Winter 2017 Classified Staff Award: David Sims

David Sims

Congratulations to David Sims, recipient of the 2017 Winter Quarter Classified Staff Excellence Award.

Sims is an Information Tech Specialist 4 for the IT Service Center and has 35 years with Clark College. He is described as someone who goes “far beyond the call of duty, giving our customers one on one personal attention when they have high severity issues with technology.”

Sims is described as being someone who embraces goals and assists in transitions to improve ITS and the larger college community. His nominator wrote, “David in the past year has stepped up as the technical lead of the service center group, taking on vastly different responsibilities than he has had over the past 35 years and he has absolutely flourished and become a vital leader of the group. His performance and dedication to the college is absolutely the foundation of his worth ethic; he is deeply rooted in making sure the campus faculty and staff have the tools they need to support our students.”

Being “extremely skilled in process and procedure,” Sims is able to provide solutions be the “rock” of his team, especially over the past year. Sims takes on the tough tasks and creatively produces unique solutions to challenges. For instance, “the service center was tasked with bringing in over 200 mobile devices for Windpws 10 upgrades, and David took this task and planned it out, created documentation, and ran scenarios before we went live. He came up with unique ways to make the Win 10 transition for our mobile laptop customers as easy and with the least impact as possible. David also trained all of the other technicians. This made our piece of the Windows 10 upgrade go extremely smooth, and his work ethic to get over 200 devices migrated to Win 10 was nothing short of amazing.”

Congratulations as well to this winter quarter’s other nominees:

Lorraine Browne Leedy is the Faculty Development Program Specialist at the Teaching and Learning Center. In her role, Leedy organizes many training opportunities for the faculty and staff. She is described as someone who is “very efficient in executing her responsibilities” and is “an excellent customer-service ambassador who is willing to listen to someone in need and help.” She is respectful to the faculty, staff and anyone who needs her services. Leedy’s nominator describes her as a good communicator, someone who pays close attention to detail, a leader, respectful and someone who maintains a pleasing personality.

Reesa McAllister is a Secretary Senior for the Computer Technology (CTEC) Division and is described as someone who has an “exemplary” work performance. McAllister is “precise, thorough and efficient in her work” and will not only learn new skills, but goes “above and beyond by teaching her colleagues” in these areas as well. McAllister’s nominator states, “Faculty count on her and she goes out of her way to assist everyone coming into the unit office, calling on the phone, or emailing with questions and concerns. If Reesa does not know how to answer a question, she seeks out that answer. She does not stop there, however! She then shares that information with others’ in the unit who will benefit from having that information as well.” McAllister is someone who is honest, organized, and “should be noted for her flexibility and willingness to contribute to the transition with a secretary retiring and being replaced in the past couple of quarters.” She is “confident to take on tasks and responsibilities,” provides “excellent support,” and “engages throughout the campus and across units for the betterment of her division, unit and the college.”

Kate Poffenroth works as a Program Coordinator for Disability Support Services (DSS). Poffenroth’s nominator describes her as “an excellent, long-term employee who stands out in terms of her superb reliability and efficiency.” Poffenroth is said to be someone who is “extraordinary in terms of her ability to multi-task” and “arrives at the office with energy, enthusiasm, and a great sense of humor that she shares with every person that she sees that day.” Poffenroth often tracks “hundreds of details that require high-level processing” and understands the importance of being accurate in her reporting. DSS is in the process of implementing a new software and “Kate … has been a quick, sharp learner, as she easily adopts new software processes and encourages others to make necessary changes.” Poffenroth’s nominator overall describes her as someone who is grounded in student-entered principles, concise, encourages others, and “builds collegial cohesion and teamwork.”

Tia Schmidt is an Administrative Assistant in the Nursing Department and “has been providing excellent service for many years” and “is the glue that keeps the nursing program going.” Schmidt is described as “smart and efficient” and “demonstrates her commitment to the college and to students by attending every pinning ceremony to cheer the student’s success and to support the staff who present.” Schmidt is quick to offer “assistance, suggestions, ideas, and empathy, all of which serve to facilitate problem resolution and encourage collaboration. She is respectful and models professional behavior and demeanor.” Through challenges, Schmidt approaches her work with a “realistic, yet optimistic viewpoint” and “is a believer in pro-action versus reaction.” Schmidt assists her group and helps them “deal with many new changes in both ACEN criteria and state regulations.” In assisting, “Tia created resource notebooks for each of us so we would have these references at our fingertips as we moved forward with the adjustment process.” Each day Schmidt “arrives at work she is cheerful, positive and ready to ‘tackle’ whatever task or responsibility we will face throughout the day.” Nominators said, “I see her as very positive about the college and committed to doing all she can to be part of its successful future” and that “her work demonstrates the highest quality both in terms of quality, but also integrity. Tia is an excellent communicator both verbally and in writing. She coordinates several monthly team meetings, stays accurate and timely with minutes and remains calm when meetings become stressful or chaotic.  She consistently exhibits calmness and respect for fellow workers and students.”