In conjunction with the annual Thank Goodness for Staff celebration, held last month, Staff Assembly presented its Citations for Excellence, after receiving nominations from the campus community.

The citations recognize individuals for campus service, general contributions and supervision, and teams for campus service and general contributions.

The Citations for Excellence Committee reviewed all of the nominations to determine if the nominees met the basic criteria for Citations for Excellence. This year, all nominees made the grade — and all were therefore recognized as “distinguished nominees,” Staff Assembly Chair Peter Blando said.

Then, within each category, the committee chose one person or team to receive the 2009 Citations for Excellence.

A ceremony for all the distinguished nominees and citation recipients took place May 18 at the Chancellor’s Residence.

Here are the recipients of the 2009 Citations for Excellence, plus all the distinguished nominees:

CITATIONS FOR EXCELLENCE

Individual Campus Service: Denise Besser, advising assistant, human and community development

Individual General Contributions: Lisa Zdybel, library assistant, art, art history and technocultural studies

Supervision: Marbella Sala, program manager, Center for Reducing Health Disparities, School of Medicine

Team Campus Service: The Energy Management Team (part of Building Maintenance within Facilities Management), comprising Fred Haynes, Mark A. Nicholas and Mark D. Nicholas (the two Mark Nicholases are not related). The trio focuses on energy use for heating and cooling in buildings, and develops projects to cut costs—about $4 million over the last two years.

Team General Contributions: UC Davis Extension’s Northern California Training Academy Team, comprising Christine Altavilla, Grace Barajas, Jennifer Davis, Ann Gibson, Chris Juvinall, Christie Karlstad, Ken Ly, Melanie Schindell, Kristi Smith, Amy Spakosky and Hilary Wilkoff. The team provides training to child welfare personnel in 29 Northern California counties. Over the last year and a half, team members took up the slack as five of their co-workers took maternity leave.

Staff Assembly has prepared stories on all the Citation for Excellence recipients, and posted all their photos as well.

DISTINGUISHED NOMINEES

Individual Campus Service: Fredna Karneges, Disability Management Services; Gee Lee, IET-Application; and Dawne Shell, dean’s office, College of Biological Sciences

Individual General Contributions: Jenifer Benke Delia, UC’s California Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program; Maureen Brodie, Student Disability Center; Wendy Carrillo, UC Veterinary Medical Center-San Diego; Susan Cobey, entomology; Ariel Collatz, art-art history; Reina Gonzalez, Advising Services; Tyrone McGee, environmental services, neurosurgery intensive care unit, UC Davis Medical Center; Susan Ragsdale, entomology; Jackie Simmons, biological and agricultural engineering; Jeremy M. Smith, Center for Mind and Brain; Walter Sysko, art-art history; Gary L. Tabler, food ecience and technology; and Jean Telford, Graduate Studies

Supervision: Cynthia C. Simmons, political science; and Kathy Stuhr, payroll

Team Campus Service

Circulation and Interlibrary Loan Desk Team, Shields Library—George Besser, Ben Bidwell, W. Todd Boelman, E. Lars Cederquist, Ioana Ene, Katrica Got, Karen Jones, Daniel Leighton, Judy Ng, Susan Sullivan and Claudia Whitfield

University House, Services for International Students—Katy Bill, Kim Haky, Angela Hamilton, Linda Heckert, Margaret Hellwarth, Simone Kueltz, Kathy Lighthall, Virag Nikolics, Gayle Oberlies, Daniel Padron, Angie Patin, Alice Rhee, Wesley Young and Lori Zimmerman

Core Greenhouse Facilities Team, Department of Plant Pathology—Jianguo Chen, Chris Durand, Ron Lane, Garry Pearson, Bruno Pitton, Randy Ruan, Steve Silva and Robert Starnes

International Education Week Team, University Outreach and International Programs—Paul Cody, Sasha Ferreira, Vickie Gomez, Deanna Gordon, Greg Gunderson, Jake Hoiser, Marcie Kirk-Holland, Marie Manlapaz, Lanette Olsen, Christina Siracusa, Nancy Tibbitts and Jennifer Wong

Team general contributions

Mechanical Shop Team, Biological and Agricultural Engineering—Wayne Andrade, Tom Bell and Leo Palaima

Biological and Agricultural Engineering—Jan Allen, Katherine Rodriguez and Christine Tracy

Athletics Crew, Grounds Division—Kevin Crouse, Kevin Galart, Clancy Klein, Mark Lucas, Cuberto Santana and John Taylor

Business Team, Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine—Nicole Gibson, Tania Heta, Laila Lambrecht and Jane Ryan

Technical Unit, Undergraduate Admissions—Richard Brhely, Paul Doty, Phil Kincade, Thomas Pon, Carol Sparks and Patrick Turner

Emergency Preparedness Team, Department of Sociology—Janet Gutierrez, Anya Schwin and Linda Streeter

Advancement Information Team, University Relations and Information and Educational Technology—John Finazzo, Vivian Lam and William Wagman