4 A&S staff members receive President’s Outstanding Performance Award
Luke Buckman, assistant director, student programming and development, University Honors Program
One of Luke’s chief job responsibilities is to advise honors students, a role in which he excels. He is not only adept at guiding students through course selection, he is able to uncover student interests and help them map out courses that will maximize their undergraduate experience, as well as identify important co-curricular experiences that will enhance their academic and civic learning. He has also taken considerable initiative in creating new programming for students, as well as engaging students in this programming and other campus activities. Largely due to his efforts, UofL has a vibrant and engaged honors student population. He has also played pivotal roles in the Service Living Learning Community, the Marin Luther King Jr. Scholars Program and the Board of Overseers Mentoring Program.
Lori Cotter, administrative specialist, A&S dean's office
Lori has been at UofL since 2004 and in the A&S dean's office since 2011. As an administrative specialist in the A&S Budget and Finance Office, some of her duties include reconciling A&S accounts with university financials, processing travel forms and managing procurement card reconciliation and purchases made from dean's office funds. A number of her responsibilities span the entire college, which is made up of more than 400 full-time faculty, more than 70 degree programs in 24 departments and more than a dozen centers and institutes. She manages 125 active ProCards in A&S and works hard to ensure others in A&S abide by ProCard policies. Her work is consistently accurate and timely in meeting deadlines, and she negotiates very complex and ever changing rules and regulations with ease and diplomacy.
Annelise Gray, program assistant senior, graduate programs (English)
Annelise often seems less a program assistant and more a program quarterback—the team member who makes sure everyone else is where they need to be, and that they also know what they need to do. In the fall, she makes sure the third-year PhD students have rooms, committees and questions for their qualifying exams. She also coordinates the collection of prospectus and committee documents from PhD and MA students in candidacy, rolling admissions for our MA program and any special circumstances requiring a program variance. In the spring, Annelise will be responsible for compiling admissions materials from well over 100 students seeking entrance to our MA and PhD programs. In coordinating recruiting weekend, she makes sure everything runs on time and within budget. Her initiative has led to a number of key improvements in the graduate program that have greatly improved the manner in which students approach and conduct graduate work. She also developed internship courses into a more solid program, compiling an internship handbook, creating assessment options and approaching potential community and corporate partners.
Charles Nasby, technical production manager, Theatre Arts
Charles is responsible for managing operations of the scenery production shop for the Theatre Arts Mainstage shows, supervising all scenery and properties construction, working with the lighting and sound areas, occasionally assisting the costume shop and maintaining production and performance facilities in two buildings, all under the pressures of tight deadlines and tighter technical resources. He fulfills these duties with the assistance of mostly inexperienced student crews. Students learn the principles of theatre in the classroom; Charles introduces the students to the practical application of these principles. He is an uncredited teacher of technical skills to would-be actors and technicians, guiding them safely through their first exposure to scenic production and carpentry. He is also dedicated to making Theatre Arts the campus benchmark for sustainability, exploring new ideas of reducing the department’s environmental footprint through redistribution and recycling.
