Information
Technology
Services

Employee Recognition Program

Employees of the Month

• Jun 2009: University Annual Report Team

Consisting of: Michael Becher, Peter Beurmann, DJ Dohanyos, Mike Kubit, Steve Kupchik, Sean Maxwell, David Ullman

MediaVision's digital video production team created, produced and directed Case Western Reserve University's annual report video in a joint partnership with University's Marketing and Communication department. This highly talented team developed a visual representation of the accomplishments and forward thinking of the University's past year's progress. Included in the video-based annual report was videotaped interviews, editing and graphic design. The 2008 Annual Report was delivery in early February and is available at http://www.case.edu/speedofideas/indexnointro.html

• May 2009: Paul Jarc

Nominated by: Jeff Shaw

Paul Jarc has worked in ITS since 1998 and has held several positions within the division. One of his most notable responsibilities is the primary Application Developer responsible for support of the Blackboard Learning System. In that role, Paul was responsible for the technical components of the Blackboard 8 Upgrade that occurred on Saturday, May 16. In addition to spending all day that Saturday running the scripts for the production update, Paul completed several test runs earlier this year and resolved issues discovered throughout the testing process. The test runs paid off because the upgrade was smooth from the user perspective and there were no significant technical issues. In addition to his responsibilities for Blackboard, Paul also developed and supports the university's central Online Course Evaluation System. Course Evaluations for the spring semester were open from April 15 through April 29. This semester Paul was able to add some improvements to the reporting module of the Course Evaluation system to allow better filtering by instructor.

• Apr 2009: Sean Maxwell

Nominated by: Mike Kubit

Sean Maxwell serves in a variety of roles as part of the ITAC/MediaVision team. He is a gifted programmer/developer, who has taken the time to understand the architecture of a variety of technical platforms and provides outstanding customer service. It is not unusual for him to come to campus in the evening, weekend or even while on vacation to address a system failure or respond to the needs of a customer. There has not been a challenge that he has not been able to address and shows incredible tenacity while working to provide solutions. He is a valued member of our team and often goes above and beyond to contribute, even in areas that are outside of his job description. Sean Maxwell is a key factor in the success of ITAC/MediaVision.

• Mar 2009: Debbie Andrews

Nominated by: Chet Ramey

Debbie did excellent work managing the successful conversion of the CWRU Telemetry network to a completely new routed architecture. She managed an IBM contractor's work and completed the first two phases of the project on time and under budget. The third phase is underway, but the first two comprise a significant majority of the effort.

• Feb 2009: Peggy Wats Gup

Nominated by: Tom Knob

Peggy has done huge and excellent work for the IT Support Services (Help Desk) RFP/vendor review process, supporting the very active committee in person and online, as well as coordinating vendor presentations and other communications. The process has involved a very demanding schedule, confidential information, complex process, public events, remote participants, and many demanding people and vendors.

Peggy has also been doing very valuable work in communicating ITS planned outages during data center remediation and has been actively trying to foster good communication and Help Desk Services for the campus community IT users at a time during which there have also been some unanticipated outages and when we are preparing for the impending password change requirement. She is a valued and always-pleasant colleague, and the queen of the helpful FAQ.

• Jan 2009: Colleen Meneely-Kobe

Nominated by: Jeff Shaw

"Colleen has done a remarkable job in preparing and conducting end user training for Business Objects XI. As part of the current Data Warehouse initiative a new version of Business Objects is being rolled out to end users. Colleen was tasked with preparing a training course to familiarize nearly 300 users with the changes in the new version."

On November 12th, 2008, Colleen conducted the first training session which received much positive feedback. Ongoing, Colleen will continue to offer the course twice monthly until the demand for training has been met.

A similar eLearning (online) course is offered through SAP at an approximate cost of $220 per user. With approximately 300 end-users expected to attend the course over the next year, Colleen's work equates to a savings of over $60,000 to the university."

• Dec 2008: Lou Changeri, John Ozanich

  Nominated by: Chet Ramey
  
  "...for their long hours of effort to update the University's firewalls and edge security, and battling and finally overcoming several denial of service attacks."

• Nov 2008: Peter Beurmann

  Nominated by: Mike Kubit
  
  Since taking over as the MediaVision Production Manager, Peter has been working tirelessly to plan, lead, organize and coordinate the projects and services provided by our production team. The demand for these services have been growing exponentially and would provide a challenge for even a seasoned manager. Peter has demonstrated great instincts and a genuine concern for the well-being of his staff. He is very deserving of this recognition.

• Oct 2008: John Sully

  Nominated by: Tom Siu
  
  In response to security incident 2008-08-018, John undertook an audit of the entire Case web server space to find Tier III information. He researched various tools, found a likely candidate, installed, tested, and ran the audit. He was able to compile the results in a few days time, permitting the Information Security Office staff to evaluate the data on a secured server. His rapid actions clearly met an emergent need during the prosecution of a security incident, and led to a substantial cost savings by the subsequent prevention of any future disclosures.

• Sep 2008: Ruth Cannon

  Nominated by: Tom Siu
  
  In performing the analysis of a post-incident audit of public file systems, Ruth systematically examined over 4000 files for potentially sensitive information. By running online queries and investigation of logs and audit results, she was able to confirm and close possible data disclosures for a number of 'near miss' events, saving the university in approximately $602,560.00 in incident losses.

• Aug 2008: Nate Murphy

  Nominated by: Joan McFaul
  
  Nate has been the glue that has held the SIS team together during some potentially disruptive transitions. He has been steadfast and unflappable in his determination to make the SIS project a success. His colleagues and team members, without exception, acknowledge the superior talent and generally good disposition Nate possesses.

• Jul 2008: Genevieve Matthieson

  Nominated by: Wendy Shapiro
  
  "I consider Genevieve to be our silent warrior. As we assign her more responsibilities, she consistently delivers excellent work. We are pleased and proud to have Genevieve as part of the ITAC team."

• June 2008: Sean Maxwell
• May, 2008 Lora Veselsky
• April, 2008 Debbie Andrews
• March, 2008 SIS Team: Zach Mandeleyl, Nassif Nassif, Jim Heavey, Lori Albrecht, Sue McHenry, Nate Murphy, Tony Kramar
• February, 2008: Peggy Watts Gup
• January, 2008: Jon Cline