Nominations:

• Marcy is looking after departmental and SEI-Y finances and her work is making a big difference to the Department. The Department can be in trouble if financial regulations are not followed, and it is fair to say that before Marcy was appointed our practices were at times poor, and there have been cases of 'turning a blind eye'. No more! She keeps colleagues in check and makes sure they comply with financial regulations, the importance of which cannot be overstated. On some occasions this has caused considerable stress, but Marcy has always been willing to resolve matters in a patient and considerate manner, despite high workloads. Her approach to her work is friendly, professional, clear and effective, and although she is not afraid to 'tell people off' she also has a fun sense of humour which is infectious. She always replies to queries very rapidly, no matter how busy she is. Her Finance Tip of the Week has been an invaluable resource for staff. Marcy is a tremendous colleague who exemplifies our core values of making a real difference and being friendly and helpful and therefore is a most deserving candidate for our Making The Difference Award.

• Since joining our Department, Marcy has worked tirelessly to produce processes, educate, inform and assist all staff. She works incredibly hard to ensure everything is processed correctly and is extremely knowledgeable about her work.
  
  Unfortunately, Marcy has come up against some resistance to policies and a lot of non-compliance amongst staff. This has resulted in her working longer hours to ensure everything is resolved. She always takes the time to talk through processes to help this issue. Her dedication to the smooth running of finance procedures within our Department is incredibly admirable.
  
  Marcy has continuously provided support for me in learning the YEP system and processing complex orders. She is always there to help and does so willingly. Recently, she took the time out of her incredibly busy workload to train Rebecca Reid Rodrigues on the YEP system, to take some workload away from me. This helped me enormously and she didn't hesitate in doing this.
  
  Even though Marcy now works remotely, she continues to add to the community of our Department, showing up to virtual coffee mornings most weeks and lending a listening ear when needed. She is kind, caring and extremely knowledgeable. It would be fantastic to show our appreciation for all her hard work, as unfortunately her job can sometimes be thankless (and yet she still puts in 110% every day!).

Nominations:

• Laura has made a significant difference to research support since arriving in the Department. Despite dealing with long covid for nearly a year now, she is always extremely helpful and supportive of her colleagues. Despite having to often chase staff for being late, or because forms aren't quite filled in correctly, she manages to do this in a friendly and collegiate manner. The support she has provided for fellowship applications has been exemplary, with 13 applications submitted over the last year compared to 4 before. Laura often goes out of her way to read and comment on these applications and working with applicants to improve them. She does far more than just processing the paperwork. Finally, I have been impressed by her attitude to new and often complicated grant processes. She actively seeks to be involved as she is keen to learn about new processes that are unfamiliar to her. Overall, she has made a huge difference to the Department and I recommend her for an award.

• Laura has been a fantastic colleague ever since she started working in the department. She is extremely professional and effective in her role and has made a huge difference to supporting our research. More than that she is always super friendly, positive and engaged and is an absolute pleasure to work with. To me she is the epitome of our core values. 

Nominations:

• The Student Services Team have had a difficult time of it lately as there has been a high turnaround in staff, not to mention having to work through a pandemic before that. I am so impressed by how well the two newest members, Ginny and Rebecca, have settled in and picked up their complex jobs. They fit into the Department so well and have been nothing but lovely, friendly and enthusiastic.
  The long serving members of the team have had a lot of extra work to do in covering their colleagues, and there has been a lot of positive feedback given to the team. At EGLT, it was pointed out that there have been no disruptions to service, and everyone was very impressed with how the team is working.
  The team are clearly curious and always learning, evidenced by the improvements they have made to processes, and at how quickly team members have picked up various aspects of work and covered for each other.
  The team cover core values 1, 2 and 4 by caring for each student on an individual basis, and working with a wide variety of staff (fellow PSS, academic, wellbeing officers etc. ). They are always friendly, and it's always a joy to be in the vicinity of the office as it seems to be filled with a positive energy. They are often the face of the Department, and I think we are so lucky to have them representing all of us.

Nominations:

• In the two years since his appointment, Sam has reorganised the departmental professional services team, which is now a highly efficient, helpful and friendly team. As a key member of the leadership team Sam has helped to develop the departmental vision, goals and ambition. He has led the 'sustainability entity' project which has culminated in the upcoming launch of the Environmental Sustainability Academy at York (ESAY), a £1.3M investment into teaching and research on environmental sustainability. In addition to his departmental work, Sam has led initiatives at University level, which represents evidence and recognition of his substantial talents. Despite his high workload, he has always been available for anyone who needed his help, applying successfully a no-nonsense approach to solving problems. Sam is a most deserving candidate to receive our Making The Difference Award.

Nominations:

• Personal support over the last 12 months through taking on my pastoral supervisees and taking over the role of programme leader for MSc ESM when I was working reduced hours due to illness. Thanks very much Laura!

Nominations:

• Frances started working for SEI Y in Summer 2020, and has never met most of her SEI colleagues because of the pandemic. Despite this, she has become a huge part of SEI, organising comms-related learning events (core value 5) for us at coffee mornings, becoming an important member of the Research Committee, taking over as staff rep (in October 2021) (core value 4), and has been so successful at obtaining from SEI for editing, social media work and events such as UN Clean Air Day that we have been able to hire a new Communications Specialist to support her work. This has all been alongside delivering first class communications work for SEI projects and activities, raising the profile of our work within and beyond the University (core value 2).

Nominations:

• Ioan has been a fantastic addition to our department. He has had a huge influence on the direction and ambition of our work, and has been fundamental to bringing in many new, more effective and more enjoyable ways of working, particularly at the managerial level. Not only that, he is always fantastically supportive of his colleagues, often offering to help and provide guidance, even when his own schedule is overloaded. As far as our core values go, he ticks all of the boxes!

Nominations:

• Roland has been examplary in championing both inclusivity and building a friendly community in the way he continuously strives to make sure all are acounted for. There are many examples - but he has impresively taken a more than fair approach and has regularly gone out of his way and being thoughtful of others. He is a great leader who continuously strves to do the right thing by others and provides an excellent example to us all.

Nominations:

• Adrian has been examplary in 4 of the 5 values (inclusiving, difference, friendly, learning). This has been the case in relation to setting up the YMP programme and brining it into being - he has shown incredible effort in doing the right thing in supporting overseas students and dealing with many admissions challenges. He has stepped in to help many time (me included) to help address the complexities of hybrid teaching and challenges of different students trying to study and transition to york at the same time. He has been incredibly friendly and helpful in the way he has helped colleagues withe the programe (always being positive) and has stimulated and driven a lot of learning about how best to approach YMP both in terms of logisitics but also in setting things up for next year (learning from challenges this year).

Nominations:

• I am nominating Mark for being an exemplary departmental citizen. For the numerous emails I send out as Chair of DRC, I would often think I was alone in the Universe but for Mark's speedy and helpful responses. No matter what the subject, he will always make the effort to comment and to be helpful. He is one of the few people in the Department that can be relied upon to regularly attend departmental meetings and events, including weekend open days. I also note that at our research group meetings, he will always make the effort to ask questions when PD students give presentations. I think these examples and many more, exemplify the type of attitude we want in our staff and that they can often be taken for granted and under-appreciated. For these reasons, I am therefore nominating Mark for this award.

Nominations:

• Although not part of our department, Janice has been kind enough to help with 6 1-hour interviews with staff in preparation of the Athena Swan application in July. I asked various contacts of someone outside the department to conduct these interviews to minimise bias and Janice kindly volunteered her time. She has conducted 5 of the 6 interviews so far and all are going to be incredibly useful in reflecting on the culture of our department and formulating the next action plan to make our department even better.
  
  I have no idea if we can nominate outside the department, but I feel Janice deserves recognition for her helpfulness and professional interviews that will make a positive difference to our inclusivity in the department. (wow, all three reasons for nominating in a single sentence!)

Nominations:

• Exam boards are a crucial point in the academic cycle as they are where the work of our students is formally recorded and their outcomes and progression are notified to the University. The boards take a huge amount of work administratively and the detail has to be checked meticulously because the smallest error risks a student getting the wrong outcome.
  
  Exam Boards are a team effort within the Student Services Team, and between the team and the Chair of the Board of Examiners. Recently, as resource has been thin in the SST, Toshiko has done an excellent job organising and preparing for our UG resit boards, our MSc Scrutiny meeting and the upcoming MSc Exam Board - pretty much single-handedly and at the same time as performing her other duties. The meetings have run smoothly and the Chair has commended the SST - which recently has all been Toshi when it comes to the Boards. Thank you Toshi and well done!

Nominations:

• Personal support over the last 12 months through taking on my pastoral supervisees when I was working reduced hours due to illness. Thanks very much Samarthia!