A cheerful buzz spilled into the hallway, making it easy to find the location for the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences’ Faculty Staff Awards program. In Hollywood, awards shows stretch across prime time; in healthcare, they’re shoehorned between the first and second cup of morning coffee. The early hour couldn’t dampen the excitement of the faculty, technologists, nurses, administrators, and programmatic and administrative staff used to being on the job before the sun is. On this morning, they filled the EUH second-floor auditorium to capacity, striping the room with exuberant rows of pink, teal, grey, white, and black. 

Deb Smith, MBA, director of the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences’ Office of Strategic Integration kicked off the third annual combined Faculty and Staff Awards program with a warm welcome and recognition for her awards committee co-chair, Dr. Amit Saindane. Together, they introduced Dr. Courtney Moreno and Willie Arnold, incoming co-chairs for 2017.

Dr. Carolyn Meltzer, department chair, and Dr. Chuck Powell, the department’s vice chair and executive administrator, also offered words of welcome. 

“You bring grace, determination, and skill to your work,” Chuck Powell said. “There’s no better part of my job than to get a call from a patient or family member grateful for one of our team members going above and beyond.”

The award winning then got underway. Dr. Christopher Ho briefly recognized the Faculty Teaching Awards which were given out at the resident graduation celebration in June (see Farewell to Residents and Fellows).

The next honorees were those Caught in the Act of Service Excellence during the past year The “Caught in the Act” program recognizes noticeable acts of service excellence for which an individual or a team goes out of their way to exceed the expectations of a customer (internal or external). The following six employees and one team were recognized for going above and beyond in support of service excellence: 

For the main awards, each member of a committee of ten staff for staff awards and ten faculty for faculty awards scored the nomination letters in each award category against specific criteria. The scores were averaged to create a composite score for each nominee; the highest score secured the award. In cases of a tie, both top-scoring nominees received the award.

The following are the nominees and awardees (in bold) for the faculty and staff awards:

The following are the nominees and awardees (in bold) for the faculty and staff awards:

Outstanding Service Junior (Faculty):

Gayatri Joshi                                                  Sarah Milla

Janice Newsome                                             Aarti Sekhar

Kush Singh

Outstanding Service Senior (Faculty):

James Galt

Outstanding Care Provider (Staff):

Higewongel Derseh                                  Erin O’Connell

Ann West                                                        Marianne Wheeler

Outstanding Mentor (Staff)

Bertukin Kedir                                                     Adam Walston

Outstanding Mentor (Faculty)

Elizabeth Krupinski                                          Pardeep Mittal

Aarti Sekhar

Outstanding Leader (Staff)

Debra Carter                                                     Brian Malcolm

Robin Sark

Rising Star (Faculty)

C. Matthew Hawkins

Marina Piccinelli

Face of Excellence (Staff)

Lynn Cooper                                                   Carol Dowdle

Rebecca Neill                                                  Pratik Rachh

Outstanding Patient Care Junior (Faculty)

Charles Gilliland

Matthew Zygmont

Outstanding Patient Care Senior (Faculty)

Omari Johnson

Kelley Marshall

Outstanding Service in Support of Mission (Staff) - TIE

Michael Buadoo                                             Camille Dingle

Harold Glenn, Jr.                                                          Lonnie Gorby

Outstanding Researcher (Junior)

Falgun Chokshi                                            Tarek Hanna

Deqiang Qiu

Outstanding Researcher (Senior)

Mark Goodman

John Oshinski

Outstanding Team (Faculty/Staff) - TIE

Advanced Practice Providers at ESJH

Breast Imaging Center Team at EJCH

Breast Imaging Center Team at EUHM

Breast Imaging Center Team at Winship Cancer Institute

CT Technologists at MOT 8^th Floor (EUHM)

Decision Support Team

MRI Team at EUH

Radiology Nursing Team at EUH

Technologists at MOT 8^th Floor (EUHM)

Weekend Diagnostic Radiology Team at EUHM

Congratulations to all nominees and winners!