Nominations:

• Amanda has managed, held and supported many of us on the SUBLIM programme, including its students, under extremely difficult circumstances this year: Helping navigate the big difficulties the programme has experienced with latecomers, students with limited English etc. While that is part of her job, what is exceptional is the level of positivity and friendliness she has maintained throughout this, which has been exemplary. Despite often being 'the face' that is picking up the challenges, she has always been accommodating, positive and helpful. So for values, she has demonstrated exceptional contributions to value 4 - friendly and helpful - while adding to 2 - making a positive difference, and then helping us with 5 - continuously learning about how we can address the challenges.  

• Amanda has been outstanding in what is complex role. She has worked tirelessly to coordinate admin activities with PS colleague in Maastricht; no easy tasks. Alongside this she has been looking after current students and ensuring that processes are working alongside her other colleagues in Student Services. She has also worked with Adrian to improve recruitment on the course which went from 9 students last year to around 30+ students. This shows impressive dedication to the student journey from recruitment through to graduation and Amanda has applied herself in all areas.

• For providing exceptional support on the YMP SUBLIM programme including admissions and enrolment, ongoing student support and a willingness to explore ways to improve the professional operational mechanisms.

• Amanda has been a champion for the numerous international students enrolled on the SUBLIM program this year, going far above what she would typically be doing to ensure that students are not only able to join the program, but also thrive on the program once they are here. Offering this kind of help to international students in particular is key to inclusivity and diversity. To say that she is friendly and helpful is an understatement, but it is precisely her friendliness and helpfulness that makes the program so successful.

Nominations:

• Chloe has been a PA since January and looks after eight members of the leadership team. Whereas most HoDs have one PA to themselves, Chloe looks after an entire team. I would not only like to nominate her for her overall performance, for her friendliness, helpfulness, and for making a positive difference, for example by creating the cheerful newsletter every week, but this nomination is especially for Chloe's organisation of our 30th Anniversary Celebration, which was a MASSIVE job, and which was also a great success. Although she was assisted by other helpful colleagues, it was a task that came on top of all other commitments, and she did it splendidly. She made sure that food was environmentally sustainable and all vegetarian. Chloe also makes important contributions to our EGLT meetings so that we all learn from her. All in all, Chloe ticks all five value boxes and would be a very worthy winner of our Making The Difference Award. 

• Chloe has demonstrated exceptional capability in here role as Environment PA this year. She is super proactive, juggles many people's diaries, and has picked up and developed the EGLT leader work in relation to our training with Kluver, making this a much more slick process in terms of managing goals etc. While this may be considered to be her job, what makes her stand out is: 1) The level of positivity and friendliness she has exemplified - always happy to take things on and help work things out, with a smile and with friendliness (value 4); 2) the positive difference she has made in the way she proactively sorts things out (e.g. EGLT leader aspects) which she has done without being asked to, and with very little guidance (value 2, 5); and finally 3) the way she has personally helped me manage my workload around my illness. This has included helping me manage myself (e.g. what I should say yes or no to in my diary, and helping find solutions to clashes etc). So, from a Dept perspective she has juggled many things whilst holding a smile, and from a personal perspective was instrumental in helping me get through some difficult times. Thanks Chloe!

• Chloe is an outstanding PA who makes a huge difference to those she supports. Her support at EGLT is nuanced and comprehensive and she regularly makes valuable and insightful contributions to our discussions and processes. She was amazing at organising the Departmental DEG 30th Anniversary celebrations. In addition, she regularly on almost a weekly basis enacts small pieces of change or process improvement that makes a huge impact across the whole PSS team and Department. I'd be lost without her(!)

• Chloe absolutely stands out as exemplifying all our core values. She hit the ground running in her role as PA, developing her working relationships with EGLT and beyond. She is an incredibly well valued, respected and liked member of the team, with an incredible work ethic and great personability. Specifically I think Chloe should be rewarded for her hard work on creating a memorable and successful 30th DEG celebration party. So many people have remarked on how great it was, and it should not be understated the amount of effort Chloe put into this. She gives everything 100%, and I often have to remind myself she's only been with us a short while, as in that time she has made incredible improvements to several processes, and always strives for the best. We would be lost without her, and she is an absolute joy to line manage.

• Chloe has been a fantastic help to the Student Support Team over the last year when we have been really stretched and continues to carry this into this academic year. She has helped support student events and is always thinking of others and how we can reach different groups of students and make them more inclusive. Her commitment to making events sustainable (even when we don't really have the budget!) is impressive and she is constantly friendly and helpful and warm to everyone even when under pressure. She is starting a new project to look at improving our events to make them more budget friendly, sustainable and inclusive. Thank you for all your help Chloe.

• Even though Chloe and I only work together once a week in the department, I always leave work on Thursdays in a good mood after having seen her. Chloe always comes into the office to say hi and has a positive attitude that puts a smile on our faces. With regards to her work, Chloe always goes above and beyond whilst maintaining a professional attitude. Her organisational and planning skills are exemplary, which was showcased for example with the department's 30th birthday celebrations. The event was a huge success and Chloe should be so proud of herself as it was a real testimony to her and her abilities and strengths. Chloe always makes time to listen and help others, even when she has a lot of work on herself. I really value Chloe as a colleague and love working with her in the Environment department.

• Never skip the newsletter on Friday, if you hope to catch up the developments in the department, identifying opportunities, or drawing inspirations from other people's work. Thank you, Chloe and the team. This is never an easy task, but you make it so helpful and fascinating!

• Chloe is a friendly and helpful member of the E&G community, she is approachable and goes above and beyond in her role. She has a positive attitude which is contagious within the department.

Nominations:

• Maria joined the Student Services Team at a fairly chaotic point in the term when pressures and stress were fairly high. She through herself into picking up organising field trips - a task which is not for the faint hearted and involves a lot of forward thinking and problem solving. She went above and beyond in her work on several field trips. Always thinking one step ahead of everyone else and ensuring that students and academics had everything they needed whilst being inclusive and environmentally sustainable. I do believe some of these trips would not have ran in the way they did without Maria and she has made a massive positive difference to the team and the student community with her work. She is always bright and bubbly and a lovely person to work with. She also organises xmas collections to give to refugees and is always thinking of others. Thank you for all your work Maria.

• Maria has worked extremely hard this year supporting field trips as a core part of her role. It has been a really challenging year where we had to deliver a major new field trip to the Lake District for the first time and with considerably shorter time to plan that we would have liked. Maria was outstanding in working with senior staff and academics leading the field trips to deliver the best possible trip for students ensuring that their diverse needs were met. This required a huge amount of patience and determination in negotiating with external partners and 'making things happen'. All of this was done with a positive outlook and many of these field trips would quite simply not have happened this year without her input.

Nominations:

• Whenever we are in the Department, we have confidence in the management of our offices and the computers, thanks to Dave and his team's services. Thank you, Dave and the team.

Nominations:

• I am nominating Dave for all of his efforts in coordinating the DEG weekly seminars which make a huge difference to our community, but also for the polite, friendly and caring way that he communicates over email. Although the seminars keep him very busy, particularly in the set up phase, he is never demanding and is always appreciative of any admin support that we give and this does not go unnoticed. He is a pleasure to work with and exemplifies our core values, particularly 2 and 4.

Nominations:

• I would like to nominate Ella as she is a friendly and positive presence around the department. She often offers to help out with coffee morning and has some great ideas for supporting the local community as a department. We don't cross paths that often, but whenever we do I always come away feeling happier and that shows she is making a positive difference to those around her.

Nominations:

• Emma runs the SEI-Y office with amazing grace and good will. She not only helps thick academics like myself with the maze of systems, forms, procedures and day-to-day questions arising from answering to two bosses (SEI Stockholm and York), makes sure that new staff are welcomed and very well inducted, reminds us every month of deadlines in a gentle and persuasive manner, but she organises weekly social get-togethers - online and F2F - and has just organised our annual Away Day flawlessly, even with ever-increasing numbers of staff. She is a master at running meetings and keeping everyone on track and makes sure that we keep in mind our "rules of engagement" to ensure that everyone is heard and valued. She keeps everyone smiling while also managing to keep us all on-track. If only everyone helped to oil the wheels that keep us on track so positively and efficiently!

Nominations:

• Karen has been an integral member of the Anti-Racism Collective that a group of us have set up in the department. Her openness and willingness to share in sometimes difficult conversations has been inspiring and helped drive forward an agenda that seeks to make a positive difference (1 and 2). She's also clearly keen to learn more on this subject individually and together (5). Karen has also been very supportive in her role as Programme Lead during the restructure, convening workshops and offering to help as much as possible (4).

Nominations:

• Laura is a fantastic colleague who makes great things happen! Over the last few years, Laura has led on a number of important and complex learning and teaching projects on behalf of the Department including the Summer Skills Bootcamp, Global Summer Schools and revamp of the Skills Hub. Each of these projects has been a huge success and has made a hugely positive difference to our Department and our students (core value 2). Laura always delivers projects on time and to a very high standard, and it is clear that she wants to ensure the highest possible student experience with any initiative she leads (core value 4). The Skills Hub project specifically improves the accessibility of this resource (core value 1) and this will contribute significantly to ensuring EDI in the Department going forwards. Overall, Laura seems to throw herself into finding ways to solve problems she has identified or make a new project a success (core value 5). On top of running these projects, Laura also does an excellent job as ECA Chair and Student Feedback Champion, and delivers excellent teaching and student support through dissertations and pastoral supervision. I think that Laura's excellent proactive and innovative approach, project management skills and proven ability to deliver on complex projects are a huge asset to the Department and it would be great to see her great work rewarded with this MTD award.

Nominations:

• Since Mark became the 'head' of the PGRs, he has been trying to take good care of us from every aspect, such as training, funding, and wellbeing. We are so lucky to have Mark at our side. Thank you, Mark.

Nominations:

• Maroula would be always there and ready to support whenever we had procedural issues to solve, which immensely spared us from entering those challenging mazes and created an enabling environment for us to focus on our own business and deliver quality academic results. Thank you, Maroula.

Nominations:

• Matt is always there to help research students in an ever friendly and helpful manner. Matt makes a positive difference to all by continuously approaching and solving problems in the labs with an open mind and a calm, level head. Matt takes an active interest in all research which he helps to facilitate and is always curious to discuss and learn together from the results. Matt also actively strives for environmental sustainability by promoting and educating all lab users on lab waste reduction and recycling. Matt is always a positive, helpful, and composed presence and his ability to systematically approach and solve problems is a huge asset to the department.

Nominations:

• Mike played an instrumental part in the recent field trip to Austria. He went above and beyond to ensure that the trip was a success both for the students on the trip and the other staff members on the team. Mike used his background in teaching and mountain leadership to plan and prepare for the teaching aspects of the trip in an Alpine region, going far beyond what is required of his normal technical duties. This made a positive difference to everyone on the trip. Mike also uses his sense of humour and easy going manner to ensure such groups are conducted in a friendly and helpful manner. Finally, Mike's willingness to learn new surveying techniques and use them in the field to teach others fits our curious and always learning values. On this trip, Mike secured a free loan of a Terrestrial Laser Scanner from one of our suppliers. This is a highly specialised piece of surveying equipment which our students would not normally have access to, so it added a great deal to the learning process.

Nominations:

• I have been putting together my first grant proposal and Piran has been helpful, friendly and supportive throughout the whole process. Not only did he make time for me each week to discuss it, he was always curious and wanting to learn more about the idea and its development. Yesterday I was told I had to submit the bid within the next 3 hours due to staff shortages in RGO. I emailed Piran to ask for help and he rearranged all his morning activities to support me in getting everything together, reviewed and submitted. He made a positive difference here, in ensuring all documents were submittable, helping me get it over the finish line, and supporting me in not losing the plot with such a stressful turn around. He really made a difference to my first experience of submitting a grant proposal.