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Recognizing ASU’s Values Everyday (RAVE) Fall 2022 Nominees

The RAVE program is part of the college’s initiative to celebrate our core values by recognizing faculty and staff who have been caught demonstrating integrity, diversity and inclusion, significance, community, or commitment.

The faculty and staff listed below have been RAVEd about.

Alyssa Allen

Alyssa Allen

Core Values Observed: Community, Commitment

“Alyssa’s commitment to STEM outreach, enthusiasm, and organizational skills led to the largest CoSE Lab Night ever held. For the first time, this STEM outreach event included hands-on events from every department in the college. Her ability to network and promote the event in the San Angelo region resulted in attendance of approximately 120 students attended and over 250 people total. Kudos to Alyssa for her commitment to our broader ASU community.”

Nominator: Dr. William Kitch

Debra Blair

Debra Blair

Core Value Observed: Community

“Debby regularly organizes departmental events for the faculty. In October, she organized a faculty costume contest that was judged by the students. She also decorated our office door, which won the homecoming door decorating contest. She makes our departmental office an inviting place for students and faculty year round and definitely should be recognized for the sense of community that she builds.”

Nominator: Dr. Karl Havlak

Olivia Castro
Portrait of Stephanie Solis

Olivia Castro, Stephanie Solis, and Adrian Campos (Student Worker)

Core Value Observed: Commitment

“I forgot to coordinate a proctor for an exam in my Structural Analysis class while I was away at the Structural Stability Research Council Executive Committee Meetings. I realized on Sunday and began coordinating with the three nominees above to come up with a solution for Tuesday’s exam. Luckily, Adrian and Stephanie worked it out so that he could be present to proctor the exam, and Olivia helped by printing the exams and equation sheets to be given to the students. All three of them did not complain about my lack of timely preparation and worked the logistics out to make sure the exam was delivered without any issues. I felt very supported by their commitment to deliver the exam for my course and appreciate their willingness to help me. They could have easily said no or been unhappy to help, but rather they exhibited a positive attitude in working with me, and I feel lucky to have them as colleagues!”

Nominator: Dr. Anthony Battistini

“I am writing to highlight an incredible individual, Olivia Castro, for your RAVE program. I have been with ASU for five months spending the last 36 years working for the Air Force and being accustomed to knowing who to contact to get things done. Over my short time here at ASU, Ms. Castro has gone out of her way helping me schedule maintenance repairs, setting up my office, and putting me in contact with the right people to help me implement a highly visible state sponsored Security Operations Center. Even though Ms. Castro does not work in my department, she has consistently aided our team over the past 5 months. She exudes confidence and commitment in every task she has helped our team with. I can clearly see that she is an extremely valuable employee to your team and enjoy our daily conversations. Olivia always volunteers to help our team offering her expert knowledge of how things get done at ASU and checking back with us to make sure our service requests were taken care of. For these reasons and more, Olivia deserves to be honored by your program. I can always count on her to help us get things done!”

Nominator: Dr. Kurt Hoffmaster

Portrait of David Gravlee

David Gravlee

Core Value Observed: Community

“David went above and beyond his normal duties to help assist with the CoSE Stem Outreach Night including the Engineering Lab Night activities. Not only did he make sure the lab was in order for our visitors, but he also cared for our student, staff, and faculty volunteers by providing food and drinks. After the lab night event had completed, volunteers were invited to have some tacos and root beers in the yard behind the lab, all provided by David. This simple gesture created an awesome space for community within our department, allowing everyone a chance to talk with one another in an informal environment.”

Nominator: Dr. Anthony Battistini

Dr. Dennis Hall

Dr. Dennis Hall

Core Value Observed: Community

“Dennis has been the driving force behind getting the ASU Math Department to start manning a booth at the Ram Jam Tailgate parties. We had never done this before, but everyone involved in it always has a great time. It’s been a great way for the department to do community outreach not only to the ASU fans but also to other ASU departments as well.”

Nominator: Mario Barrientos

Dr. Karl Havlak

Dr. Karl Havlak

Core Values Observed: Integrity, Community

“We have dual credit partners who need ASU faculty to teach online dual credit courses. Some of these partners only need a course for one or two students. Karl has led his team to develop and deploy appropriate courses, while maintaining a workload that allows our faculty to interact with students at multiple campuses. This is doing the right thing, even if — and when — no one knows. That is integrity in action. This is also acting to meet relevant community needs, and unifying to strengthen institutional purpose.”

Nominator: Dr. Paul Swets

Trey Holik

Dr. Trey Holik

Core Value Observed: Community

“Dr. Holik is faculty advisor for the Society for Physics Students. SPS has an annual can drive around Thanksgiving, where faculty, staff, and students can bring canned goods and also compete in the can roll — combining competition, physics, and community support. This is a great example of an ongoing commitment to community: pulling people together to engage in purposeful teamwork, unifying to strengthen institutional purpose, and acting to meet relevant community needs.”

Nominator: Dr. Paul Swets

Wayne Humphrey

Core Value Observed: Significance

“Wayne has worked hard to keep our developmental mathematics program in compliance with state regulations, but he has gone above and beyond in his efforts to tailor the program in such a way to best address the needs of our students. He has modified MATH NONN by creating modules in an OER course management system, which saves the students and the university money, and the results were excellent. We saw more than a 50% success rate in MATH NONN this semester (up from below 20% in past semesters). He also ran a pilot T-section of MATH 1314 with restrictions on students who were allowed to enroll, and the results were very promising. These efforts are making a difference in students’ academic lives.”

Nominator: Dr. Karl Havlak

Codi Jaynes

Codi Jaynes

Core Value Observed: Commitment

“Codi has been involved in online dual credit since ASU offered its first classes. She has become the departmental expert on dual credit, mostly through a trial-by-fire process. Recently, she agreed to take on the role of Departmental Dual Credit Liaison and immediately went to work contacting our partners to introduce herself and ask if they needed any assistance.”

Nominator: Dr. Karl Havlak

Dr. Elizabeth Koeman-Shields

Dr. Elizabeth Koeman-Shields

Core Values Observed: Commitment, Integrity

“Liz is committed to updating the Geoscience program degree plan to minimize road blocks, update course content, and reduce degree plan substitutions. As a matter of fact, Liz is leading the way for Geoscience degree plan reform. Her integrity shows when advising students for registration, employment opportunities, or graduate programs.”

Nominator: Dr. Andy Wallace

Dr. Edith Osborne

Dr. Edith Osborne

Core Value Observed: Commitment

“Edith was ready to end her role as the faculty advisor for the Chemistry Club after having her child in the fall of 2019. However, taking into consideration the passing of Kevin (the co-advisor), Edith has stepped up and reaffirmed her commitment to those students participating in the Chemistry student organization. Her commitment to her students, both in the club and in lecture/lab, is admirable.”

Nominator: Dr. Kyle Beran

Jayna Phinney

Jayna Phinney

Core Value Observed: Integrity

“As instructional technology specialist for a large (seven departments) and diverse college, Jayna must wear a lot of hats and juggle a lot of different responsibilities. I don’t know what she does every day. I *do* know that she is doing the right thing, day in and day out: supporting our students, assisting our faculty, and enabling us to deliver the quality instruction and research for which Science and Engineering is well-known. We work together closely, and I find Jayna completely transparent in motive and action, and she takes responsibility for what she does (and doesn’t do). Science and Engineering would not be the college we are without the support of our staff, and Jayna Phinney provides ‘others-first’ support every week.”

Nominator: Dr. Paul Swets

Dr. Aldo Piñon-Villarreal

Dr. Aldo Piñón-Villarreal

Core Values Observed: Diversity and Inclusion, Significance, Community, Commitment

“Dr. Pinon has gone above and beyond in helping to plan and coordinate K-12 outreach. He has a true passion to reach our community and provide opportunities to the underrepresented youth in Tom Green County. He has shown commitment by leading the David L. Hirschfeld Department of Engineering’s student-led outreach group and writing a script to ensure tours of the Hunter Strain Engineering Lab are a fun and educational experience.”

Nominator: Alyssa Allen

Rigel Rilling

Rigel Rilling

Core Value Observed: Community

“Rigel has taken on the primary roll of providing chemical demonstrations to the local community, along with students from the Chemistry Club.”

Nominator: Dr. Kyle Beran

Stephanie Solis

Core Value Observed: Commitment

“In the busyness of the semester, I forgot to coordinate a proctor for an exam in my Structural Analysis class while I was away at the Structural Stability Research Council Executive Committee Meetings. I realized on Sunday and began coordinating with the three nominees above to come up with a solution for Tuesday’s exam. Luckily, Adrian and Stephanie worked it out so that he could be present to proctor the exam, and Olivia helped by printing the exams and equation sheets to be given to the students. All three of them did not complain about my lack of timely preparation and worked the logistics out to make sure the exam was delivered without any issues. I felt very supported by their commitment to deliver the exam for my course and appreciate their willingness to help me. They could have easily said no or been unhappy to help, but rather they exhibited a positive attitude in working with me and I feel lucky to have them as colleagues!”

Nominator: Dr. Anthony Battistini