After receiving hundreds of nominations from across North Texas, the Dallas Admin Awards has named four UT Southwestern employees as finalists for its 2019 program.

The Admin Awards recognizes exceptional administrative professionals in nine categories, by way of nominations from anyone who has encountered the great work of the administrative professional.

The winners will be announced at the eighth annual Dallas Admin Awards dinner gala Oct. 4 at the Fairmont Dallas hotel.

If you see one of these terrific colleagues in your travels through campus, join us in congratulating them on their nominations – and wish them luck!

 

Wendi Castillo

Administrative Associate, UTSW Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center at Fort Worth

Finalist for the Spirit Award, which celebrates admins who embody the “heartbeat” of their companies. The Spirit Award winner consistently conveys a positive, can-do outlook and is someone who – during good days and bad days – exudes optimism, enthusiasm, and positivity.

From her nominator:

Wendi Castillo is the rare individual who knows how to juggle the demands of multiple people while making each one feel that he or she is the only person she supports. In the multispecialty clinic in the heart of Fort Worth, Wendi is the only administrative assistant in the building. She also serves as the liaison between Fort Worth and Dallas for various tasks, and she does this all with aplomb.

Wendi realized that staff could easily feel fragmented into small groups and lose sight of the fact that we all worked together for a common goal, namely to provide the best possible health care to patients. With that in mind, she has also been devoted to nurturing the office culture, ensuring that the spirit of the clinic reflects our mission by trying to find ways to spark camaraderie and limit burnout.

She has worked with nursing supervisors and others to coordinate fun activities and recognition events; she was instrumental in a starting building-wide traditions such as a Thanksgiving potluck and a Christmastime “Winter Wonderland” celebration.

Wendi’s kindness and caring has contributed enormously to the spirit of our building. She reminds us on a daily basis that we are also worthy of care, and that reminder keeps us healthier and kinder, making it much easier to focus on the main job at hand: caring for the sick.

 

Paula Dunn

Education Coordinator, Nurse Residency Program Coordinator

Finalist for the Administrative Excellence in Public Service Award, which honors admins who serve the public or private sectors, including health care, nonprofits, government, education, military, law enforcement, fire and rescue organizations, or political leaders.

From her nominator:

Our entire program exists because of the profound ability of Paula to execute thousands of tasks through sheer brilliance, determination, and exhaustive labor. She not only has a clear picture of all administrative needs of the program but constantly anticipates every variable that could arise.

She not only provides every aspect of administrative support but is a leader of the program to all of the stakeholders involved. The nurse residents always go to Paula for guidance as she is the one source of all information related to the program. They also seek her out as a mentor and leader to help them with both professional as well as personal development. She exemplifies servant leadership in every way.

She supports the Nurse Residency Program and its Director, and manages UTSW’s Summer Externship Program, the Career Advancement and Transition Program, the Clinical Academic Alliance Program, and more. Each of these programs alone would normally be run by a single person, but her aptitude for structure and organization make her an administrative wizard.

Thanks partly to her critical support, UT Southwestern’s Nurse Residency Program received accreditation from the Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP) through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

 

Shelia Jernigan

Lead Administrative Associate, University Hospitals

Finalist for Loyalty Award, presented to the administrative professional who has a minimum of 20 years of effective service in the administrative profession and/or a minimum of 10 years of effective service to their existing company or executive in an administrative capacity.

From her nominator:

Shelia has been here for more than 19 years, and she uses her thorough knowledge of UTSW to solve problems and cut through confusion. She understands the complexities of this organization and knows whom to call to advance an initiative or answer a question.

She is calm and reassuring, and doesn’t do simply what she’s asked; she determines what else needs to happen to completely address a request, and she does it.

Her strong organizational skills relative to workflows, systems, and projects have been crucial to our ability to stay on target as we experience exponential growth. She understands how the upstream details can affect the downstream outcomes, and because she is willing to speak up when she spots a potential pitfall, she helps us understand where we could misstep.

She is an effective mentor to other new admins, as well as a curious and an intentional learner. While she knows this environment like the back of her hand, when new programs are put in place, she wants to understand how they work, who benefits, and how we can best support them.

 

Patty O’Shea

Administrative Coordinator, Ambulatory Services

Finalist for the Office Manager of the Year Award, which honors administrative professionals who effectively handle a wide range of administrative responsibilities in the workplace, ranging from administrative support to managing office facilities and everything in between.

From her nominator:

Patty is at the helm of every nameable administrative function and quite a few that are so obscure that only she knows how to navigate them. Patty is the glue that holds an entire suite of executives, admins, space, and multiple departments together.

Whatever the buck is and however fast it is moving, whatever its point of origin, it always, always stops at Patty. There is no task that is too large or too small for her attention; when we needed five rock-star admins added to the team in one year, Patty took start-to-finish responsibility for interviewing, hiring, and training them.

What makes Patty particularly special to all of us is that through it all, she never fails to recognize the contributions of others and gives so much of herself to everyone in the office that it feels like a second family. Patty exemplifies the heart of our organization and is everything we could ever want in an administrative professional.

 

Note: Nominator comments have been edited for brevity and clarity.