Congratulations to Melissa Naidu, who won 2018 PHHP Employee of the Year.
As a superior accomplishment award, the designation is intended to recognize employees who have provided outstanding service, improved efficiency and/or economy, or enhanced the quality of life of students or fellow employees on campus.
As Academic Specialist I, Ms. Naidu supports the Department’s Graduate Program Director and Director of Clinical Training. She has myriad responsibilities associated with that role, which basically encompass every aspect of recruiting, hiring, registering, tracking and monitoring doctoral trainees. She also administers the department’s annual Fall Symposium, assists with outcome tracking for accreditation, and plays many additional roles.
Ms. Naidu’s nominators, however, singled her out for going above-and-beyond her many assigned duties. During the covered period (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018), she developed a new online doctoral student portal, served as the departmental web administrator, assisted in the redesign of the departmental intranet, developed a new student activity report (which allows online workflow, so mentors can review student data), and produced all electronic publicity for the Department’s colloquium program. Said one nominator, “She has truly elevated our department and self-initiated numerous programmatic changes that have measurably improved our training program and improved efficiency for countless faculty and students. Her impact is forward reaching and her efforts will be a long-standing legacy of her efforts to make us better.” Another nominator said “She has a rare and critical combination of intelligence, leadership, professionalism, work ethic, and compassion that makes her very deserving of the” award. A third nominator reported that “Melissa is performing at the highest level of achievement, and she is doing so not out of self-interest, but to serve the needs of the department, improving efficiency and environmental sustainability.”
Melissa Naidu consistently demonstrates a willingness to go the extra mile, and then another mile, to help students and faculty. Her contributions to our department over the past year have been extraordinary. Melissa exemplifies the characteristics and accomplishments that our institution promotes and recognizes; she is an instrumental force in a critical area of our department and has been a truly exceptional citizen with her outstanding work.