Three honored for service at All Staff Council Conference

Annual awards include $1,000 prize

By Cynthia Pasquale

Photo by Cynthia Pasquale

Cary Ihme and Dan Wilkerson

Photo by Cynthia Pasquale

Mary Lou Kartis, center, with her supervisor, Terry Schwartz, and presenter Brian Burnett.

Photo by Cynthia Pasquale

Frannie Ray-Earle and Chancellor Philip DiStefano.

Three University of Colorado staff members were honored with Service Excellence Awards at the All Staff Council Conference on Friday, April 15.

Receiving awards were Cary Ihme, paralegal with University Counsel-Litigation; Mary Lou Kartis, assistant to the dean of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs School of Public Affairs; and Frances Ray-Earle, center coordinator for the department of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The Service Excellence Awards are given out annually to one employee from each campus and system administration who has performed exemplary service for his or her home campus, the community and the university. Nominations were not received from the Denver campus this year.

Each of the award-winners received a plaque and $1,000.

Ihme was presented the award by Dan Wilkerson, university counsel, vice president and secretary of the Board of Regents. He said Ihme not only performs her own job well, but helps in other departments, including at the Colorado Springs campus. In Central City, where she lives, she worked to develop a mentoring program in Gilpin County Schools to help freshman understand what they need to do to be college-ready. As a member of the Central City Elks Lodge, she is active in numerous programs including acting as a mentor to junior Elks who range in age from 12 to 18. She also is a committee member for the "Tan Your Hide" program, which encourages hunters to donate elk or deer hides to the Elks Lodge. The hides are processed, tanned and made into gloves for disabled veterans who use wheelchairs.

"Today what we're doing is honoring the champions of service, and there's no better champion – no better example, in our opinion – than the staff service of Mary Lou Kartis," said Brian Burnett, vice chancellor for administration and finance at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

"As assistant to the dean, it's Mary Lou's job to keep track of the dean and we all know how hard keeping track of the dean is," said Burnett, who presented the award to Kartis. She also recruits, advises and helps with the retention of students; serves as personnel manager; and manages the school's fiscal resources.

She also has served on numerous campus committees, and was a member of the University of Colorado Staff Council from 2007-2010.  She is active in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life program and serves as a Neighborhood Watch coordinator.

As coordinator for the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2), Ray-Earle "essentially runs the program," said her nominator and supervisor, Professor Alan W. Weimer. Along with development work and program organization, she spends much of her time and effort on the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, which recruits students to spend a summer at C2B2's partner institutions: CU, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

She serves on the board of Voices for Children, a nonprofit that trains court-appointed special advocates for juveniles who are in the court system. She also serves as a liaison for Kappa Alpha Theta, which has Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) as a national cause.

"It is my honor to congratulate such a high-caliber CU-Boulder employee," said Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano, who presented the award.