warmth in customer service are strengths: management includes her in meetings with executive level staff. Unquestionably, she is a pace setter for our team, supporting academic decision making by mining strategic information from university data. To the extent that we are smart people solving hard problems across the university’s complex and dynamic enterprise, she exemplifies our ideal.
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. You can help support the endowment with your own contributions right now during 40 Hours for the Forty Acres. Visit https://40for40.utexas.edu/giving-day/1337 . When making their gift, select “The University of Texas at Austin” as the Department or Program, “Other” as the Fund Designation, and then enter “Cathy Lester IT Excellence Memorial Fund – Endowment 30001003” in the Special Instructions section.
Please join us in congratulating Juan and Megan, 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.
Thank you,
Sara Gore, on behalf of the Cathy Lester IT Excellence Committee