MATC Matters

Congratulations to all our Outstanding Employees and our Outstanding Team. Below are some excerpts from nominations for these award winners for anyone who missed these at Convocation. We are all proud to be associated with these college leaders!

Outstanding Employee of the Year: Lori McRoberts, Enrollment Center coordinator

Quiet competence best describes this nominee. She efficiently manages her own work, as well as being a role model for those that work with her. In the past year this nominee has taken on new responsibilities, helped in the PeopleSoft conversion, played a key role in her centers reorganization, and was invaluable in helping with the transition to new leadership.

Lori McRoberts is always willing to look at multiple perspectives. Respected by her peers in the enrollment center, Lori is a go-to-person for staff and management when there is a problem to be solved, a question to be answered, or new idea sought. In dealing with the many challenges of the Enrollment Center, she is highly valued by management as a team collaborator and problem solver.

Lori’s sense of humor is refreshing, and she often helps lighten the stress of the demanding, fast-paced Enrollment Center environment. Open and honest with her communications with team members, peers, and management, anyone dealing with Lori has a high degree of trust.

On teams, Lori strives to maintain a team approach to decision making, and is willing to ask the tough questions. Calm and steady, Lori works independently showing tremendous resourcefulness and problem solving abilities.

Lori is excellent at looking forward to see how everything will come together, while always looking out for the student and staff.

Outstanding Employee of the Year: Stephanie Dean, Enrollment Center coordinator

Over and over, commitment to students, her department, and to the college is demonstrated by this individual. A seasoned veteran, her expertise and knowledge continue to grow. She also played a critical role this past year in developing new improvement processes for admissions and the enrollment center.

Instrumental in the leadership transition in the Enrollment Center, Stephanie Dean stayed focused on the work to be done, and did what it took to keep the admissions processes rolling. Stephanie is often put in a position where she is asked to make tough and unpopular decisions. She has been able to balance the needs of all and make the right decisions. This ability to make the right decision vs. the easy decision has garnered her the respect of her peers and management.

Stephanie freely shares her knowledge in an understandable manner, has high work standards, is always looking for ways to improve service to students, and is first in line to set the pace and serve as a role model for a new way of doing things.

As a collaborative leader, Stephanie can be counted on to guide her department and college work teams to new levels of performance. Her honest and direct work style has captured the respect of those that work with her. She is not afraid to take on the work and will do what it takes to get the job done.

Stephanie shows great creativity, innovation, and open mindedness. A clear thinker who can create solutions to difficult problems, she is amazing to work with.

Outstanding Employee of the Year: Lori Sebranek

She is one of the shining stars at MATC, touching each and every project with a commitment to quality. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and has the students best interest in mind at all times. While extremely collaborative, this person quietly stands out as a leader in a group. She leads by example, displaying patience, understanding and respect.

In her role, Lori Sebranek is constantly facilitating projects between learning centers, departments and people at varying levels. She works well in supplying management with critical information needed for decision making. She was the critical driver and the project lead for the functional users of the Peoplesoft 8.9 upgrade. In the middle of the process when it appeared as though we were not going to get the enhancements needed for our students, Lori took a leadership role, challenged the process and helped facilitate new outcomes more geared at serving our students.

When faced with a problem to solve, not only will she bring forth her ideas, but she will already have done her research and development of tools to support her ideas. When questions or suggestions have been brought up to her, she doesn’t say why something can’t be done, but rather has a conversation about how it could be accomplished.

Lori’s talents and professionalism are both reasons why she has been a key player in moving MATC forward with technology to assist our students and staff. Her first question is always, “How does this impact the students?” She strives to have user friendly access for everyone using our systems. In short, Lori Sebranek continues each day to move MATC forward.

Outstanding Team of the Year: Women in IT Initiative
(Lori Kelley and Nina Milbauer, information technology instructors and Rocio Martinez, counselo

When faculty learned that the percentage of females in the Information Technology – Network Specialist program decreased from 40% to 15% over six years, and recognized this was also a national trend, they developed several initiatives to address the problems. These initiatives are:

• Women in Technology Support Group
• Women in IT Expo
• Women in IT Scholarships
• Girls Tech Summer Camp
• Outreach Activities

The Women in IT Initiative – Lori Kelley, Nina Milbauer, and Rocio Martinez developed a variety of scholarships to meet students’ needs targeting current female students and incoming female high school students. Outcomes of this initiative resulted in the largest scholarship in the MATC Foundation.

Another initiative of the Women in IT was the establishment of the Girls Tech Summer Camp, offering middle-school; aged girls the opportunity to participate in the hands-on activities led by professional women in technology careers. This was expanded to other programs in the Agriscience and Technology Center; including Architectural Technician, Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology.

The Women in IT initiative also developed a support group to offer a supportive environment for female students. The group offers timely, topical information sessions; provides guidance through mentors; and makes career networking opportunities available.