Impact Awards Recent Winners

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2023 INDIVIDUAL IMPACT AWARD WINNERS: 

Kimberly Howard
Mailroom Manager
Facilities

Kimberly has been with Booth for nearly five years. Her peers describe her as helpful, patient, delightful to work with, and willing to go the extra mile to provide the best service to others. Kimberly offers meaningful solutions to problems, helps bring large packages to destinations when she is not required, and has stayed after her shift to help students mail their packages. Kimberly assists faculty and staff quickly and efficiently, even when the requests have a short turnaround. She has a way of calming stressful situations. Kimberly embodies excellence in her work and treats everyone with respect and kindness. She creates an environment of competence we can all rely on, and trust in her expertise.

Montroy Hunter
Senior Desktop Support Technician
Information Technology

Troy has been with Booth for almost 14 years. As the Senior Desktop Support Technician, Troy has had impact on the redesign of processes to accommodate the growth of Research Professionals at Booth. Troy took the initiative to update build forms and help design shared databases to ensure IT had all the information needed. He made sure that the team kept abreast of technical developments in commonly used machines. This allowed them to advise faculty and RPs about which devices they may want to retire as licenses such as Matlab and STATA were updated. Troy exemplifies excellence in his work and approaches his clients with respect and empathy. He responds to complex requests with great technical competence and concise communication. Troy goes beyond the scope of his job, which has led to a positive impact on research at Booth.

Janet Quek
Director, Program
Executive MBA Program, Asia

Janet has been with Booth for 23 years and has demonstrated extraordinary excellence in her work; her impact on the AXP Program has been significant. Janet moved to Singapore to run the Executive MBA Program for Asia due to the COVID-19 travel and quarantine restrictions in Hong Kong. She led the search to find a temporary home for the AXP program in Singapore. She discussed Booth's requirements with multiple educational institutions, flexible public workspaces, and hotels. With Janet’s tenacity, attention to detail, and tireless dedication to the negotiation process, we secured two short-term venues. Janet’s work allowed Booth to offer faculty and students an in-person academic experience. In addition to setting up the Singapore classroom experience, Janet also had to manage the students in Hong Kong. Thanks to Janet’s diligence, we hosted three “International Weeks” in the Autumn Quarter, which enabled students from the Chicago and London-based cohorts to experience Asia, as they had been promised. These International Weeks are a hallmark of the Chicago Booth Executive MBA Program. Thanks to Janet’s positive attitude, sense of humor, dedication, and commitment, the AXP program continued to flourish. 

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2023 TEAM IMPACT AWARD WINNERS: 

Booth Phoenix Team, the Advancement Department

  • Daniel Beyman – Senior Associate Director, Major Gifts NY
  • Andrea Bustos – Assistant Director, Data Integrity
  • Michele Cahill – Director, Alumni Engagement
  • Tricia Hill – Senior Director, U.S. and Global Individual Giving
  • Megan Humphrey – Senior Associate Director, Prospect Research
  • Nhu Huynh – Director, Research and Prospect Management
  • Karen Ipema – Associate Director, Analytics
  • Andrew LaLonde – Senior Associate Director, Prospect Management
  • Amanda Lissak – Senior Associate Director, Annual Giving
  • Meredith Mann – Associate Director, Donor Relations
  • Adam Niermann – Senior Director, Annual and Leadership Giving
  • Caroline Oates – Assistant Director, Pipeline Development
  • Casey Ritchell – Senior Assistant Director, Data Integrity
  • Jane Rodriguez – Director, Global Events Strategy
  • Alyson Schumacher – Senior Director, Advancement Services
  • Taj Seyal – Associate Director, Annual Fund
  • K Shelton – Director, Analytics and Business Intelligence
  • Lisa Villamil – Assistant Director, Analytics
  • Annie White – Senior Director, Alumni Relations

Until now, the Advancement department has used a rather antiquated system called Griffin to track and manage alumni, alumni information, and donors. The Phoenix Team in Advancement was charged with transitioning the old Griffin system to the new Phoenix system. The team worked diligently to build a new, highly complex, and sophisticated alumni/donor database while making sure all the current information on our tens of thousands of alumni was safely maintained. The university chose this new system and our Advancement department team has spent countless hours completing testing, data validation, and business process updates over the past few years. In helping define the new system, they have helped shape how all of UChicago Alumni Relations and Development think about and manage critical operations and goals around alumni engagement, pipeline development, fundraising approaches, and stewardship. The team has made the transition look easy. Now that the database is live, members of the Phoenix Team are teaching the rest of Advancement how to use it so that they can maximize its potential to continue to engage our alumni community. Thanks to this team, Chicago Booth can impact the university’s fundraising efforts in new and meaningful ways.

 

SAM/iBid Team

  • Natasa Blecic – Executive MBA – Director Program and Operations
  • Lucy Marquardt – Executive MBA – Director, Student Life and Program Operations
  • Janet Quek – Executive MBA – Director, Program
  • Alondra Avitia – Faculty and Academic Services – Assistant Director, Academic Services 
  • Beth Daily – Faculty and Academic Services – Registrar
  • Cesar Flores – Faculty and Academic Services – Senior Associate Director, Academic Services
  • Erik Halloway – Faculty and Academic Services – Senior Associate Director, Academic Service
  • Leigh Hartley – Faculty and Academic Services – Director, Faculty Services
  • Leah Kaltz – Faculty and Academic Services – Director, Faculty Services 
  • Will Kuhn – Faculty and Academic Services – Assistant Director, Academic Services
  • Alexandra LeBlanc – Faculty and Academic Services – Associate Registrar 
  • Mao Rebman – Faculty and Academic Services – Associate Registrar
  • Gina Vinci – Faculty and Academic Services – Associate Registrar
  • Amy Wright – Faculty and Academic Services – Senior Director, Faculty and Academic Services
  • David Zupko – Faculty and Academic Services – Director, Academic Services
  • Nour Arab – Information Technology – Application Architect
  • Arfan Arifuddin – Information Technology – Business Analyst
  • Veletta Bell – Information Technology – Director, Project Management Office
  • Terry Bitoy – Information Technology – Senior Systems Administrator
  • Phil Elliott – Information Technology – Director of Application Development 
  • Nicholaus Gurrola – Information Technology – Application Support Lead
  • Richard Hoffer – Information Technology – Senior Application Developer
  • Shabbir Hussain – Information Technology – Business Analyst
  • Utkarsh Jaiswal – Information Technology – Project Manager 
  • Matt Leigh – Information Technology – Software Engineer
  • Bill Manley – Information Technology – Software Engineer
  • James Millsap – Information Technology – Senior Systems Administrator
  • Hasan Rahman – Information Technology – Database Administrator
  • Inas Sarraj – Information Technology – Application Developer
  • Tom Schrader – Information Technology – Senior Application Developer
  • Jim Spangler – Information Technology – Senior Application Developer
  • Nisar Syed – Information Technology – Director, Operations and Infrastructure 
  • Chris Trojniar – Information Technology – Senior Application Developer 
  • Matt Vogel – Information Technology – Associate Director, Service Desk and Applications
  • Ching Yue – Information Technology – Project Manager
  • Wenbo Zhang – Information Technology – Application Developer 
  • Kimberly Mayer – PhD Program – Senior Assistant Director, PhD Program 

 

This significant project is rewriting the student management and registration (bidding) applications. This system is the lifeblood of our students’ ability to register for courses at Booth. The SAM/iBid Replacement Project was initiated in late 2019 upon receiving notice that Booth’s student, course, and registration system would not be supported after June 2020. Replacement options were limited because few systems in the market include the concept of students bidding for courses, which is a pillar of Booth culture and practice. Shifting to a replacement with minimal disruption was vital. After reviewing the limited options, Booth IT accepted the challenge. This entailed writing all of the code to develop a homegrown system. Booth IT had experience building other custom tools involving student and course data, but this project was unlike any other. Now they could implement enhancements that the students had long requested, combining our degree and planning tool, Booth Book, with bidding, iBid, and folding in elements of the searchable course catalog, Course Search. It also resulted in better integrations with course planning and management tools, grade sheets, and other homegrown applications that link to the student system. The team nailed down requirements and a timeline that involved nearly two years of time and review. The new system is in the final stages of testing and will officially launch in October 2023. Staff in crucial Booth departments were introduced to the new system last December, and feedback was positive. The system is described as easy to access, use, and clean. Added features will help staff better access data. The SAM/iBid Project will have a lasting Booth-wide impact for years. By building in-house, we can create further improvements going forward.