NCHC Award for Administrative Excellence

Lisa Halmes
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

The NCHC is proud to present the 2023 Award for Administrative Excellence to Lisa Halmes. Lisa was nominated for this recognition by Dr. Chauna Craig, Director of the Cook Honors College.

In her nomination letter, Dr. Craig praised Lisa's consistent enthusiam, passion, and humility, sharing the following, "The former director once suggested to me that all I had to do was get out of Lisa’s way because “she could run her own company if she set her mind to it,” and after four years working with her, I have no doubt this is true. I am grateful that she set her mind to making our honors college an academic, residential, and emotional home for our students. Lisa is a humble person, known for starting sentences with “I’m just a secretary, but…” just before some smart, insightful observation or new idea follows. She is not ambitious for herself but for our students and our program, and Lisa regularly moves forward on initiatives before others even think of it."

Beyond her incredible drive and efficiency, Lisa acts as a tireless advocate for the students of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Dr Craig commented, "When administrative decisions impact us in ways Lisa perceives as harmful, such as relocating our residential living community, she is not afraid to speak out, though she is “just a secretary.” She has earned respect from all quarters for her genuine student-centeredness and, as a result, is repeatedly asked to serve on significant university-wide committees. The co-chairs of the University Strategic Planning Committee asked her to join and help train others in her highly effective student success practices, and the university president personally asked her to be on the search committee for a new provost, knowing that hire would be my direct report and trusting Lisa’s judgment and ability to speak to the honors college’s value and needs."

Dr Craig concluded her nomination with the following, "Lisa has served the honors college for 15 years under three directors, and she has held us together through every kind of crisis. She is resourceful, kind, positive, and one of the reasons I look forward to going to my own job every day. She is so much more than “just a secretary,” and I know that everyone on campus from the custodial staff to the students to the highest academic leaders recognizes her as a model student success professional and an amazing person who makes our whole campus better."

In gratitude for her service, Lisa is invited to attend the NCHC’s 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois this November to receive her award at the annual NCHC Awards Ceremony. NCHC sends its congratulations to Lisa and sincere thanks for her years of support for honors education and the students it serves.

Sabrina Granderson
Randolph-Macon College

Sabrina Granderson, Administrative Services Coordinator for the Honors Program at Randolph-Macon College, has been selected as the winner of the 2022 NCHC Award for Administrative Excellence. Granderson was nominated by April Marchetti, Director of the Randolph-Macon College Honors Program, for her commitment to honors education and the college in a time of major transition.

In her nomination, Marchetti spoke of Granderson’s “immense value to our program, her dedication to and passion for R-MC Honors, and her excellence as a true partner in our support of honors students at Randolph-Macon College.”

Granderson joined the Randolph-Macon Honors Program in 2017. Marchetti shared, “In the ensuing five years we’ve grown the program from less than 100 students and 5 or less graduating honors students per year, to approximately 370 engaged and excited students and a total of 41 honors graduates in 2022 - a record for our college! Sabrina was an integral part of the process, helping to establish record-keeping processes, assisting in budget management and ordering processes, helping with recruitment and retention efforts, and serving as liaison to the various offices on campus as we grew and improved our program.”

With sudden transition in honors leadership, Granderson again provided support to help honors thrive. “In her kind, caring, and non-judgmental way, Sabrina stepped in to help me find my way – by helping to identify small goals that we could accomplish together, by encouraging me to keep going when I felt overwhelmed, and by helping to keep the program productive and moving forward. She took charge of the dorm renovation and together we were able to create a beautiful space for our students to move into in September. Due in no small part to her efforts, we are moving forward, thriving, and having a successful recruiting year for the class of 2026. I am so thankful to have Sabrina on my team every day – she brings so much to our program, and she is very much deserving of this great honor.”

The NCHC is proud to present the 2022 Award for Administrative Excellence to Sabrina Granderson. She will receive recognition on NCHC’s website, and will also be invited to attend the NCHC’s 2022 Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas this November to receive her award at the annual Awards Ceremony.

Joan Kjeldsen
Salisbury University

Joan Kjeldsen of The Glenda Chatham & Robert G. Clarke Honors College at Salisbury University has been chosen as the winner of the 2021 NCHC Award for Administrative Excellence. Kjeldsen was nominated by a collection of current and former honors college faculty for her commitment to honors education at Salisbury University.

Affectionately known as “Ms. Joan” by those within the honors college, faculty spoke highly of Kjeldsen’s attentive efficiency, selfless humility, and motherly warmth—which always makes students feel valued and seen. “Honors students face many pressures in their day-to-day, and Joan takes time to listen to their stress while encouraging them to share their successes,” Salisbury University’s Dr. Stacia Kock shared of Kjeldsen. “She remembers their stories, will ask for new chapters, or will retell stories (anonymously) to future students as helpful advice.”

“Without her knowledge and expertise, hundreds of students and alumni would not have experienced an enhanced and engaged undergraduate education,” Northern Kentucky University’s James Buss recalled of his time working alongside Kjeldsen at Salisbury University. “While Joan might think she does things in secret, her giant heart and kind actions do not go unnoticed.

“The students trust her and respect her, turning to her for advice. We faculty rely on her; she is our problem-solver and friend,” Salisbury University’s Lauren Hill wrote in her nomination. “She works right by the front door of our [honors] house, and seeing her every day reminds us all of why we call our house a home.”

The NCHC is proud to present this award to Ms. Joan. She will receive recognition on NCHC’s website, and will also be invited to attend the NCHC’s 2021 Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla. this October, to receive her award at the annual Awards Ceremony.

Pamm Chastang-Howard
University of South Alabama

Pamm Chastang-Howard of the University of South Alabama Honors College has been chosen as the winner of the 2020 NCHC Award for Administrative Excellence. Chastang-Howard was nominated by a collection of the Honors College faculty for her commitment to honors education at University of South Alabama.

Affectionately known as “Ms. Pamm” by students, honors faculty spoke highly of Chastang-Howard’s professionalism, warmth, and a very special “zing” to the college—which always makes students feel valued and seen. Whether it be her ready supply of peppermints, her wonderful "Good morning" greeting each day, her proofreading prowess, or her swift backhand in ping-pong, Chastang-Howard's colleagues regard her as the face of the college, speaking with parents, meeting prospective students, and circulating at graduation events.

“Ms. Pamm is not only an invaluable resource to the Honors College, she is an anchor to the community,” USA Honors College Dean Kathy Cooke fondly shared of Chastang-Howard’s love of volleyball and ping pong, her expertise on movies and books—and even naming her a connoisseur of local cuisine. “She is as generous in sharing in these community experiences as she is in her professional duties. Beyond honors, she is an advocate for diversity and inclusion, taking the initiative for training with ability activism and SafeZone training.”

The NCHC is proud to present 2020’s award to Pamm Chastang-Howard. She will receive recognition on NCHC’s website, and will also be invited to attend NCHC’s 2020 Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas this November, to receive her award at the annual Awards Ceremony.

Lanita Addison
University of Central Arkansas

Miriam “Lanita” Addison of the University of Central Arkansas’ Norbert O. Schedler Honors College has been chosen as the winner of the 2019 NCHC Award for Administrative Excellence. Addison was nominated by Dr. Patricia Smith for her commitment to honors education at University of Central Arkansas.

“You can ask any single one of our students who the heart and the soul of the Schedler Honors College is, and the answer will always be Lanita,” Smith said. “I know how important it is for programs to have competent and friendly administrative professionals, and I have to say that we hit the jackpot when we hired her.”

“Lanita continues to exceed the expectations for the position she was hired to do. Lanita continues to successfully be able to balance requests from faculty, students, administrators, and other staff; and to and get a read for the level of importance, balancing which task needs to be accomplished first. Lanita has a tremendous work ethic and is always concerned with the quality of her work.” Smith added. “During our busiest time of year, Lanita will work tirelessly; staying late and skipping lunch in order for us to get quick responses to our worried student applicants. She stays late for student events without question and never expects anything in return.”

NCHC is proud to present 2019’s award to Lanita Addison. She will receive recognition on NCHC’s website, along with the other 2019 award nominees. Addison will also be invited to attend NCHC’s 2019 Annual Conference in New Orleans, La. this November, to receive her award at the annual Awards Ceremony.

Stacey Wanta
St. Norbert College

St. Norbert College has a small Honors Center with a huge heart. That heart is Stacey Wanta.

Stacey is the Director’s right and left hands, and the Honors students’ beloved and loving guide through the Honors Program, College, and often life. She somehow knows all of the 274 Honors students by name. Her mission it to make each of them feel known and special. Stacey is a strategic and innovative thinker who has—with the help of her team of Honors students—brought the Program into the present moment with active twitter and Instagram accounts, and a highly successful digital newsletter, “The Honors Pulse.” She is an event-planner, a travel agent, and a source of both tough-minded common sense and empathic support. She keeps the Director’s calendar, tracks the students’ GPAs, and reminds everyone in her orbit what needs to be done and when. Her responsibilities extend beyond the campus to the annual NCHC conference, where she attends sessions, helps the students navigate the experience, and records the highlights in video and photos. As if this weren’t enough, Stacey is the only administrative support for the St. Norbert College chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.

Stacey has also been integral in the development of our Honors Global Seminars in Greece, Spain, the Philippines, and Ireland. For the past four years she has traveled with the Director and a group of honors students to Spain as we study the coexistence of three cultures in Early Modern Spain. She is no mere chaperone or keeper of the itinerary; Stacey has become knowledgeable about Mudejar architecture, and about the Jewish and Christian perspectives on space and worship. She helps design the in-country explorations, and she’s a tactical expert, expertly negotiating the vagaries of public transportation in Spain. In addition to all this, she has stepped forward as the de facto “fixer” for study abroad seminars. When a student was pickpocketed in Spain, she facilitated an immediate wire transfer of money from the students’ parents in the US to save the trip. The next year, when a student’s connecting flight was delayed, Stacey literally forced the airline to hold the international flight while she personally escorted the student through security and to the gate.

This year, Stacey has been faced with a new challenge: the Director of the Honors Program is retiring after nine years of development, growth, and curricular changes. Stacey is now charged with facilitating the transition to new leadership, while continuing to oversee Honors Tutorials, communicate with the Registrar, attend meetings with the Faculty Honors Committee, the Residential Education and Housing staff, and Admissions. Most remarkably, Stacey carries this load with grace, good humor, an easy laugh, and true enthusiasm.

- Marcie Paul, St. Norbert College

NCHC is happy to announce Stacey Wanta as the recipient of the 2018 NCHC Award for Administrative Excellence! Stacey will be recognized and presented with her award during the NCHC Annual Conference set for November in Boston.

Coralee Young
Ball State University

"While Coralee Young may not feel flattered to be called "grease," she truly is the grease that keeps all the gears of the Honors College turning smoothly. In all facets of her work with the Honors College--with faculty, staff, and students--she goes far beyond simply meeting her duties. She is very typically the person who makes activities and ideas possible, and she does so with both competence and a warm collegiality that makes all of us happy and proud to work with her every day.

Coralee began working for Ball State in 1982, as office supervisor for Residence Halls Dining Service. In 1993, Coralee moved to the Career Center, where she worked for the next 17 1/2 years as office manager.

In May 2011, Coralee assumed her current position as secretary to the Dean of the Honors College. As such, her responsibilities include supervising the college's office assistant and student customer service staff, maintaining all of the college's financial records and accounts, and overseeing and managing a vast array of records for the college: student thesis proposals and permissions, student graduation applications, and more. She plans and coordinates all special events for the college. She assists Student Honors Council with activities and events. She informs all Honors College students each week about upcoming events. She assists faculty who intend to take students on both domestic and international field studies.

In all of her duties, Coralee is incredibly efficient and proactive. She anticipates our needs (both in our individual roles and our college needs) with uncanny timeliness. Typically when one of us has realized the need for a report or task, she has already analyzed the data and addressed the task. She conducts necessary research before planning meetings, so that we are all equipped to make our best decisions because of the advance work that she has carried out.

Coralee has provided the same high level of support and assistance to faculty. Our faculty values her advice and support in logistical planning. Coralee is proactive, thorough, and prompt in taking on travel arrangements, taking always-thoughtful steps to make the process as convenient as possible for students and instructor.

Just as important as what Coralee does is how she does it. She is patient with students, faculty, and sometimes staff who fail to follow through with tasks or who need to be told the same thing two or three times. She shows genuine interest in students' activities and successes, helping them overcome hurdles in their progress toward graduation. She attends Honors College banquets and other student celebrations that she isn't required or even expected to attend, but because she cares about the students. She brings out the best in all who work with her; she encourages and kindly mentors those under her supervision to be more reliable and responsible. She treats each person--whether visitor, student, faculty, or staff member--as an individual, not a task.

The devotion to serving and improving the lives of others is the same devotion that has made Coralee a valued colleague and friend to everyone in the Honors College over the past six years. The loss of Jim Ruebel this past year presented many difficult and unexpected challenges for us, but COralee's unwavering dedication to our mission significantly and positively impacted our unit's ability to persevere through these tough times.

All of us in the Honors College do our jobs better because of Coralee.

Dr. John Emert

Donna Andrews
University of Alabama-Birmingham

Mastery, wizardry, and a safecracker.

Usually words found in fictitious adventure novels lining honors libraries in programs all over the nation, but for Dr. William J. “Rusty” Rushton, those three words make up his experience working along his colleague—and friend—Donna Andrews.

For the past twenty years, Donna Andrews has worked within the University of Alabama at Birmingham Honors Program. As program manager, Rushton says Andrews plays an indispensable role in the well-being of the UHP. On the business side of things, Rushton emphasized how it’s a domain over which she exerts an ideal kind of mastery. “She has an uncanny ability to get the greater financial system outside our particular program to be its most helpfully provident,” Rushton says, “This she knows how to do not from computer wizardry, though she possesses an element of that too, but through her highly nuanced and continually cultivated people skills,” adding, “She’s like a safecracker only her skills are those of talk and laughter.”

Dr. Ada Long, former UAB honors director, says Andrews’ office is a haven for people who need anything. “Everything from computer repair to spirit repair, from an airline ticket to a shoulder to cry on,” Long shared, “Her presence is thus immensely reassuring to both faculty and students: whatever they need, they know she can help.”

Andrews’ influence spans past the walls of the honors program, as she was recently honored by UAB’s Early Medical School Acceptance Program. Out of three faculty members recognized at the ceremony, she was the only one not from a medical education background, but praised for her mentoring and advising to students who are.

Long also stressed how Andrews has always been able to serve as a bridge between the faculty and students. “She takes courses herself, sings in the gospel choir with many of the students, travels with them on field trips and to conferences,” Long said, “She manages to be an authority in the program without seeming like one.”

Rushton joked that from the distance of two doors down from her, he is reminded daily of the stream of students who come by to park themselves in her office. “A good number of such visits are characterized by frequent outbreaks of enviable laughter,” Rushton said, “But another good portion of them silently involve students disburdening themselves of personal struggles kept to themselves if not for the one venue, the one ear, that is Donna.”

“Donna is an invaluable personality for our students and indeed one of the essential structural pillars of the program,” Rushton added respectfully, “She is a great fun treasure to have as a colleague.”

Victoria Marshall Clegg
Greensboro College

Victoria joined the Honors staff in 2009. Victoria was happily ensconced in her retirement and enjoying life as an amazing visual artist. She had made the decision to retire in 2002 after she emerged from a grueling battle with breast cancer. Definitely the stars aligned when former director, Dr. John Woell approached her to think about becoming the first administrative assistant in a program that had outgrown its original scope. She brought to the task years of business experience with a strong background in business, marketing and communications.

One of her greatest assets was with experience in organizing logistics in order to facilitate the efforts of a faculty who rotated into and out of the program. Along the way, she began to demonstrate an uncanny insight into the emotional needs of smart, highly motivated students. We remark to one another that this has to come from maturity and a life rich with many experiences. She could teach us all something about the art of listening, for when she is with a faculty member or student she is present and engaged. This alone is invaluable in our program. Just this Saturday at “Acceptance Day” at Greensboro College I had numerous students coming into our program seek me out as the Director to tell me how excited they were to be working with Victoria. Her impact is truly immeasurable.

Having served as a faculty and committee member in the program since 1993, I can attest to the growth pains and rewards that have accompanied the Honors program over the past twenty years. No single factor has affected the entire program as quickly and systemically as did Victoria becoming the Honors administrative assistant, as well as attest to the profound affect Victoria has on faculty and students alike - - from managing all our records and files, correspondence, applications for conferences, classroom and lab reservations, keeping technology serviced and functioning, our Honors House kitchen stocked with nutritional snacks for all the times when going to the café or off campus is impossible, and the Honors House schedule always has adequate student staffing each night, so that we may remain open for students after hours. As director, I rely on her to request cash advances, book flights, enter grades, reserve hotel rooms, assist with recommendations, organize and plan all meetings for faculty as well as keep a calendar of events going for our students, and the list goes on and on.

Perhaps it’s better for the students and faculty to tell you what Victoria means to them. But, as the current director, and the senior Honors program faculty member, allow me to place Victoria’s greatest contribution in sharp relief. Honors programs at small, often church-affiliated, liberal arts schools are an act of faith on the part of several constituents. The college demonstrates faith that funds dedicated to a program for smarter students will produce dividends. An often overworked faculty gives its time - - most often for less than adequate compensation - - in order to work with brighter than average students in hopes of raising the college’s academic culture. Maybe the greatest gesture of faith comes from talented, ambitious students who do have other options, but choose to attend a less celebrated college in hopes of finding more personal attention and encouragement. At the George Center for Honors Studies, the answer to their hopes most often resides in the smile, encouraging words, and willing assistance of Victoria Marshall Clegg. Without question, when our students get the acceptance letter from grad school, it is to Victoria’s arms they run. She has lived, breathed, cheered and worried with them through their undergrad process and as they stand there in her arms, she gently whispers, "Go call your Mom and Dad, they are going to be so proud of you." Without her, the Honors program would not as readily fulfill its goals. She is truly irreplaceable.

Neill M. Clegg, Jr.
Director of The George Center for Honors Studies
Associate Professor of Music & Director of Woodwind Studies
Greensboro College