The Staff Awards program is designed to recognize outstanding performance by staff at the university. Congratulations to all of the 2025 winners and nominees. Thank you for all you do for American University!

Collaboration Award

Winner

Housing & Residence Life’s Operations Committee and Project Move-Out Team:  Anthony Fatta, Shamira James, Bryan McCollom, Joseph Goldblum, Kailey MacDonald, Sheldon Coleman, Caroline Boone, Anna Parse Johnson  

During the spring 2024 residence hall closing season, Housing & Residence Life's Operations Committee and Project Move-Out partnership resulted in both a significant increase in donations and a more streamlined, collaborative operation. 

Finalist

Nest to Next Campaign Team: Christina Sincere, Ifeta Kahvedzic. 

For their cross-team initiative and collaboration, Christina and Ifeta successfully developed and expanded the Nest to Next Campaign, a project that significantly raised awareness of American University’s commitment to experiential learning (EL). 

Community Support Award

Winner

Heather Hamilton 

Heather provides enduring and expert guidance and support to SPA as well as to so many outside of the Office of Graduate and Academic Affairs and solves problems across organizational boundaries. 

Finalists

Elise Ferrer 

Elise provides invaluable support to faculty and students and builds community, both across the department and with community partners and collaborators. 

HR Service Delivery Team: JJ Medina, Kayleigh Nelson, Keiry Melgar-Herrarte, May Zalt 

The HR Service Delivery Team does a great job of being quick to respond to service tickets and questions that are sent to them via Teams and email. Individually, each of the team members nominated here provides different strengths that help complement one another  resulting in their ability to solve a variety of situations that have arisen.  

Essential Support Award

Winner

Olivia Klimko 

Olivia provides essential support to PhD students from the time they apply until the time they graduate, helping to build the PhD community in SIS. She splits her time equally between supporting PhD students and assisting the Associate Dean for Graduate Education fulfill a multitude of other tasks.

Finalists

David Fletcher 

David is supportive, encouraging, strategic, collaborative, and committed to helping students in the ways that he can while holding them accountable for taking action on the strategy that they collaboratively develop. David not only supports students as they explore their career aspirations and the impact they want to have in the world, but he actively models the kind of engagement, mentorship, and care with which we hope our alumni will move through the world. 

Janiyah Clinton 

Janiyah goes above and beyond to foster supportive relationships within and beyond Housing and Residence Life. They actively contribute to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all, consistently engaging with colleagues, students, and community members in a respectful and thoughtful manner. 

Inclusive Excellence Award

Winner

Rachel Weiss 

Rachel demonstrates Inclusive Excellence in her leadership by mentoring her team, engaging with institutional leadership, and working cross-functionally with campus partners. Notably, she incorporates inclusive values into financial planning, demonstrating how resource allocation can be used as a tool for equity and impact.  Rachel's detail-oriented and systems-level perspective has ensured that inclusive excellence is embedded and operationalized in every aspect of her role. 

Finalists

Tyler Poling 

Tyler has a hands-on, student-centered approach to addressing equity gaps and advancing inclusive practices across the campus community. Tyler also engages consistently with his colleagues to share Inclusive Excellence best practices, ensuring that his team's work remains informed, inclusive, and collaborative. Tyler’s work reflects a practical, community-driven approach to Inclusive Excellence. His commitment to accessibility, responsiveness, and collaboration makes him a powerful agent of change within his unit and across the campus. 

Inclusive Technology Initiative Team: Adam Christensen, Rob Kelshian, Brian Lee Sang, Christopher Slaughter, Kelvin Wilson, Michael Piller, Shirleyne McDonald, Terry Fernandez 

The Inclusive Technology Initiative Team’s contributions advance equity, access, and student success through innovative and strategic collaboration. This initiative is a critical step towards closing the digital divide at American University, ensuring that all students – regardless of financial circumstances – have access to the technology essential for academic achievement and engagement. Their work is a shining example of how AU can advance equity, foster inclusion, and remove barriers to student success through intentional and collaborative action. 

Innovation & Change Award

Winner

Data Quality Team (Advancement Operations): Natacha Lo, Judy Chuk, Abiy ZeMicheal, Peter Burnes, Chris Ettle 

The Data Quality Team’s commitment to serving the AU community, internally and externally, is demonstrated in their unwavering attention to detail, innovation, and solutions. They provide technical solutions to business problems requiring quick translation of needs, adapting to change, and swift execution. Their work is vital to timely and accurate communications, relationship building, and honoring our alumni and donor constituency. The result of the team’s hard work  was The successful close of the CCW campaign was the result of the team’s hard work. 

Finalist

Michelle Mondrey 

Michelle is a problem solver who consistently thinks outside of the box and encourages deeper conversation to help identify a variety of new, creative, and innovative ways to improve student-centered, individualized support – particularly for students with disabilities on her caseload. 

Maria Bueno Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner

Matthew Lantry 

Matt, an AU employee for more than 29 years, exemplifies what it means to be a dedicated and kind colleague.  

Outstanding Supervision Award

Winner

Amy Newell 

Amy’s exceptional leadership, adaptability, and commitment to student success has created a supportive and effective team that is well-equipped to serve AU's online student population. 

Finalists

Jennifer Tether 

Jennifer’s leadership has fostered a workplace that exemplifies respect, trust, inclusion, and professional growth. 

Kristi Plahn-Gjersvold 

Kristi advocates for the success of all staff at SOC by providing clear and transparent leadership for the entire school, as she consistently looks for ways to elevate others.  

Staff & Faculty Collaboration Award

Winners

Mike Harvey, Erica Lesto, Jolie Roetter, Ethan Merritt, KellyJo Bahry 

This partnership between AU Abroad and University of Westminster included collaboration, cooperation, respect, and support between the various teams of AU staff and faculty across multiple departments. They helped to expand research opportunities and partnerships and created greater AU brand recognition globally for majors that are underrepresented in the United Kingdom. 

Finalist

University Library Collection Cancellation Project Team: Alayne Mundt, Alex MacKintosh, Clarissa Ihssen, Derrick Jefferson, Gwendolyn Reece, Hannah Park, Jessica Breen, Katie Hut, Melissa Becher, Nobue Matsuoka, Olivia Ivey, Rachel Borchardt, Sarah Gilchrist, Sara Hills, Sean Casey, Shane Hickey, Shaunda Vasudev, Stella Hudson, Robert Kelshian 

The team skillfully navigated a 15 percent reduction of the collection base budget while ensuring that faculty and students retained access to essential scholarly resources. This project included coordination across departments as well as extensive engagement with faculty across all disciplines to align decisions with the university’s academic priorities.