On Monday, August 5, UW System President Ray Cross announced the outstanding contributor awards for restructuring institutions. There were 15 honorees across eight of the UW System Institutions, including our own Kathy Mather of the Administrative Services Unit (ASU) in Finance and Administration at UW–Madison.
President Cross stated:
Each year UW System Administration holds an awards ceremony to recognize the outstanding work of our colleagues – those who went above and beyond during the prior year. This year at the award ceremony, we will also be recognizing the work of those who went above and beyond working toward the success of the restructuring project at and through the receiving institutions.
The award was given in three categories: Access, Affordability, and Opportunity.
Kathy Mather’s award was in the Access category, for her and her team’s work in bringing the UW-Extension (now Division of Extension), Division of Wisconsin Public Media, and Auxiliary Operations (Lowell and Pyle Conference Centers) to UW–Madison. This involved incorporating over 1,300 employees across all 72 counties in the State of Wisconsin into the range of services that ASU provides—including recruitment, I-9 and criminal background check processing, onboarding, compensation and pay adjustments, payroll and benefits, leave and accommodations, and guidance in performance management and employee relations.
Kathy began her HR career in the HR & Payroll Department at UW Whitewater where she worked as a UW HR Manager in an environment similar to ASU—providing HR/payroll services to the Whitewater campus. She relocated to Madison and worked at UW System for two years as an HR Specialist Advanced. Kathy has been with UW–Madison since August 4, 2013, at which time she was hired to develop and lead a newly created shared services model.
Her role as Director of ASU involves leading staff in the administration of policies, programs and procedures related to human resources, payroll and benefits, employee relations, TTC, and other functions for a multiple of departments and divisions within Finance and Administration. She completed the HR Competencies Cohort Program in August 2017.
When the HR CoP Team asked to highlight Kathy in this edition of the HR CoP Newsletter, Kathy asked to highlight the ASU team “instead of just me. They are all such a big part of the success.”
Meghna Shah (HR Manager) is a working manager who leads an HR team in processing recruitment, titling, promotion, and pay adjustments, support graduate assistants, and serves as a contact for employee relations and the TTC Project. She completed the HR Competencies Cohort Program in April 2018.
Amanda Vinova (HR Specialist) provides HR expertise and supervision in areas of recruitment, titling, promotion, pay adjustments, graduate assistants and TTC. She completed the HR Competencies Cohort Program in August 2017.
Amanda Sandora, Ann Feist, Anne Yorde (all HR Assistant Advanced) serve as HR contacts within ASU for Student Employment and Temporary Employee hires. They also schedule interviews and process employee Criminal Background Checks (CBCs).
Leticia Krumscheid, Austin Tamayo, and Phoua Khang (Payroll & Benefit Specialists) process payroll, answer benefits questions, manage I9s and provide new employee orientations including timesheet training.
Dan Roen and Michele Blakeman (both Associate HR Specialists) provide HR expertise in areas of recruitment, titling, promotion, pay adjustments, and TTC. Dan is engaged in the 2019 HR Competencies Cohort Program, and will complete the program in November.
Sue Phipps (HR Specialist–DDR) is the lead contact for FMLA/ ADA. She also provides HR expertise in areas of recruitment, titling, and promotion.
To learn more, check out the UW News article on August 29.