More than 200 employees from Finance and the Service Center of Excellence attended the Five Star Employee Recognition Awards and holiday luncheon on Jan. 17, 2019, at the William and Ida Friday Center for Excellence in Education. Five employees were presented with the All Star Award, an award to recognize employees for their application of service excellence, innovation and continuous improvement, teamwork, a healthy and high-performance culture and prudent management and leadership.
The event is the result of months of work by a nine-member committee representing four areas in the division who used the Five Star Awards Program guidelines to recognize employees for their work. Nathan Knuffman, deputy vice chancellor for finance and operations, and Steve Agostini, associate vice chancellor for finance and budget, presented the five winners with their awards and spoke to the attendees about their important work to the University.
2018 honorees are: Henry Price, Financial Analyst, Budget Planning and Analysis; Nicole Long, Executive Assistant, office of Vice Chancellor of Finance and Operations; Jeffrey Birdsong, Financial Analyst, SCE Finance Capital Project Accounting; Alan Forrest, Programmer/Specialist, F&O Information Technology Systems; and Yolanda Torain, SHRA Lead, Payroll Services.
Excerpts from Knuffman’s and Agostini’s remarks about the five All Star Award recipients are below:
Henry Price – Financial Analyst
“Henry is instrumental in the budgeting portion of ConnectCarolina –and has improved and streamlined numerous office processes and worked on the development of items such as computer-based training modules for processes related to budgeting.”
Nicole Long – Executive Assistant
“Nicole exemplifies the strategy of thinking outside the box and quickly anticipates potential challenges and works diligently to recommend solutions.”
Jeffrey Birdsong – Financial Analyst
“Jeffrey shows a commitment to co-workers, team and to UNC, acting with utmost integrity to properly steward the University’s resources.”
Alan Forrest – Technology Systems Programmer/Specialist
“This year alone Alan has resolved a number of early morning issues, worked non-stop for 36 hours for a server upgrade and did troubleshooting over the phone while in line at DisneyLand!”
Yolanda Torain – Business Services Coordinator
“Unflappable in the face of challenges, Yolanda has an unwavering commitment to support this University and the employees in her role as SHRA Lead.”