As the success of UCLA Administration and its 10 units can be attributed to its dedicated, industrious and innovative staff, it is important that we recognize and honor those across our organization who make noteworthy contributions. TheTrue Bruin Values Award provides an opportunity to celebrate remarkable achievements that embody the UCLA True Bruin Values.
Anyone-managers, supervisors, staff, students, clients and customers-may nominate a UCLA Administration employee for this award. To submit a nomination, complete the online form, including information about the staff member and details about the exemplary performance achievements that have positively impacted team interactions, operations, or productivity.
Award recipients are selected on a quarterly basis and will receive the following recognition:
- Award Certificate
- A Beckfast celebration and award ceremony with Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck
- Recognition on this webpage
- Recognition in UCLA Administration News & Views
Congratulations and thank you to the following UCLA Administration staff who have been recognized for outstanding service in the spirit of our True Bruin Values.
Spring 2020
We received some outstanding nominees for the True Bruin Values and Service Excellence awards this quarter. However, I found it hard to recognize just a few members of the Administration team when I know that everyone is working so hard to fulfill our True Bruin Values and commitment to service excellence during this unprecedented time. I therefore want to recognize all the members of the Administration team as the Spring True Bruin Values and Service Excellence Awards recipients. The Administration team has demonstrated an incredible commitment and dedication during this time. I see so many of our team members fulfilling essential functions on campus and I hear of many more fulfilling essential functions remotely.
It is remarkable what the Administration team has accomplished during this extraordinarily challenging time. Some examples of the extraordinary achievement include transitioning over 45,000 students and instructors to remote learning, including providing remote instruction to the more than 1,000 PreK-12 students; supporting the thousands of students who needed to transition out from campus housing or those that still remain; processing over 19,500 parking rebates; finding new commute solutions for those working on campus; providing health and safety services to those still working or living on campus; supporting the health system—their employees, patients, visitors and their facility needs; coordinating the campus response through the Emergency Operations Center; acquiring, configuring, and distributing over 1,000 laptops, iPads, WiFi hotspots and other technology to students and faculty in need or providing other technical support; contributing to the many COVID-19 campus task forces and working groups; responding to the many needs of the campus employees; working with our campus colleagues and third party partners to reschedule or cancel their events or other activities planned on campus; moving critical projects along, constantly clean and sanitizing surfaces to prevent the spread of the virus; and running numerous reports and financial analysis to develop fiscal recovery plans. And all of this while managing through their own person challenges working from home or working on campus under trying circumstances. There are so many other examples of the extraordinary efforts the Administration team are undertaking that make it appropriate to recognize the entire Administration team for demonstrating their True Bruin Values and incredible dedication to service excellence.
Thank you for your incredible contributions to the campus during this time. You make me so proud of our Administration team.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Beck
Administrative Vice Chancellor
Winter 2020
Chris Bates
Supervisory Program Analyst 3
Facilities Management
Chris Bates is a key leader on the FM IT group's Help Desk team by being the go-to technician for computer and software problems despite a heavy workload. He routinely responds swiftly and cheerfully to his clients, always respecting their time and work. He is accountable to his team and to his clients, refusing to move on until issues are resolved. He displays unparalleled integrity by managing the "white space" inside and outside of FM IT. Chris never hesitates to step up to complete a task even when the task may not clearly be his to complete. Chris’ motto around the office is "we gotta get stuff done" and he gets on it. Chris is a consummate example of service, voluntarily serving as an Assistant Boy Scout Master and a Merit Badge Counselor for the youth in his community. Chris continually exhibits excellence in his work, always doing the job right and constantly keeping up with the progressive world of information technology. Chris has been a mainstay of the FM organization for over 20 years.
FM recently conducted a client survey inside their very large department to establish a baseline for IT support customer satisfaction. Thanks in large part to Chris' initiative, unparalleled responsiveness, cheerful demeanor and technical knowledge, his team scored more than a 9 on a scale of 10 on every measure requested. He was also instrumental in the programming of the new Bruin Walk safety project, which provides emergency notifications to the campus during an incident. This is a glowing example of Chris' focus and appetite for covering the "white space" on important tasks that need to "get done".
Ivonne Bates
Sr. Administrative Analyst, Supervisor
Events & Transportation
Ivonne Bates rose to the challenge of facilitating Events & Transportation's budget preparation after her manager left UCLA right before the start of the "budget season," successfully fulfilling her job duties and those of her former manager. This year's budget submissions were especially complicated as a result of multiple changes, including the AFSCME contract and corresponding compensation increases; the goal of reducing overall expenses in each business unit by 2.5 percent; and the need to educate several new managers on the department’s internal budget process and system.
Ivonne was responsible for facilitating the creation, review, editing and finalization of the budget submissions for all of the Events & Transportation business units – a total of more than 30 unique FAUs. For many of these business units, Ivonne also ran the financial models to understand the full cost of each unique service (multiples for each FAU) so rates could be set to fully recover costs.
Ivonne completed all of this budget work on top of her primary duties of overseeing the E&T Accounts Payable & Purchasing team, ensuring timely ledger reconciliation and preparation of monthly financial statements, necessitating significant weekend and after normal business hours work.
Brian Hope
Commuter Programs Operations Manager
Events & Transportation
In July 2019 Brian took on a new role as the Bruin Commuter Programs Operations Manager as the Commuter & Parking Services group launched its conversion from a paper-based system to a sustainable, digital solution called “ePermits”. During the campus-wide implementation of the Bruin ePermit system, more than 35,000 permits were sold within 3 months as all students, staff members and faculty permit holders were required to transition to the new sustainable system.
Brain supported the unit’s goal of consistently delivering a high-quality customer experience by leading the successful completion of other initiatives, including applying his newly acquired Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt training to processes in need of streamlining. He assisted in leading a very smooth transition to Bruin ePermit across the UCLA campus and managed the operations for the Sustainable Transportation programs. He assisted with key documentation and process improvements across all programs, including an optimized way for professional school students to purchase their permits, and for the commute coordinators across the campus to manage their permit allocations.
Brian also spearheaded the Vanpool Program’s process and improvements and waitlist enhancements, which saved 43 hours of staff time per month. This allowed the Bruin Commuter Programs Unit to deliver a higher level of service to the campus community by offering open Vanpool seats more quickly and efficiently. As a result of this new process, the team is now able to offer available seats three times faster allowing more commuters the opportunity to utilize the vanpool program. Brian is constantly working on future enhancements, which include more frequent communication with customers awaiting vanpool participation via status updates.
Keven Nobe
Community Service Officer Guard
UCPD
Keven Nobe has been a Security Guard working in the UCPD CSO Program for 14 years. Remarkably, he has not taken even one day of sick leave in the last 7 years. Keven is known for arriving to work early and greeting everyone in the station with a “hello” or a “good morning.” He then clocks in, does a quick bicycle safety check, and leaves to patrol the campus. Keven is primarily assigned to bicycle patrol in campus parking lots. Some mornings, Keven gets word that he is being reassigned to another location because of a sick call, vacation or extra coverage request. No matter what he is asked to do, Keven does it with a smile and without complaint.
While on his rounds, Keven stops to greet members of the campus community who have come to count on him for safety checks. Keven is in constant contact with the public and is frequently seen on campus, both on major travel routes and in little known passages. He is known by name to many in the UCLA Community and known on the emergency radio as “Baker 4”.
Keven responds to most outdoor calls on or around campus, frequently arriving before the dispatched officers or EMTs. EMTs appreciate the way that he forwards information to the responding crew and assists on scene in any way necessary, including holding doors, flagging down LAFD, carrying equipment or other tasks that will help. Police Officers note the speed of his response to their calls and the effective way he asks for additional information to assist in locating lost persons, suspects or vehicles. As a result, Keven is often successful in his searches. Kevin also recognizes when the best way to assist officers is to maintain a safe distance from officers and incidents and instruct the public to do so as well.
In his last evaluation period, Keven patrolled 1,555 parking structures, handled 9 safety escorts, handled 19 lost or stolen vehicle calls, and assisted on 28 police, fire or EMS calls. Keven has been described by the multiple members of the Department as “tireless”, “a huge asset” and “an example of core values, especially respect, service, and excellence.
Mike Quirk
Supervisor, Service Management
IT Services
Mike Quirk works effectively, often behind the scenes to ensure that IT Services processes are running smoothly. He leads the service management team, which monitors the workflows and systems used to track changes, manage service request tickets, monitor incidents and follow-up while keeping the many moving parts of the IT department documented and transparent. Mike approaches each challenge with a positive and thoughtful approach, always demonstrating integrity in his and his team's work. Mike consistently works to solve problems and regularly finds innovative ways to address challenges. He gathers feedback and approaches challenges by collaborating with his team and other stakeholders to find solutions.
In the last year, Mike has led his team to launching the Customer Portal, which makes it easy for our customers to submit tickets, get status and find knowledge base information. This is a new service for ITS, and feedback has been very positive. He also ensures that our version of ServiceNow is regularly updated and that new features are communicated with staff.
Mike is very excited to be launching Performance Analytics in the upcoming year, which will enable staff to receive more and even better reports from ServiceNow to assess and ultimately improve performance. Mike's energetic and positive approach encourages collaborative problem solving, and his discipline for documentation keeps things running smoothly as continuous process improvements are made. Mike’s an integral part of the Customer Engagement team.
Gina Sheridan
Data Warehouse Analyst
IT Services
Gina Sheridan demonstrates the meaning of a True Bruin daily as she provides excellent customer support to the UCLA community by going above and beyond with assisting customers, including reaching out to the department’s IT staff customers and offering assistance in finding the resources or answers or going to their specific locations to verify their workstation is configured appropriately to run reports. As a Data Warehouse Support Analyst, Gina is the primary support analyst for QDB and Data Warehouse users. She handles all support tickets for over 4,000 users and during the UCPath transition, she handled 20 user tickets or more simultaneously.
Users reach out specifically to provide feedback on Gina’s excellent customer service and the positive impact she makes in their daily work. She is the ultimate team player and never hesitates to offer her time and assistance to anyone. Her positive outlook and determination to grow her skills into additional responsibilities is commendable and always appreciated. Gina’s dedication to her department, hours of volunteerism and willingness to assist in any way she can is commendable. She is making a positive impact to our workplace and is a valuable member of the UCLA community.
Gina is a magnificent team player and her ability to handle the volume of support requests with the varying range of technical issues is praiseworthy. Gina continually demonstrates her strong customer service skills and eagerness to find solutions to our customers’ requests for assistance.
Fall 2019
Dustin Downey
Police Officer (Detective)
UCLA PD
Detective Dustin Downey's relentless investigation into five different burglaries that occurred over a three-week timeframe in May 2019 led to the arrest and conviction of a serial burglar. Detective Downey investigated these burglaries; each burglary was at a unique location and the reports taken separately by different officers. All of the crime victims were UCLA students. Detective Downey reviewed the reports, identified a connection, and conducted a thorough investigation. He reviewed multiple hours of video surveillance that showed the suspect committing the crimes. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office initially filed four counts of felony burglary. Detective Downey continued to investigate the suspect and identified additional burglary victims. After interviewing the victims and reviewing more video, the District Attorney's office eventually filed an additional five counts of felony burglary and possession of stolen property. Due to the thorough investigation, the suspect accepted a plea bargain deal and pled guilty to two of the felony charges at the preliminary hearing.
Property crimes significantly impact many members of our community. These impacts are in the form of financial loss, and a broader fear of victimization. In addition to being difficult to solve, often the punishment for repeat offenders is insufficient to deter future crime. In this case, a known burglar was arrested and connected to five different instances of burglary. This is a notable accomplishment in and of itself. Detective Downey's work also allowed the District Attorney's office to present an extremely strong case that led to the suspect pleading guilty. The hard work on the front end of the investigation helped prevent a long, drawn out criminal trial that would have required significant resources. In addition, the suspect was ordered to pay nearly $5,000 in restitution to the victims. By achieving a state prison sentence, Detective Downey ensured that this serial burglar would not be able to re-offend in the near future.
William O'Neill
Facilities Mechanic
Facilities Management
Bill O’Neill embodies what it means to be a True Bruin. His unwavering commitment to service makes him a highly valued and respected team member at the Krieger Center, Fernald Child Care Center and the Chancellor’s Residence.
Due to his strong initiative at the Chancellor’s Residence, he has grown his position to include the complex management of maintenance and repair projects. Bill supervises the summer maintenance of the public event areas of the residence, managing communication between various trades to ensure the historic structure will last another 90 years. He always takes personal responsibility to guarantee his areas are well-tended. He takes the time needed to investigate delays to ensure a job well done. As a result, the Residence is available for the new season of events for UCLA staff, faculty, student and donor events.
Marco Molina
Principal Supervisor Custodial Services
Facilities Management Custodial & Grounds
Marco took the necessary steps to ensure the safety of one of his staff members. On Tuesday September 3rd Mr. Molina was performing his rounds in the Center for Health Sciences when a Senior Custodian that reports to him contacted him requesting to meet. Mr. Molina sensed something was wrong and rushed to meet the employee. He found the Senior Custodian unconscious and immediately contacted Emergency Medical Services and began performing CPR. The employee regained consciousness and was then treated by Emergency Medical Services when they arrived before being taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. it is unlikely the employee would have survived without Marco's quick thinking and actions.
Marco has served Campus Custodial Services for more than fourteen years. Marco is integral to our estimating and recharging services in Custodial Services which resulted in over 54,000 hours of labor and over $7,250,000 in revenue to Custodial & Grounds fiscal year 2018-19 budget. His knowledge of Custodial Operations on UCLA's Campus helps him to make the right decision for the client and the department. He has an excellent memory and helps prevent previous service shortfalls from being repeated. Marco has his hands on almost every aspect of Custodial Services. His dependability is recognized by everyone in Facilities Management. Marco communicates necessary information to all parties in advance. He has excellent working relationships with internal and external Clients throughout campus. Marco is extremely organized in his administrative responsibilities and is a passionate and dedicated trainer for the team he leads. He is a True Bruin and someone you'd feel lucky to work with.
Junji Toshima
Assistant Director
Housing & Hospitality
On October 17th, Junji Toshima, Assistant Director Housing Safety & Emergency Preparedness & Campus Video was notified that a medical emergency was taking place in Covel Dining Commons. Initially the emergency was reported as a choking/non-responsive/non-breathing victim. Junji instinctively grabbed an emergency medical kit and an AED device from his office area and hurried to the dining commons where he found the victim, one of our Housing team members, lying on the ground with a student administering CPR. Junji recognized that the team member was in full cardiac arrest with no pulse.
Junji immediately prepared the AED device and without hesitation provided instructions to the assisting student, and initiated the mechanical AED shocks between continued CPR efforts. Junji’s efforts kept the team member alive until LAFD paramedics arrived on the scene ten minutes later.
These ten minutes of assistance, quick thinking, and thoughtfulness from Junji provided our team member the opportunity to not only make it through the cardiac event but to have a good chance at recovery. Junji is recognized as one who always prepares diligently for emergencies and can always be counted on to respond efficiently to any situation. His positive “can do” attitude and thoughtful preparations and communications are highly valued by the entire Housing & Hospitality operation, who applaud his nomination for this honor.
July-September 2019
Giovanny Barrientos
Program Management Supervisor
Parking Commuter Programs
Events and Transportation
Giovanny has been instrumental in revamping multiple programs in Commuter & Parking Services (CPS) Unit. The most notable are:
Earn-A-Bike Program Giovanny researched multiple vendors to support our Earn-A-Bike program, created and managed the RFP process, and established a program that included the incumbent and two additional vendors.
Bruin Commuter Club Bike Benefits As a part of the award he negotiated enhanced CPS Bike Benefits and established a policy for a 30 day return to the vendors instead of CPS increasing our inventory.
Emergency (Guaranteed Ride Home) program There is added benefits such as the ability to order a LYFT through a concierge on-line portal and the ability to send the reservation direct to the customer allowing us to better service the customer.
Giovanny accomplished this while continuing to enhance our Wait List process for Vanpool and continuing to manage his day to day responsibilities.
Carol Nguyen
Events Manager
Events Office
Events and Transportation
Recently Carol accomplished an important work process improvement for UCLA Commencement all at her own initiative. One of the most complicated tasks that the Events Office must do is creating over 50 different detailed commencement ceremony invoices, which includes the sharing of different vendors' services and the calculations for different proportions of shared costs and rebates depending on ceremony size and venue location. This year Carol took it upon herself to research and experiment with new formats and designs, eventually arriving at an effective and efficient solution which will save the Events Office dozens of hours of manual processing time each commencement season moving forward. This is not new to her performance. On several other occasions without anyone asking her to, Carol has created new forms or templates to help her and the other managers work more effectively and efficiently.
Sandra Ramirez
Office Manager
Central Ticket Office
During the Spring Quarter, CTO had three open career staff positions. While it was not her responsibility, Sandra stepped up and volunteered to lead the hiring and on-boarding process for all three positions. She established timelines, formed the screening and interviewing committees, managed the communication with the many applicants and the hiring managers. She kept the office on track and ensured the entire process was conducted in a professional, thoughtful and timely manner which allowed us to hire the best candidates for the positions. In addition, she
was very instrumental in developing the on-boarding timeline and ensuring the office fulfilled the steps on the on-boarding checklist. Sandra did a fantastic job with this process.
Anthony Solana, Jr.
Director
Employee and Labor Relations
Campus Human Resources
Anthony Solana, Director of Employee and Labor Relations, exemplifies the True Bruin Values and characteristics. Anthony manages one of the most challenging functions in human resources by maintaining a work environment that fosters confidence, commitment, and collaboration. He championed a variety of process improvements by expanding the use of modern technology to track cases by subject area so that the campus could assess risks and liability, while offering training to campus departments to enhance their expertise. Anthony is highly respected by colleagues across the campus and has been a role model not only for his team but many others. He supports the individual development of his team members by providing continuous learning opportunities and trusting them with stretch assignments. Finally, Anthony ensures that the team addresses workplace challenges in a way that promotes respect and dignity for all parties. In this way, he has a broad influence in creating a campus culture that matches the University’s True Bruin values.
Jason Tingley
Executive Chef
Luskin Conference Center
Housing & Hospitality Services
Jason has a keen eye for detail and a commitment to quality food and beverage programs. He has revolutionized the food and beverage operation which includes Luskin Banquets, Plateia Restaurant and UCLA Catering. Jason has updated systems in Plateia for ordering, inventory, recipe management and R&D and has worked closely with the Front of House Management team to ensure that service results and ticket times have shown improvement. YOY Covers have increased 22% and average check has increased by 9% in the restaurant. He has put in place systems for ware washing, chemical usage, stewarding and ordering that have all improved the workings of Luskin food and beverage program. Jason has been key in obtaining and managing contracts for the Anderson school and for our Football Dining program. Never satisfied, Jason continues to work on improving systems and food and beverage offerings to ensure that they are the highest quality possible while maintaining a dedication to our financial goals on a daily basis.
April - June 2019
Abdallah Daboussi
Senior Administrative Analyst
Events and Transportation
In 2018, Abdallah learned that Long Beach Transit (LBT) was conducting a planning analysis of their transit system. He worked to connect Bruins that live in Long Beach to the LBT consultant's online customer needs survey. This paid dividends in that the idea for commuter bus service from Long Beach to LA/Westwood had many supporters; this led to informal staff level discussions between UCLA Transportation and LBT. He suggested to LBT that UCLA would survey its ~ 2,000 employees and students who live in the LBT service area to see if they would be willing to pay for bus service from Long Beach to Westwood. He did the GIS mapping analysis to determine the set of people to send the survey to, he coordinated all aspects of the survey administration, and with overwhelmingly positive results, he continued discussions with LBT staff and consultants to nudge them towards implementing commuter bus service to UCLA/Westwood. After months of negotiations with LBT's senior leadership, the service was approved. He worked on all service aspects, including helping select and map the route and the bus stops, working with Facilities at UCLA to install signs at each bus stop, writing the contract between LBT and UCLA, which was the basis of the purchase order, and helped select the service times. He worked with the Bruin Commuter Services and IT Services units to ensure that LBT bus passes were available to the campus community, and he worked with the Integrated Marketing and Communications unit to ensure that the service was marketed to campus commuters. When the service began on April 1st, he went out into the field to meet the arriving buses at Gateway Plaza to ensure the service was smooth and that the Bruins alighting the bus were well-served. His dedication, energy, and focus made this service work, and he coordinated well with a litany of people, both inside and outside the campus, to ensure success. The service is operational, there are many happy commuters and without Abdallah's tenacity to keep all the moving parts communicating and progressing, the service would not have happened.
Anashe Hakopiannik
Administrative Specialist
Staff Diversity and Affirmative Action
EEO Compliance Office
Campus Human Resources
Anashe Hakopiannik has been a valuable contributor to Campus Human Resources, in particular the Staff Diversity & Affirmative Action/EEO Compliance Office (SD&C). She has helped lead the transition from paper files to a "best in class" online case management platform. To address SD&C's strategic priority of providing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training to greater numbers of the campus employee community, Anashe has managed the logistical coordination, registration and course credit retention for SD&C's new monthly training, "Preventing Workplace Discrimination, Sexual Violence, and Sexual Harassment." To ensure that all members of the UCLA community are aware of the importance of providing equal opportunities and access to employees with disabilities, Anashe oversaw logistical coordination for the very successful Disability Awareness Training that SD&C organized in October 2018. All the while, Anashe has continued her valuable role in SD&C's affirmative action efforts by performing data cleaning, data consolidation, and workforce analysis for the annual UCLA Staff Affirmative Action Plan.
Jamal Johnson
Customer Service Manager and
Special Events Coordinator
Central Ticket Office
Over the last three months, Jamal, in addition to overseeing the day to day Customer Service of our office, has had a large amount of events that he has had to organize and manage. This includes the largest student run event of the year, Spring Sing. This year, the Spring Sing committee decided that they wanted to do something different and have an evening onsale for the student tickets. Jamal worked to staff our office in preparation for the 9pm onsale. The onsale went off without a glitch and it was a big success. Jamal also worked very closely with a number of other campus student groups to ticket their annual culture nights as well as many different student productions. Jamal did a great job in managing and assisting the student community.
Pi-Hsuan Kao
Senior Architect
Facilities Management
Pi-Hsuan Kao has been an exemplary employee for DPM and Facilities Management over the years. She demonstrates integrity and excellence in her work consistently by working diligently on projects of various size and complexity, always approaching the project by seeing how it can elevate the quality of the space to not just meet the programmatic needs of the end user, but also create a space that supports the larger mission of the University. Pi-Hsuan models respect in her dealings with other staff, her clients and outside consultants that create an environment for collaboration and continuous improvement. She is always looking for a better way to design and build spaces for the campus, but will never sacrifice the quality of the project when considering the long-term interests of the end user, and larger campus community.
Rooms Division Team
Housing and Hospitality Services
During the recent Measles outbreak, the Rooms Division Team, including Richard Bardales, Hector Delgado, Erika Fujitani, Devin Ko, Jared Meyer, Junji Toshima, and Barbara Wilson, truly went above and beyond to ensure that our students were comfortable and well taken care of, while observing the privacy and rights of the students. H&HS received a request to provide quarantine accommodations for up to 120 students, and within 3 hours of the initial request, the team was able to identify the ideal quarantine location, set up several comfortable rooms with mattresses, clean linens, furniture that helped create study and living room spaces, arrange for clean portable showers within proximity to the quarantine location, and set up an organized check-in process to help alleviate student concern and anxiety during an emergency situation. As the students arrived, the team worked with campus partners to check students in, track attendance and status, and facilitated testing. Further, throughout the 2-day quarantine period, these individuals put themselves at risk to ensure that the environment our students were staying in remained clean and well-maintained, that the students were comfortable and well-fed (provided updated numbers to our Dining team for food drops), worked double shifts to stay in contact contact with campus partners and any concerned parties calling in. After the quarantined period was over, the team broke down and thoroughly cleaned the space, returning it to its original state.
January - March 2019
Natalie Anderson
Manager
IT Project Management
Events & Transportation
Natalie is being recognized for her efforts in leading the UCPath implementation at UCLA Events & Transportation (E&T). As one of the division's main points of contact for the UCPath project, Natalie has had to communicate pro-actively with the UCPath and Business Technology Office (BTO) teams. She first began planning meetings in mid-2016 and has since taken the lead in ensuring that payroll deductions are as accurate as possible, correcting any errors as quickly as possible. While payroll deductions are just a small facet of the overall UCPath implementation, they represent a very large portion of E&T's business.
Rick Anderson
Assistant Director-Athletics
Central Ticket Office
Rick is terrific at fostering excellent relationships with clients, peers, and students. He is an effective communicator who always puts the customer and client first. This year the Central Ticket Office (CTO) was challenged to move our athletic season ticket renewal process from the winter quarter into the fall quarter. As fall is our busiest season, this added a large amount of work to an already full workload. Rick took this challenge in stride. He developed a project plan to ensure CTO would accomplish the many tasks necessary for a successful renewal process while still handling the normal fall quarter responsibilities. Through his leadership, determination, work ethic, and insistence on excellence, CTO met all deadlines and accuracy standards of the season ticket renewal process.
Chris Lechner
Project Manager-Data Analytics
& Strategic Commuter Parking Services
Events & Transportation
Although the preliminary planning to move E&T's parking permit system from physical permits to virtual e-permits began about 5 years ago, the project gained significant momentum when Chris Lechner joined UCLA and took the lead as project manager. Chris worked with the vendor to identify ways to streamline our business process to move the project forward to implementation a year earlier than originally planned. He tracked 12 major project areas, including 25 sub projects; mediated resolutions between E&T and the vendor; and created a variety of internal communication tools to keep everyone informed and connected. Bruin ePermits is ready to launch with customer service improvements, process simplifications, and associated expense savings due to Chris's hard work and dedication.
Fabiola Leon
Police Officer
UCLA Police
As a lead officer, Fabi has worked to foster a collaborative working relationship between UCLA Police and the Ronald Reagan Medical Center. She attends various meetings and addresses issues at the medical center, improving the quality of experiences for both staff and visitors to RRMC. Additionally, Fabi is responsible for the UCLA Police social media sites and has been key to improving our use of social media. In her social media posts. Fabi takes great pride in providing our community with educational and entertaining insights into UCLA Police, helping to build strong relationships with our campus community and beyond.
Alyssa Leiva
Controlled Substance Program
Environment, Health and Safety
Unexpectedly in 2018, it became necessary to implement a new system for campus entities to procure and manage controlled substances across select operations. UC stakeholders collaborated to identify an interim plan to address immediate research needs as well as a permanent solution for campus licensing more broadly. The crisis called for a designated staff member who could rebuild a controlled substances program that would become the standard across the UC campuses. Alyssa took on this challenging and critical role, and has worked diligently with the necessary stakeholders over the past year to convey operational changes and projected impacts to the campus community. She liaised between the UC and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to identify pragmatic solutions that both align with DEA requirements and are feasible for affected personnel, and was able to solidify terms for departmental registrations and authorizations during this period. Her efforts allowed for a successful transition with minimal disruption to research. For these reasons and beyond, Alyssa is highly regarded by the UCLA community and external system-wide partners one and the same.
Lorena (Raquel) Lopez
Data Manager
Information Technology Division
Environment, Health & Safety
Raquel is a key contributor in managing the massive amounts of data that EH&S produces to supply and track safety training across many groups in Administration. The systems that she maintains allow staff to efficiently take online courses which reduces the number of staff needed for training and allowing for training to be taken at a time that is convenient for each individual. In 2018 she added 53 courses to the system in support of EH&S, Housing & Hospitality Services, Events & Transportation, and Facilities Management. Raquel manages this data with a level of accuracy that is not only exceptional, but critical for the department. She sets a standard of respect for her colleagues and student workers that is hard to match, serving as an example to us all. She has patience and integrity which allows her to listen well and synthesize the needs of the department and offer solutions that benefit business operations.
Neil Mansky
Industrial Hygiene Program Manager
Environment, Health & Safety
Over the past seven years, Neil has acted with the greatest respect for each of his campus clients and strives to maintain the highest standards in all his work. Neil serves the entire campus in his capacity as a certified Industrial Hygienist (IH), taking profound care with each and every assessment he completes. Neil manages the IH presence for the Deep Energy Efficiency Program (DEEP) through ongoing collaboration with Facilities Management. He is responsive and is always actively involved in all aspects of the program to help provide information and assistance. With the introduction of a Green Labs program, Neil is called on again to lead by example, offer his technical expertise, and support to a campus-wide initiative that will ask all researchers to evaluate their lab energy needs. His record at UCLA is exemplary and he exhibits all facets of True Bruin Values.
Edward Mase
Administrative Analyst
Campus Human Resources
Eddie Mase handles all the Kronos issues for Human Resources Payroll Center-South (HRPC-South). He has been the force behind the reduction of Kronos Adjustment forms submitted for each pay cycle due to inaccurate information. In FY 17-18, Eddie reduced the number of submissions by 52%. Eddie worked diligently on the UCPath project by testing data in the system. Even though he was focused on UCPath he still made the time to continue to meet with and train new client supervisors and existing client supervisors in his continuous effort to ensure their understanding and to ensure that employees would be paid correctly. Employees have noted their appreciation on how he responds to questions and how he makes himself available to them.
Rai Pollard
Administrative Analyst
Office of the Administrative Vice Chancellor
Over the past two years, Rai has been the champion and coordinator of the comprehensive, cross-departmental effort to update UCLA Policy 110, related to the use of the UCLA Marks. One of the key enhancements of the new policy was the development of an online request and approval process to obtain permission for use of UCLA Marks. This effort required the development of the online portal and the integration of the workflow and forms into DocuSign software. Requests are now submitted online and routed electronically for approval. Rai worked tirelessly on this project and took ownership for the delivery of this streamlined process, coordinating with multiple departments across the campus. Her efforts will result in improved availability of information to the campus, faster turnaround time, and overall increased compliance.
Rita Pollard
Senior Administrative Analyst
Events & Transportation
As one of the leaders of the Fleet Greening Team, Rita Pollard exhibited extraordinary collaboration and creativity this past fiscal year in her work toward meeting the UC Carbon Neutrality goal. In particular, Rita re-imagined existing Fleet Management Information System (FMIS) tools to leverage an abundance of vehicle data, and helped incorporate a scientific multi-variable vehicle replacement decision-making protocol into the UCLA Fleet procurement process for the first time. Rita had to overcome imperfect data and antiquated systems and tackle a challenging campus car culture, while maintaining accurate documentation and making it possible for her colleagues to make environmentally and fiscally responsible purchases that capture life-cycle costs and benefits instead of just those incurred in the near term. It is this level of perseverance, innovation, and commitment to high quality work that will allow our organization to adapt to the rapidly changing world of fleet management and meet the UC Carbon Neutrality goal.
Judy Ponce
Assistant III
Events & Transportation
For at least the past decade, Transit Services has operated a charter bus, van, and sedan sales/service enterprise as a means of reducing the subsidy required from parking revenues for the BruinBus operation. As the university has grown, so has the demand for charter services, now resulting in nearly $200,000 in revenue monthly for BruinBus. This fiscal year, Judy Ponce, the primary point of contact for charter customers, implemented an on-line request and tracking system for charter trips, which has improved customer service and facilitated more timely updates on the status of scheduled trips. Judy demonstrated a great deal of creativity in working with colleagues from Events & Transportation IT to review options for user interfaces for the online tool and listening to customer input during the testing phase. Judy's efforts are essential in providing specialized charter service to more than 8,000 passengers monthly.
Jill Quezada
Space Inventory Manager
Facilities Management
Jill Quezada is an exceptional manager who has consistently raised the level of service and performance for herself and the space inventory team. Her actions, enthusiasm and leadership have improved customer service, operations, and productivity. In addition to her responsibilities for the space inventory, Jill is the Chair of UCLA’s Administrative Management Group (AMG), an organization for administrative management professionals sponsored by Campus Human Resources. Under Jill’s leadership, AMG created the annual UCLA AMG Leadership Conference; last year, more than 300 people attended the sold-out event. Jill’s commitment to making a positive contribution is also demonstrated by her work with the American Association of University Woman (AAUW). Jill is the Chairman of Public Policy for the East San Gabriel Valley Branch of AAUW and works actively on policy issues impacting women in the university workplace. Jill is making a positive impact in her job and goes beyond reaching out to the campus through AMG and the larger university community through AAUW.
Mary Raffety
Administrative Assistant III
Dining Services
Housing & Hospitality Services
This past year, Housing & Hospitality Services launched an important new pilot program called the Diabetes Prevention Program. Mary Raffety, a DPP facilitator, showed an exceptional dedication to excellence and service by volunteering to take on additional DPP classes when facilitators unexpectedly left the program. Mary also took on more responsibility, helping to plan sessions and leading facilitator preparation meetings. Mary often expresses her support for the DPP program and a willingness to do "whatever it takes" to make the program successful.
Ivan Rizov
Program Analyst III
Communication Technology Services
IT Services
Ivan Rizov consistently goes above and beyond expectations while providing excellent support in a constant and consistent fashion. When issues arise in the network, he will always be one of the first to step in and help, not waiting to be asked by other team members or management. As he lives closer to campus than the rest of the Network Services team members, Ivan has travelled to campus on nights and weekends while other Engineers are on-call so that services could be more quickly restored during outages, rather than waiting for other staff to commute in from further distances. Communications from Ivan on any of his projects, or incidents he is involved in are always of high quality with excellent detail and clarity. His peers often praise the level and quality of his work. Since coming to the Network Operations team 4 years ago he has been an invaluable team member and example of what makes the staff in NS/ITS special.
