Lena Receives Distinguished Employee Award

 

It’s possible that Lena Sifuentes may not have been listening closely when Colleen Dutton began speaking. She was, afterall, sitting next to her 4-month-old grandson, Ian, at the Department’s Holiday party. And though she wondered why her husband and her sons were at the party, she said that it was not all that unusual for them to be there—one of her sons works just down the hall from her office and both her husband and her other son occasionally stop by to visit.

But, then Ms. Dutton announced that she was there to present the Distinguished Employee Award—and she heard her name.

“I couldn’t speak when I was standing up there,” Lena said, “But I wanted everyone to stand up because I haven’t worked with a group that’s been greater than this one and I feel like everyone deserves recognition.”

 

 

Lena has been with the Department of Computer Science since 2001. She was originally hired to provide accounting support to both CS faculty and the Center for High Performance Software Research (HiPerSoft), as well as to reconcile funds to the Banner System and process monthly reports to the faculty. She also trains and mentors staff when requested, teaching them how to process travel or other financial documents.

The eighteen letters that were submitted to nominate Lena commend not only her meticulous and reliable accounting work, but also her calm and polite demeanor and professionalism.

 

 

“Lena goes above and beyond her duties of reconciling transactions and maintains long-term planning projections that help me assess the status of my research funding and plan proposal writing over a year into the future,” said John Mellor-Crummey. “Because of her, the CS department accounting hums like a well-oiled machine.”

“CS today is known on campus as the department with the best post-award research manangement. I believe that Lena deserves a large part of the credit for that.” Moshe Vardi said, “[She} embodies staff excellence!”

 

“I enjoy working with all of the faculty, staff and students in the department,” she said. “This award means a lot to me because it comes from faculty, coworkers and students. That they put together all the work to nominate me is what makes this special.”

The Distinguished Employee Award is not given routinely, but is instead an honor, given to employees who perform above and beyond their job descriptions to the benefit of the Rice community. Peers, co-workers and supervisors may nominate fellow employees within their department or across campus to honor or recognize employees. Recipients receive a certificate, a silver Rice key chain, a gift from the university, an 8 x 10 portrait by the Rice photographer, their photo on the Human Resources web site designating them as a recipient of the award and an article recoginizing this accomplishment in the Rice News. Nominations for the Distinguished Employee Award, contact Colleen Dutton at 713-348-4755.

 

Rice News article

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