Bloomington Council Staff Spotlight

March 2025

Melissa Mundell

Department: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Nominated by: Jalyn Medley, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Nomination text: Melissa Mundell is longtime IU employee, with all of her service being in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. She has seemingly done it all, from typing exams as an Office Services Assistant, to managing payroll as a Financial Administration Coordinator, to her most recent role of handling complex contracts and grants as our department's Contracts and Grants Specialist.

She is someone who students, faculty, and staff alike can count on for support. Her vast institutional knowledge is incredibly helpful. Melissa is pursuing her degree while working in a field that requires a great deal of understanding procedures, compliance, and other challenging aspects. She excels both professionally and personally.

Melissa's ability to adapt is truly remarkable. She takes tasks in stride and many say how pleasant she is to work alongside. She never makes you feel like a burden, even if you have a ton of questions. She is patient and takes the time to help anyone who asks.

 

Christin Correll

Department: Finance Graduate Programs

Nominated by: Kylie Smith, Graduate Finance and Accounting Programs

Nomination text: Christin is exemplary at student experience. She works hard to ensure that our business and non-business students integrate well and become one cohesive cohort. She encourages the students to give back to the community through volunteer work, such as our recent holiday food drive.

She endeavors to make our women feel empowered through outings and a new graduate women in business club, because she recognizes that it's hard to be a woman in finance. She cares about our students' mental health as they go through our program, and is working to create a mental wellness series this spring.

All in all, she strives to give our students all the support they could ever want to get through a tough program successfully.

 

John Summerlot

Department: IU Emergency Management and Continuity

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: When John isn't responding to emergencies at IU as part of the IU Incident Management Team, he is often holding training and preparation workshops for students, staff, and faculty on a wide range of topics include active shooter preparedness, emergency preparedness, de-escalation, and more. John also sends out timely weather briefings and is a "go to" source for staff having to make decisions about campus events and offices. In addition, he teaches search and rescue courses at IU for students, community volunteers, and first responders. John is also active in veteran/military issues on campus and knows a lot of IU history.

Recently during the Read Hall fire, he was at Read Hall for many hours afterwards into the very early hours of the morning. He coordinated the students getting what they needed from their room after the fire, made sure they had a place to stay for the night, drove a few of them around campus, and even gave out his phone number to them if they ran into any issues or had questions.

 

October 2024

Alison Stake

Department: Undergraduate Education

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: As the Student Services Coordinator in Undergraduate Education, Alison is responsible for directly helping staff and students in several offices on a daily basis: Academic and Major Exploration Services, Career Exploration & Student Employment, Health Professions and Prelaw Advising, and Undergraduate Education Records. Her duties are too expansive to list! She is incredibly organized and manages the demands of her role with an unparalleled attention to detail, professionalism, and kindness. She is a beloved member of the team in Undergraduate Education.

 

Abigail Gschwend

Department: Kelley Direct

Nominated by: Kylie Smith, Graduate Accounting and Finance Programs

Nomination text: Abigail is tireless in her efforts to improve diversity in the Kelley Direct Online MBA Program and to provide amazing support and resources to KD students. She was instrumental in creating partnerships with FORTE and ROMBA, organizations that provide great resources and funding for female and LGBTQ+ MBA students. She's also presented at several conferences to share inclusive recruitment and retention ideas with other universities.

 

Carissa Bullman

Department: University Enrollment Services

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: Carissa is a wealth of knowledge and is an integral part of the UES Student Records team. She is very easy to work with and is a compassionate supervisor. She truly cares about our Student Records team, individually and collectively, and cares about the people in the offices with which ours intersects. The work she does for IU positively impacts so many areas across all 9 IU campuses. If Carissa doesn't know the answer, she will either find it or knows the right person to point one to in order to get the assistance needed. Her 20+ years of Registrar knowledge and dedication to a job well done is priceless and we couldn't ask for a better representative for UES Student Records than Carissa. I am so thankful for who she is and all she does.