Once again it is my pleasure to announce to you the recipients of this year’s Cathy Lester IT Excellence Award and the Rising Star Award.
About the Recipients
IT Excellence Award – Maggie Pfeiffer, Senior IT Manager and Education Manager, Enterprise Business Information Technology Solutions
For each area, Maggie upholds the high standards set forth by the Excellece Award. She casually takes on mantles of responsibility including BAITLC at-large member; informal
SDTP training coordinator for campus, and official Ed Manager for eBITS’ internal training program; primary planner for eBITS’ annual team week and facilitator for the eBITS Managers’ group; and the driving force behind the development of the new Business Analyst Apprenticeship Program training offering. And as all these responsibilities have accumulated, she’s also chosen to maintain her role as manager of the Student Financials group within eBITS, which includes many high-profile, quick-turnaround, high-stress stewardship areas. She began leading this group as a relatively new manager with several more senior developers reporting to her, and handled any potential challenges there with grace and candor.
Rising Star Award – Emmett Slack, Software Engineer II, Enterprise Business Information Technology Solutions
Emmett is a wonderful example of everything we hope for in our up-and-coming developers. He is patient, methodical, and persistent in stewarding our systems, and he always looks for ways to improve the code along the way. Sometimes this means making small changes beyond the scope of his specific task; sometimes it means completely rewriting a complex area of a web application to make it cleaner, simpler, and much more maintainable. He applies himself with equal and consistent dedication regardless of the size, difficulty, or urgency of his endeavor. He simply does an exemplary job–without fanfare and without drama. We are a better, stronger, and happier team with him in the mix, and I think he is truly deserving of the Rising Star recognition.
About the Award Nominees
We also congratulate the other outstanding IT professionals who were nominated for this year’s IT Excellence award.
Andrew Coyle, Angela Brandt, Geoff Valdes, Kathryn Flowers, Lindsey Cooper, Matthew Barsalou, Michael Wang, Nick Metzler
And those who were nominated for this year’s Rising Star award.
Chris Long, Juni Kim, Mario Juguilon, Meredith Jagger, Sandy Sparkman, Stephanie Vestal
Andrew Coyle, ITS Campus Solutions
Over the last two years, Andrew Coyle has added immeasurable value to the Identity and Access Management team, ITS Campus Solutions, and the entire University of Texas at Austin. Andrew became the incredible contributor he is today with a blend of fabulous customer service, an insatiable desire to learn and improve things, and a powerful work ethic.
Angela Brandt, ITS Networking & Telecommunications
Angela consistently exhibits exemplary leadership and dedication in her role as the Accounting and Customer Service Manager in our ITS Networking & Telecommunications department… Angela’s commitment to the University of Texas at Austin has significantly contributed to the success and positive impact on our university.
Chris Long, Academic Information Systems
Chris joined the university by participating in the software developer trainee program. He brings many admirable qualities and skills to his new career from his previous work experience… Chris quickly learned the Faculty Reporting System (Oracle/Python based) and the Course Evaluation System (vendor product). He has shown the ability to learn a variety of systems and technologies.
Geoff Valdes, Enterprise Business Information Technology Solutions
Geoff has played a critical role in eBITS recently as we’ve moved over 80 applications to the CMP. He did more than just the technical work to help us with this migration, but served as a leader for the project and the overall vision of the importance of the developer experience now and in the future.
Juni Kim, Enterprise Business Information Technology Solutions
Juni serves as an enthusiastic resource and mentor to others at UT. I have had the privilege of working with Juni not only on my team, but as my cohort learns web application development. Juni is generous with their time, patient, and organized.
Kathryn Flowers, Data to Insights – D2I
I can’t think of a better example of commitment to serve the university than a UT student who has made their way up to such an amazing role and department. I am so proud to be part of her team after so many years and to see first-hand how much she has done and continues to do for this university.
Lindsey Cooper, D2I – Analytics
Lindsey’s unwavering dedication to serving the University and aligning her work with its overarching goals is evident in her daily actions. She consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that her projects contribute directly to the University’s mission. Lindsey regularly takes initiative in improving processes from meetings, to onboarding to high-profile deliverables.
Mario Juguilon, University Housing and Dining
We’ve been impressed by his attention to detail, quality of results, and adherence to best principles that he brings to bare on his work regularly… As an alumnus to the University and a former residence hall student, Mario has brought a new awareness to our team of student needs/interests in our software solutions.
Matthew Barsalou, Academic Information Systems
Matt is the leader of IT solutions for the Admissions team and leads the charge on making sure all of the Admissions goals are met and ensuring that new and effective solutions are built out and utilized to better serve the Admissions team and the students applying to UT.
Meredith Jagger, Data to Insights – D2I
Meredith is providing excellent leadership regarding UT’s metadata management efforts. She encourages innovation and contribution from everyone as Alation continues to expand, and never backs down from each new challenge. She’s been an integral part of UT’s IT transformation achievements so far.
Michael Wang, ITS Web Custom Solutions
Michael cares deeply about UT and the UT community. He is thoughtful and patient, and he cares sincerely about the success of individual projects. In the past year, he has made a significant contribution to projects on behalf of UT Events, the Directory application, and the Photo ID suite of applications. He raises security concerns where relevant, and he communicates effectively with his fellow developers.
Nick Metzler, Technology Resources
Nick’s knowledge base in Windows, Mac OS, and Mac iOS platforms allows him to quickly solve problems, maintaining security and compliance ratings that have the highest ratings on campus… Nick is constantly finding a balance between customer needs and the core principles of security that are essential for such a high-profile campus network.
Sandy Sparkman, Data to Insights – D2I
Because of her strong background, she is very knowledgeable of University processes both technical and non[technical]. She has the capacity to bring together different field experts and easily extract and document the information required for our team.
Stephanie Vestal, Data to Insights – D2I
Stephanie is exceptionally competent and good-humored in her work… She has brought a wealth of knowledge to our team from her prior higher ed and private-sector work, and she has gained much institutional knowledge and connections at UT, since joining our team in April 2022.
Please join us in congratulating Maggie, Emmett, 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.
BUT WAIT! There’s more!
You can help sustain this yearly tradition by donating through UT Austin Give or payroll deduction.
Thank you,
Sara Gore, on behalf of the Cathy Lester IT Excellence Committee