Staff and faculty recognized for service to APSC

Three staff members and three faculty members in the UBC Faculty of Applied Science have received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service. The award, which comes with $2,000 and a personalized plaque, aims to recognize the positive impact that individuals in the APSC community have made on the faculty.

Nominated by APSC faculty, staff and students for improving "their workplace’s productivity, quality of service or morale" and "[maintaining] a consistently high quality of work that is beyond what is normally required for their position," this year's staff recipients were Mary Murphy, Carl Ng and Kelly Southam. Faculty recipients Yang Cao, Louise Creagh and Dwayne Tannant were nominated by APSC department heads, school directors and associate deans for their "sustained service, leadership and administration contributions."

The awards were presented by Dean James Olson at the 20th annual Faculty of Applied Science BBQ, which was held on June 7, 2018 at the University Golf Club. The citations for the recipients read as follows:

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service — Staff 

Mary Murphy (Director of Engineering Student Services)

Mary has been a dedicated member of the Faculty of Applied Science since 1990 and has been part of the UBC community for over 30 years. She has been the backbone of Engineering Student Services, after arriving from the Registrar’s Office (currently Enrolment Services).

Mary is a quiet leader, never willing to take the spotlight for her accomplishments. Yet she was nominated by the EUS and received the AMS Just Desserts which recognizes contributions to student growth and success as well as the President’s Service Award for Excellence.

Mary has witnessed the start of the Camosun Bridge program, Integrated Engineering and most recently Bio-medical Engineering, the minor options and the Dual Degree. She has worked with (at least) five Deans and one Acting Dean. She has been through technological shifts from green screens to PC and from snail mail to email. Mary has been a steadfast member of this Faculty and is dependable, reliable, loyal and trusted.

Carl Ng (Engineering Tech, UBC Department of Materials Engineering)

Carl is an example of excellence in service. He joined UBC in 1992 as a machinist apprentice and has provided 26 years of exemplary service to the Department of Materials engineering. Carl displayed he was a skilled machinist with a great attitude and we were more than happy to hire him full-time after he completed his apprenticeship in 1995. Carl’s contribution to Materials Engineering and Integrated Engineering has been significant. He has contributed to the success of the research programs and educated generations of undergraduate and graduate students by preparing samples and building custom experimental equipment. Carl takes pride in his work, is meticulous about details and has exceptionally high standards of quality. It has been a great pleasure to work with Carl over the past quarter century.

Kelly Southam (Records and Scheduling Assistant, UBC School of Nursing)

Kelly has displayed a commitment to the School of Nursing and BSN program through her ability to handle any change that has been handed to her without missing a beat, with a smile on her face, and coming up with a way to do it better than before. Kelly is the corner stone that holds our office together. She is the person all faculty, staff and students go to when they need help, an answer, or an opinion on how to do something better, more effectively, or more accurately. She is also the person who voluntarily steps up whenever something is needed – regardless of what she has going on in her own workload or personal life.

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service — Faculty

Yang Cao (Senior Instructor, School of Engineering, UBC Okanagan)

Yang’s leadership as Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Engineering has been crucial to maintaining the School’s accreditation, as well as expanding its range of courses and programs. In his service to the School, he exemplifies the ideals of educational leadership, including synthesis of research, teaching, service and administration. He is always willing to take on the kinds of “behind the scenes” unglamorous tasks that are absolutely necessary to effective function of the School. Yang sees administrative and service duties as an opportunity to help students beyond the classroom. He is highly approachable, and known for his compassion and fair-minded approach to problems. His demonstrable dedication to student support across the spectrum enhances the quality of the programming and the reputation of the School within the Okanagan campus and in the wider community.

Louise Creagh (Senior Instructor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering)

Louise is being acknowledged for her many years of student advisement, which she has approached with deep care for student’s needs and commitment to help them best prepare to deal with their curriculum and other challenges and for her many contributions across the educational enterprise in the department and in Michael Smith Laboratories, where she has a cross appointment. As Associate Head for undergraduate studies this past year, she has guided the department’s shared vision with strength, understanding, clarity of thought and excellent knowledge of university policies. A member of the committee preparing the department’s CEAB documents, she is now in charge of implementation of the graduate attributes improvement process. Her sound knowledge of chemical and biological engineering is a wonderful resource to facilitate these ongoing discussions.

Dwayne Tannant (Professor, School of Engineering, UBC Okanagan)

Since his arrival at the School of Engineering in 2008, Dwayne has shown selfless dedication to making the School’s students, colleagues and university better. Over the years he has held numerous formal service roles, including Acting Associate Dean, Acting Director of Undergraduate Studies, UBC Okanagan Senator, serving on committees at every available level and positively representing the School in both the academic and public communities. In the early years, when there were relatively few senior faculty Dwayne was among those called upon for service in every direction. While the Engineering building was being built, he needed to run labs in tents next to portables that doubled as offices and classrooms. Despite the obvious challenges, helped his colleagues to seize the moment and view that experience as excellent motivation for continuous development and improvement. Dwayne not only follows analytic engineering principles in identifying and defining issues, planning and effecting a course of action, but  he takes the time to understand what makes those around him tick and to foster an engaged and collaborative team. And in every way, he has helped to make the School of Engineering a better place.