Nominations:
- Bryony has only been in the department a short time, but has made such a big impact already. She created the student newsletter update which definitely helped keep the sense of community with the students, particularly during this time when we cannot create that in person. She initiated our Instagram account and has so many incredible ideas for it. She brought in Pet of the Week, which boosts morale for both students and staff alike.
Bryony has often worked out of her hours to go the extra mile for students. The student newsletter was originated by her, and as a result, she has often worked on weekends or longer hours to get it done. Recently, as she knew the students would not have the same graduation experience as normal, she spent hours over her annual leave creating a stop motion video of Roland to congratulate our graduates (this can be seen on the Instagram account). This was definitely not something she had to do, but she went above and beyond to create this, and the buzz this generated from our students on Instagram was wonderful to see.
Bryony is continuously passionate about making sure we interact with students in a friendly and approachable way. We have had several meetings about upcoming events or Instagram plans in which, without fail, she has presented a series of creative and thoughtful ideas – all on top of her busy workload. She is always helpful with any student-related queries I might have, as well as being a friendly, funny and positive member colleague.
In terms of the core values, for the reasons above, Bryony absolutely encapsulates both “We make a positive difference” and “We are a friendly and helpful community”.
I would like to nominate Bryony for a Making the Difference award for her work towards developing community within the Department.
Since joining us earlier this year, Bryony had proactively put a number of measures in place to support our student community - such as Pet of the Week. However, her efforts became even more important as we moved to online working and lost that regular in-person check in with our students.
Despite a busy range of duties, Bryony set up a regular newsletter for students where she could mix together her own creativity and contributions from students and staff. These were beautifully presented and got good feedback from students - reps picked these out at meetings for praise. They also gave useful tips and reassurance to students who might be feeling anxious about the situation, with a friendly tone and offering something different to our usual communications.
Bryony also (alongside another colleague) set up an Instagram page for keeping in touch with our current and prospective students. Considering that developing our sense of community is an important action from our NSS, Bryony's efforts will go some way to helping this.
Nominations:
I would like to nominate Ed Garrett for the award, as since his arrival to the department last year, he has made numerous contributions which have enhanced not only my academic experience but the experience of many others too. He matches many of the criteria outlined as I will explain below:
Core Value 1. Ed was invited to join the editorial board of a journal however he declined the position after looking at the board and seeing no women on it. He instead replied to the journal and suggested they may find a female editor instead. This is the first experience I have had of someone turning down a role in the interest of diversity and inclusion and I think his actions must and should be celebrated.
Core Value 2 and 5. Since joining the department Ed has set up the sea level discussion group, a weekly research group consisting of ~8 people. This has greatly enhanced both my and others understanding of our research as well as the wider literature and every other week provides a social hour for a catch up where we discuss both academic and non academic topics. The group is a post-doc and PhD only group in order to create a safe space where we can talk about our research, any concerns and questions that we have without feeling pressured like we may with more senior academics. We have discussions on topics such as 'How to write a research paper' 'How to review papers', things that may seem obvious but are of great importance to the ECRs in the group. As such, this group has become vital to me and others in our progression through our PhDs. Ed also volunteered to take over the wider physical and environmental geography research group and has set up a schedule for for external speakers. His enthusiasm and contribution to these groups has gone beyond what would have been expected.
Core Value 4. Despite only being scheduled in for a half an hour meeting every week, Ed always replies to any emails his students send him on top of being a full time parent to his two children including a baby boy born earlier in the year. This sometimes means Ed's emails will come early in the morning or late at night, but he works out of office hours (and I think out of his contracted hours) in order to help us out if we need it always replying the same day or fitting in extra meetings if we want them. I believe he would do this not only for his students but anyone who asked him for help.
Overall, he has helped many of us become better researchers and I hope one day that I can be as good a mentor as he is to us. He has contributed so much to the department in the short time that he has been here and I think his hard work deserves to be recognised.
Nominations:
I would like to nominate Dave for making a positive difference, for the work he has done leading Covid-secure efforts within the Department.
Dave has been a key member of the department's contingency group from the beginning, and has been responsible (supported by his team) for the safe close-down and reopening of our building. The actions we have put in place have often been "ahead of the game" and allowed us to open our labs and restart fieldwork at the first opportunity, in a way that is safe for our staff and students.
He was highly responsive in handling IT queries, resolving things for staff and students very quickly, and the information he has provided for staff has been clear and accessible, as evidenced by the positive feedback received on our departmental survey. He has also provided support for other departments, such as Sociology, to allow them to learn from the work we have been doing.
Although Dave has responsibility for our building and health and safety, it is clear that Covid-19 caused him to go well above and beyond his usual responsibilities and the results achieved have been very positive, considering the level of uncertainty and number of risks involved.
I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this award, and who has made such a clear positive difference over the past few months, than Dave Hay. Dave has been instrumental in all aspects of the Department’s Covid-19 pandemic response, going above and beyond what, outside of these exceptional times, would be expected of his role as Technical Manager.
Before lockdown Dave had already put careful preparations in place to ensure that the Environment building, laboratory instruments and services were shutdown efficiently and safely. After managing the building shutdown, and while many colleagues were now working from home, Dave regularly returned to campus throughout lockdown to carry out daily building checks, address faults and leaks and arrange for members of staff to safely gain access in order to collect items from their offices. Together with Mark Tolley he was able to ensure that staff and students, who were now faced with working remotely, were able to do so and had the equipment necessary to work from home.
Dave managed the reopening of the labs, and more recently the office wing, and played a crucial role in ensuring that the building was Covid secure. This was no small task and involved modifying the building facilities, installing signage and hand sanitizer stations, conducting risk assessments and writing strict standard operating procedures for Covid-safe field and laboratory work. In addition, he produced return to work videos to help reassure any members of the Department who were anxious about returning to the building. Based on this success, I understand that Dave has also been asked to assist other departments with their reopening strategies and Covid security.
This period has no doubt been one of increased workload and intense pressure for Dave as he has faced challenges to keep pace with rapidly changing University and Government advice and regulations, to enable research through resumption of field and lab activities and to resist pressure from staff and students eager to return to the building and resume work before it was safe to do so. Despite these challenges Dave made time to look after the wellbeing of his Technical staff during their period working from home and their early return to campus to assist with reopening the laboratories. When Dave finally managed to take some well-earned holiday, there can’t have been many days when he didn't send any emails, indicating that even when on leave he wasn’t able to fully disengage and enjoy some down time.
It is for all of these reasons outlined above and as recognition for making a huge positive difference to colleagues, students, the Department and wider university through his efforts over the past months, that I am recommending Dave Hay for the Making a Difference Award.
Dave has put a huge amount of time and effort into the overall handling of the Covid-19 crisis, from the very start right through to the present. Coordinating the initial shutdown of the infrastructure of the building, and particularly the team doing the labs which have so many things that you can’t simply switch off and walk away from, was no mean feat, made all the more challenging due to the uncertainty of the situation.
Very rapidly a large number of people needed the technology and their belongings to work from home, and much of this was ordered, the collection of facilitated by and, in some cases, home-delivered by Dave.
As a team he ensured we kept in regular contact, both formally and informally to replicate the interactions we were missing from being in the building, and individually our welfare was checked up on, ensuring we had everything we needed to do our jobs from home and were as happy as possible. This may well be expected from a manager, but it still happened even with everything else being put upon his plate.
The preparation for the reopening of the building was a mammoth operation, with so many additional technical problems to overcome - clearly it didn’t like being left unattended for so long. This involved endless liaison with Estates and with the Technical Managers across the university to coordinate how best to make things work in the “new normal”. When it was back in a functional state again, it had to be prepared for users, and anyone who has been in can see the humongous amount of signage, markings and sanitisation points that are everywhere throughout the building, and they have been very much down to Dave.
As a building user I feel safe coming in with the systems that he has put in place; it just requires the compliance of all those here. His welcome videos demonstrate what can be expected for those yet to return to the building, and to make it as welcoming a place as possible for everyone, including those who may be concerned about coming back.
Guidance both nationally and at a University level is constantly changing, and he has been striving to keep abreast of the current situation, and the likely impacts and changes in the future. Thought has been given as to how we deal with possible future lockdowns operationally, learning from previous challenges.
This has been a totally unprecedented time that no one expected, and has generated so much work and planning that is any above and beyond anything that has been required of people previously. So much has fallen on Dave’s plate, and he has brought it together in difficult circumstances, with many conflicting demands on his time, to enable building operation and especially lab work to continue. His work has impacted the entire department, and the wider University via communication with other departments and technical managers. He has helped so many people, and made a positive difference to all.
Dave has worked tirelessly to get the department back up and running again after the Covid lockdown, implementing measures to enable lab working to take place and making us feel safe under unusual and difficult circumstances. The department is now exceptionally well thought out in terms of Covid security and well provided with safety measures critical to it’s working. During lockdown he provided additional equipment to everyone who needed it, often delivering it in person or braving post office queues to post out items to those of us, both students and staff, who live further afield. I’m not sure how the department would have managed without him.
Nominations:
2. We make a positive difference; 4. We are a friendly and helpful community
Tenerife convenors were presented with the very difficult task of designing and running online short courses at short notice when the Tenerife field trip was cancelled due to the Covid crisis. This went beyond just doing the standard job well as it meant not only coming up with completely new programmes of study quickly but also getting to grips with teaching online. All convenors approached this task with great creativity and enthusiasm. Student feedback suggested they really enjoyed the courses, and it is clear from the high quality outputs that they learned a lot. The team deserves this award as they have really made a positive difference to students who were very disappointed at not being able to travel to Tenerife, and because they stepped in to help during a crisis.
Nominees
Nominations:
Tammy started her role in Student Support on 23 March, the day after the University went into lockdown. Apart from a rushed and strange (and unpaid) induction day before lockdown, Tammy has worked entirely remotely. She was new to student admin, new to York and new to higher education. She was a bit nervous at first, but had a positive attitude and was willing to give it a go.
Tammy has been incredible. She has done everything we have asked her to and learned all of our systems and processes quickly, efficiently and comprehensively. Tammy has developed rapport with students and staff, helped out other departments and is an integral part of our team, though she's barely met us. We're a positive, can-do team and Tammy makes us even more so. She is also caring, non-judgmental and so helpful.
Another important attribute is that Tammy doesn't just do what she's been shown. She reads University guidance and procedural documentation to make sure that we're doing things right. She asks questions, she learns from the answers and she offers new ideas.
Tammy lives and breathes values 2., 4., and 5. She has shown in her first 6 months - in very difficult and unusual circumstances - that she is a star. I'd love for Tammy to get the recognition she deserves.
Nominations:
I would like to nominate Bryan for a MTD award on the grounds of making a positive difference, being friendly and helpful, and being curious and always learning (very quickly!)
It is easy to forget that Bryan only joined us in February, picking up from Michelle Barton as she left for maternity leave. Bryan inherited a fairly new team (with several colleagues either joining the Department or taking on new roles) and had not worked in departmental administration before - when only a few weeks after arrival everybody was locked down.
Despite the huge challenges, Bryan has made a huge difference to the experience of our students - making sure that things run smoothly, and that students are treated fairly and compassionately. In doing this, he has kept significant amounts of work off of my plate (to the point this nomination may be incomplete because things just get dealt with!) and been able to rapidly develop and empower other members of the team.
He is unerringly friendly and kind to staff and students, and he fights students' corner - following earlier efforts from Michelle, he was able to doggedly, and successfully, make the case for one student who would otherwise have had to leave the university due to a lack of funding - the work required to do this, and impact of the result, should not be underestimated.
Other long-standing operational areas which had caused difficulty have seen significant improvements - for example, funding and studentships for PGR students - this showed great collaboration between Bryan and other colleagues such as the finance team.
He has stepped up to help covering sickness, taking on line management of another colleague, has played an important part in the contingency group, and has supported University efforts to deliver modularisation & semesterisation - where he has won praise from other colleagues about his effectiveness. In doing all this, he has shown great commitment to learning and sharing knowledge.
I hope we are able to recognise Bryan for the excellent work he has done.
- We make a positive difference; 4. We are friendly and helpful community
Bryan has made a very positive difference during the Covid-19 crisis. As Director of Learning and Teaching I worked very closely with Bryan on the Covid response in terms of learning and teaching. He was always extremely helpful and supportive. The level of student support we were able to offer during the early stages of the Covid crisis would not have been possible without Bryan's excellent work. At times I wondered how we were going to get through everything or tackle specific problems but Bryan was always happy to step in to help, offer good advice and take on extra tasks. I've often thanked Bryan at the end of each week for 'being brilliant' and I think he really deserves a 'Making the Difference' award for just that .... 'being brilliant'!
Nominations:
I would like to nominate Chris for this award as he has excelled in his job and is making a difference internationally that truly reflects our core values. He goes way beyond just doing his job well and really makes a difference to the people he interacts with. The main role in his job is to help develop a tool to inform the science to policy interface in developing countries for planning at national level to tackle air pollution and climate change and reduce emissions.
1. We are inclusive and embrace our diversity
In doing this role he has visited countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America (pre-covid) and engaged a range of stakeholders, including Ministers and Government officials, in a variety of settings. This is not always easy and Chris often goes the extra mile to make sure things are working as they should, even taking French lessons to work more effectively in francophone countries.
2. We make a positive difference
His contributions to the workings of the tool and the scientific rigor of that is exemplary and supported by many publications, many first author, and in high-ranking journals. This research has enabled Chris to advise national governments around the world to develop national plans and inform country Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and biennial reporting under the United Nations Framework Agreement on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Chris has been a major contributor to this work in our group and has been the main person developing the work with the countries.
3. We strive for environmental sustainability
Through his work he is helping countries strive for environmental sustainability
4. We are a friendly and helpful community
Chris has also excelled at training and helping practitioners in developing countries learn how to use the tool and apply it in their country. He does this through targeted travel and many Skype and Zoom calls. He always makes himself available to explain things to our partners and is viewed by them as the key go to person to help them with their work. As he is interacting with about 30 developing countries around the world, his dedication to this cause is second to none.
5. We are curious and always learning
Chris is also curious and always learning and this is demonstrated by his willingness to help BSC, MSc and PhD students.
Nominations:
I would like to nominate Lucy under three core values in particular: making a positive difference, friendly & helpful community, and curious & always learning.
Since the beginning of the Covid crisis, Lucy has picked up her (relatively new) job very effectively, on top of providing cover to areas that have been under-resourced: careers and student services were part of this, but primarily the HR, finance and communications support that would usually be covered by her line manager (whose working hours were curtailed by Covid). The difference she has made to the effectiveness of EGLT members has been outstanding, making it possible for them to support the Department during an unbelievably hectic time. Her very high standards have been maintained throughout. It is easy to forget that she has been with us only a short while and at a relatively junior level.
In order to cover work and help out in different areas, Lucy has taken a really proactive approach to learning new things - never shying away from things that are new or complicated-looking. She seeks out new work proactively.
Lucy puts in a huge amount of effort to maintain and improve the departmental community. Her relentless pursuit of coffee hours and entertainment to fill them, plus regular newsletters and support for our Instagram page have all contributed to community building. On top of that, her personal approach is always friendly and helpful - remarkably so, even under time pressure or high workload. I know it is appreciated by colleagues, students and outside contacts alike.
I wholeheartedly recommend Lucy to the panel for an award.
Nominations:
Rebecca has worked tirelessly in addition to her day to day job, in order to put together a strong submission of evidence to take us from having no green impact accreditation to the Silver Award in under a year. This is no mean feat from a standing start and was an additional set of tasks on top of her daily work. Whilst the Department had a Green Impact Team looking at other aspects of sustainability in the Department, Rebecca took sole ownership of the laboratory submission and next year I am sure will take us to Gold. This is such a positive step for the Department and shows our commitment to sustainability by practising what we preach, teach and research.