2020 PWA Unsung Heroines
Tara Owens
Financial Manager, Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC)
“Tara has the best interest at heart for her fellow employees and graduate students. Tara is a responsible manager; she creates important reports and manages workflow. She reacts quickly to adapt to changing business conditions. This is important in today’s environment.”
“Even in pressured, time sensitive situations, she maintains a positive and even-keeled attitude. She takes her work very seriously and it is always done with a high degree of accuracy.”
“Through her agile management of finances we have been able to maintain a large group of faculty, postdocs, and researchers working at the highest levels. Tara Owens has enabled UCSB SSLEEC Center to become the world's preeminent center for energy efficiency LED Lighting.”
Pati C. Montojo, Ph.D
Manager, Academic & Staff Assistance Program and Licensed Psychologist
“Pati has always been available as a resource to help staff well-being in her role as counselor for ASAP. But this year she also helped start and lead a working mothers support group, which quickly led to a second support group due to high demand. These groups brought together working moms like myself, gave us a safe space to talk about issues that affected us and share advice, and brought the community of UCSB moms closer together with the realization that we are not alone in our struggles.
Pati has been a constant source of encouragement in a time where being a working parent is challenging. I know after meeting with the other moms in our group, I always left feeling uplifted, supported, and connected with people in our campus community that are in similar situations. It feels great to know that we've got a network of strong, wonderful working moms on campus.”
Lisa Stratton
Director of Ecosystem Management
“Lisa has directed the North Campus Open Space restoration project, raising large amounts of funding to keep her staff employed, organizing a huge staff and guiding them to conduct a fabulous restoration project that benefits students, faculty, staff and the greater community through education and stewardship. The project has reached thousands of students both through education about restoration and through active engagement in campus stewardship.
Lisa is so dedicated to educating people, making the campus environment more pleasant and ecologically sustainable and has succeeded in creating a wonderful cooperative staff that works tirelessly for the campus. She carefully considers the needs of her staff and guides an enormous operation in overseeing the entire CCBER restoration programs. Take a walk at NCOS and you will see her legacy. She was the key to making that project happen. Walk the lagoon and you will see evidence of her energy and guidance everywhere.”
Lisa Klock
Process Innovation Program Manager, LSIT
“We would have had a much tougher time working remotely were it not for the foresight that Lisa and her Docusign team had in getting a robust infrastructure into place ahead of time, making Docusign easy to start using all across campus. As the Process Innovation Program manager, Lisa has an unwavering commitment to helping our campus' processes run more effectively, which affects all areas of our campus' mission.
When we had a process we wanted to improve, Lisa and her team listened to our full needs and existing process in great detail to help save us time and streamline our work. In each staff role I've held, there has been no shortage of processes to work through, some more cumbersome than others. When we make these processes more efficient, as Lisa works tirelessly to do, everyone benefits. Lisa's process improvement projects save us time and allow us to operate with greater flexibility. Who doesn't want more time?”
Amanda Maffett
Academic Personnel & Financial Services, Manager at HSSB Administrative Support Center
“Amanda does not only know the ins and outs of policies, and has great initiative, but she is also a great teacher, flexible with her staff and consistently provides positive feedback. Her leadership skills create a work environment that is ideal for learning and producing excellent work. She has created a structure that constantly provides short and long term goals for everyone, giving you a sense of direction. Furthermore, she is always the first to greet you and ask you how your day is going. She is not afraid to start genuine conversations on topics not related to work, which help create stronger bonds in the workplace. Most notably, due to recent global events, Amanda went as far as to offer free grocery deliveries to staff that felt unsafe leaving their homes. This action really ties everything together to show the great person that she is, and should be publicly recognized for it.
Amanda has the kind of work ethic, leadership, and overall willingness to help that provides a perfect example for others to strive towards. A kind-hearted individual that is not afraid to tackle issues head on, she has the right attributes to positively and genuinely influence everyone around her.”
Katie Anderson
Senior Student Advisor, Summer Academic Programs
“Katie makes the campus a better place by reliably committing herself to tasks both large and small that ensure that students have as many opportunities as possible to achieve their educational goals. Whether she's helping high school students find the best summer residential program for their interests, working through all the mundane details of scheduling courses for a full summer curriculum, processing scholarship requests, sporting a false mustache when delivering bad news to a colleague, or compiling a full schedule of activities for incoming students, Katie always brings her best self to her work and never fails to deliver on her projects, which impact the whole UC Santa Barbara community.
Katie sets an example in our office by taking initiative on projects that are above and beyond her daily duties that directly impact the student experience, such as proposing redesigns of our website, or tackling the technically-complex reimagining of our student application portal. She also consistently supports colleagues and campus partners outside of her usual job duties, and steps up to the challenge of being a team player even under difficult circumstances. She pursues her own growth, both professional and personal, and supports the growth and achievement of others in her life.”
Amanda Turner
Assistant Director of Accounting, UCSB Foundation
“Amanda has a tremendous work ethic, institutional and subject matter knowledge that she applies effectively to gifts administration behind the scenes. She helps get gifts to the appropriate campus departments where the funds are used for the benefit of students, faculty, staff, and the wider community. She is the proverbial unsung heroine since most don't realize the valuable work she does behind the scenes but most would miss her if she wasn't there.”
“Amanda is the poster-child for all that is productive and positive at the University. When I assign her tasks, I know that they will be done completely, correctly and thoroughly. More impressively, though, Amanda goes a step above this and proactively sees what needs to be done and creates her own projects that have significant impact on our department and the University.”