UHCL staff, faculty honored at 40th annual awards ceremony

April 30, 2018 | Jim Townsend

Recognizing dedication and commitment, University of Houston-Clear Lake held the 40th annual Faculty & Staff Awards ceremony in early April. President Ira K. Blake with UHCL interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Glen Houston and interim Vice President of Administration and Finance Usha Mathew presented service awards and distinctive honors to staff and faculty.

“As a team, we are quite advantaged to have many faculty and staff who decide to stay on our team,” said Blake. “As others have also done in the past – our honorees today have assisted with our growth as a student-focused, community-minded and partnership-oriented university.”

Staff awards included the recognition of Kristi Randolph Simon, director of Student Information and Assistance, who received the 2018 Hugh P. Avery Prize – the President’s Distinguished Staff Service Award. The Distinguished Service Award was renamed in 1991 to honor a longtime employee who initiated UHCL’s staff-recognition program. Nominees for the Avery Prize are submitted by faculty and staff and reviewed by a subcommittee that makes a recommendation to the president.

Awards for meritorious service went to four staff members:

• Elizabeth “Liz” Seidel, senior secretary for the College of Business Advising Office.
• Bubba Jones, supervisor of Building Maintenance.
• Karen Wielhorski, executive director of UHCL’s Alfred R. Neumann Library.
• Bernadina “Bernie” Gonzales Streeter, senior academic adviser for the College of Education.                                

The distinguished faculty awards recognize outstanding achievement in teaching, research and service. Faculty can only be nominated by faculty colleagues, “a process that itself proclaims that the individuals so honored are most highly regarded in their profession,” Blake said.

• Lillian McEnery, professor of reading in the College of Education, received the President’s Distinguished Service Award.
• Jingjing Ma, professor of mathematics in the College of Science and Engineering, received the President’s Distinguished Research Award.
• Anton Dubrovskiy, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Science and Engineering received President’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

In other annual honors, the Outstanding Lecturer Award was presented to Terry Chvala in the College of Education, and the Outstanding Adjunct Award to Thomas Dillon in the College of Science and Engineering.

In addition, the university also honored 120 faculty and staff with service awards, representing more than 1,490 cumulative years of employment, and recognized 34 upcoming and recent retirees. Of the service awards, 33 faculty and staff received five-year awards, 38 received 10-year awards, 22 received 15 year awards, 16 received 20-year awards and eight received 25-year awards. Thirty-year awards were presented to two employees; one received a 35-year award.