Administrative Support
The Outstanding Employee awards are chosen by nominations received by the Awards Committee from all faculty, staff, and students at VIMS. They are awarded in the categories of Facilities/Safety/Trades, Research and Advisory Service, Technical Support, and Administrative Support.
The winner of the 2011 Outstanding Classified Employee for Administrative Support is Ms. Cindy Hornsby.
With this award, VIMS happily recognizes Cindy’s record of service for faculty, staff, and students in the Department of Physical Sciences. Cindy serves as the only secretarial support for the department as well as its purchasing agent. Cindy’s workload expanded significantly in response to financial cutbacks at the institute in 2009, when the department lost its executive secretary position.Among other duties, Cindy took over all departmental travel authorizations and began managing our seminar series, all without missing a beat. And she continues to enthusiastically expand her skill sets through additional formal training, including recent certification as a Virginia Contracting Associate. We especially appreciate her efforts this year, when she has been tasked with still more key responsibilities.
For example, Cindy recently helped organize an international Chapman Conference that was held in Southern California. Cindy arranged conference facilities and administered travel support for more than 60 meeting participants. Most recently, she has served as the administrative support for three simultaneous faculty searches. This included advertising the positions, handling more than 100 applicant files, and arranging travel, schedules, and logistics for 11 job candidates. If you had a hard time keeping up with attending all of the seminars and receptions, imagine how much work it was to organize so many of them! Despite the extra demands of these and other duties, Cindy continues to perform at a remarkably high level and always with an exceptionally cheerful outlook.
Congratulations, Cindy!