We are pleased to announce that this year we have a tie! Kyle Royder and Autumn Shields have been selected to receive the 2018 Cathy Lester IT Excellence Award, which recognizes their enduring track record for excellence.
Kyle Royder is a Principal Software Engineer with FIS. Below are some excerpts from his nominations.
Kyle is so highly capable in so many areas, yet egoless and always willing to help. When things are chaotic, Kyle forges ahead calmly and steadily and helps us get to the other side. I am privileged to witness on a daily basis his eagerness to serve, his commitment to improving our systems and processes, his deep understanding of multiple complex areas, and his absolute willingness to jump in and help any colleague, with anything they need. Kyle brings a remarkable service mindset to his work, along with avid curiosity and exceptional technical skills which allow him to identify, evaluate, and improve processes on an almost daily basis. Everybody wants his help because his help is golden. Kyle is unfailingly poised and positive in the face of challenges—an excellent role model for those around him. Kyle is everything we hope for in a senior member of FIS. He is extremely technically gifted, a great mentor and collaborator, committed to quality, super-productive, and the clients love him. Kyle motivates us to explore better practices and newer technologies, and then actually produces concrete plans on how to implement these newer workflows. Kyle possesses a very special combination of excellent technical skills, dogged persistence in problem-solving, personal humility, and servant leadership that make him a gift to our team.
Autumn Shields is the Lead IT Manager with ITS Applications. Below are some excerpts from her nominations.
Autumn is forward-thinking and quality-driven. Not only is she incredibly intelligent and detail-oriented, she is always ready to jump in and help when a service needs extra support. Autumn had the foresight to create an Operations Team and instituted many processes that have significantly reduced the stewardship burden for the larger team, while also increasing the quality of customer service. Autumn is an effective manager and leader. The hardest part about having her as a gifted manager is losing her as a talented and productive developer. She inspires confidence, loyalty, and her team’s best work. She doesn’t see an endless list of tasks to be done by an impossibly small team–she sees a talented team that could really make a difference. She is always looking for ways to cross-train our new team members while instilling a sense of system ownership in them. She gives feedback kindly and confidently. She helps her teams “get it right” and not just “get it done.” She has a collegial and collaborative style that focuses on involving team members in prioritization and planning. Her customers consistently express their appreciation for how she ensures they understand the “why” and “how” embodied in the technical solutions her team develops for them. She is an exceptional member of the university IT community.
We are pleased to announce that Tim Bishop has been selected to receive the 2017 Cathy Lester IT Rising Star Award for someone early in their IT career who shows extraordinary promise!
Tim Bishop is a Software Engineer with FIS. Below are some excerpts from his nomination.
Tim is one of our developer community’s greatest assets. Tim’s eagerness to share his knowledge and experience make him an excellent colleague who provides value to the University far past the immediate impact of his own work and makes him the very best possible recipient for this Cathy Lester award. He produces amazing code that is exceptionally well-organized, technically advanced, and includes thorough comments and documentation. He is patient, thorough, and easy to understand. He asks good questions about our business processes and listens to the answers. It’s hard to imagine Tim has only been out of training 2 short years. He excels at everything he tackles, whether it’s learning a business area, technical analysis, or client support. Whatever he touches is left better than when he started. He’s also a pleasure to work with! It’s clear that Tim has an amazing career ahead of him.
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.
- Haeli Colina (Information Technology Manager, FIS) – Haeli Colina is a joy to have on the floor, spreading her kind and generous spirit. She is also technically brilliant, coming up with complex yet elegant solutions that are outside-the-box. It’s hard to imagine a person more dedicated. She always delivers above and beyond what is asked or expected, and she is the type of employee that makes the university great.
- Scott Doane (Senior Software Engineer, ITS Applications) – Scott has shown great aptitude for devising strategies and programs for critical infrastructure systems, stays calm under pressure, and has been a great mentor. He is always willing to listen to a problem and help with finding solutions. Scott has demonstrated mastery of his area and willingness to help teach others, making it a pleasure to work with him.
- Andy Loomis (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – Andy juggles a lot of responsibilities, always finishes his tasks by their deadlines, takes the needs of his business users very seriously, is always helpful to others, and never shows signs of stress even when he has multiple priorities with tight deadlines. He is thorough, has a can-do attitude, and has great rapport with both the IT team and the business users.
- Barry McClendon (Senior Software Engineer, ApplyTexas) – The quality of Barry’s work is consistently outstanding. Beyond that, his interest in learning new technologies is at the highest level. He is remarkable for his humility, his passion for learning, and his openness in sharing what he knows with other IT professionals. He is constantly working on the cutting edge of new developments in IT across the campus and beyond.
- Julie Murphy (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Technology Resources) – Julie exemplifies excellence in IT at UT Austin, demands high-quality work from every developer on her team, is always free to answer questions and provide support, works excellently with our clients and other departments, has become an irreplaceable resource, and provides top-notch customer support.
- Melissa Smith (Lead Information Technology Manager, FIS) – As an IT manager, she has a keen eye for overseeing our technical projects and work; as a resource manager, she is aware of everything everyone is working on; as a personnel manager, she takes interest in all her reports’ personal and professional welfare. She is supportive, friendly, reliable, genuine, and effective, just to name a few of her amazing qualities.
- David Voegtle (Software Engineer, University Development Office) – David is committed to his team and to the University. He is one of the brightest people on our team, not only because of his vast programming knowledge, but also because of his work ethic. He has helped pioneer our move to more modern and innovative technologies and focuses not just on getting the job done, but on getting it done as efficiently and as cleanly as possible.
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.
- Alex Knox (Software Developer, ITS Applications) – The speed with which Alex got ramped up and took initiative and started helping our customers is really noteworthy. He learns new technology very quickly, with little external help. He is always looking for ways to improve a service. Within a short span, he has shown tremendous impact to the UT Community.
- Juan Andres Leon (Software Developer/Analyst, Development Office) – Juan is one of the best and brightest and is truly an indispensable member of our team. In addition to his technical skills, he is collegial and well regarded among his teammates and customers he supports. He has worked diligently to familiarize himself with many technological nuances pertaining to this University and this office.
- Kayla Ramirez (Senior Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – Kayla is able to quickly learn and understand complex connections, interpret those for our users, and provide training and guidance. Both the business and technical members of our staff feel that they can trust her and her judgement when it comes to design, development, and implementation of any project.
- Tim Yung (Software Developer/Analyst, Office of the Registrar) – In just over one year on the job, Tim has made significant impact in the Registrar’s Office. He’s handled every assignment with a surplus of organization and professionalism, and has invariably successfully completed his tasks before their deadlines with high standards of coding and testing.
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.
Please join us in congratulating Kyle, Autumn, and Tim, 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