Bloomington Council Staff Spotlight

Ben Agan

Department: Office of Scholarships

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: I am pleased to nominate Ben Agan for his outstanding qualities and contributions he has made to Indiana University. Ben is an exceptionally hard-working individual who consistently goes above and beyond in his duties. His genuine care for his work is evident in the meticulous attention to detail he applies to every task.

Ben's dedication to incoming students is unparalleled; he is always striving for excellence and continuously seeks ways to improve and innovate. Moreover, Ben possesses a profound understanding of the deeper meaning of what a high education means and is always happy to share that with incoming students and current students. He recognizes that education is not merely about acquiring knowledge but also about fostering personal growth and contributing positively to society.

Ben's commitment to these values makes him a role model to all scholars on IU campus. his resilience, perseverance, and leadership potential further highlight his suitability for a Bloomington Staff Spotlight nomination. Ben's positive impact on IU campus is undeniable, and his qualities make him an invaluable asset deserving of recognition.

Stephanie Odaffer

Department: Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI)

Nominated by: Abby Henkel Roman, ERI

Nomination text: Stephanie is the finance manager for the Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI). She's one of those people who works quietly behind the scenes but has an enormous impact on our team and the success of our work! She's been at IU for over a decade but joined ERI about three years ago. Instantly I could tell she would be a joy to work with while possessing a thorough knowledge of everything to do with finance and administration at IU.

Stephanie manages to be responsive, efficient, thorough, and friendly at all times, even amid the frenetic pace of work at a busy research institute and in a stressful field like climate change! She's not my supervisor, but I can see how excellent she is at it, and her supervisees have nothing but praise for her. She always speaks up for what's right, even when it's hard. Stephanie deserves a shoutout for keeping steady as she keeps our team on track.

Marlys Barr

Department: Proposal Development Services (PDS)

Nominated by: Melanie Keller, PDS

Nomination text: Marlys has truly enviable organizational skills. Her spreadsheets are things of beauty and should be displayed in museums. She has worked tirelessly for more than three months to help submit a proposal that will benefit IU and humankind for years to come. She keeps a very large team of people on task, organized document submission across multiple institutions, attended multiple meetings each week and did it with ease. Not every team has a Marlys, but every team should! Her colleagues at PDS are grateful to have her on OUR team!

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.

Joanna Snyder

Department: Office of International Services

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: Joanna Snyder at OIS is invaluable to departments and scholars with her expertise in employment visas. Somehow she is always able to respond to complicated questions very quickly, with a plethora of information and considerations. Numerous times in my career while working with her I have paused to think "How would we possibly get through this without Joanna!?" She is kind, helpful, unbelievably knowledgeable and truly compassionate to departments' and scholars' needs.

Andy Bruce

Department: Customer Service, Office of the University Controller

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: Andy is a member of the UCO Customer Service team. This team supports pretty much every audience you can think of that might interact with IU. From payroll questions, to helping international students submit required tax paperwork, to directing anyone who calls or emails and just doesn't know where to start, this team does it all. Andy has always been an exceptional team member. He goes above and beyond to make sure he helps everyone he can, and researches answers when he doesn't already know them to make sure the student, faculty, or staff member gets what they need. He's friendly, professional, and a great person to work with. We're lucky to have him and thankful for all he does to support IU!

Sara Tharp

Department: Jellison Living Learning Center (JLLC), Kelley School of Business

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: Since starting at the JLLC, Sara Tharp has been exceptional. Not only performing her job to the best of her ability, but what makes Sara special is her ability guide students, provide counsel, and be a constant backbone to our community. The opportunities our students get, and the daily functioning of this unit could not happen without her diligence. We are grateful for her and all she does to make the JLLC a true community. Thank you, Sara!

Zac Auterson

Department: University Information Technology Services (UITS)

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: Zac is excellent at his job: He is efficient and knowledgeable. He works to understand problems and then solve them. If the solution does not arrive immediately, Zac follows up in a timely fashion to resolve any outstanding issues. Given how much we rely on basic office technology to do literally anything, there is no way we could get by without Zac supporting us.

More importantly, however, Zac is kind and patient. The challenges of working in IT are canonical, and I'm sure Zac sees his share of problems that could be easily resolved if we all knew just a little bit more. (I'm equally sure Zac has forgotten more about IT in the last week than I have ever known....) No matter the issue I have had, however, Zac has taken it on with a laugh. It's always a pleasure to have him visit your office -- which is saying something, given that he often is coming to fix some frustrating problem. So beyond the fact that we need him, he makes both his job look easy and the office space feel a bit lighter, easier, and more productive.

Thank you for your hard work, Zac.

Krystie Herndon

Department: Academic Advising, College of Arts & Sciences

Nominated by: Angus Burke, Financial Training & Communications

Nomination text: Krystie is a tireless advocate for the students she works with as an academic advisor, and does amazing work as a colleague to her assigned departments. Her commitment to her students led her to pursue a Ed.D. part-time while working full-time as an advisor, excelling at both her studies and in her role as an advisor. Whether it's students, faculty, fellow advisors, or staff, Krystie builds a special connection with people, makes them feel valued, and has a genuine interest in them as human beings.

Wendi Tai (pictured right) and Heather Rathbun (pictured left)

Department: Kelley Undergraduate Advising

Nominated by: Kelley Academic Senior Advisors on behalf of the whole advising team

Nomination text: Wendi and Heather oversee the Kelley Undergraduate Academic Advising Department. Their leadership is unmatched. It is thoughtful, calm, caring, organized, inclusive, and results in a harmonious and productive team. We could not be more grateful for their overwhelmingly positive influence and direction in our office.

Katherine Devich

Department:O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs

Nominated by: Juliet Roberts, Financial Training & Communication

Nomination text: Katherine is the glue that holds SPEA together. She provides exceptional care to all students, including international students who rely on her for patient, friendly, and dependable support. Katherine’s role involves frequent communication with students to guide them through IU processes. I’ve seen her messages while troubleshooting with her, and it’s clear she maintains a professional yet warm tone, taking student concerns seriously. For instance, she once picked up a student from the airport to ensure they reached their next destinations safely, whether it was an on-campus event or lodging.

She often works directly with visiting international students, and she always handles them with the utmost empathy and care. She is keenly aware of the potential stressors an international visitor might experience and she does everything in her power to mitigate that stress. I’m confident that her direct involvement with these visiting scholars greatly improved each student’s impression of IU and experience here on campus.

My team, the Financial Training team within IU Finance, has had the pleasure of working with Katherine as a student in our training programs. She consistently offers valuable feedback that helps improve our offerings. Katherine even volunteered for a pilot program for a new IU payment method we ran this fall, providing insightful, actionable advice we could trust. When she identifies potential issues with our systems or resources, she reports them thoughtfully, always with the IU community’s best interests in mind.

Additionally, she volunteers for various local non-profit events, often encouraging colleagues to join, which highlights her team spirit and kindness. Her attention to detail and drive for knowledge are evident in her work. She processes student business expenses meticulously, creating clear audit trails and asking questions when necessary. She always attends our Office Hours and brings great questions and advice to share with other attendees. These reflections of Katherine summarize why she makes an exemplary member of the IU community.

Michelle Bartley-Taylor

Department: IU Center of Excellence for Women & Technology

Nominated by: Jeannette Lehr, IU Center of Excellence for Women & Technology

Nomination text: As Director of the IU Center of Excellence for Women & Technology, Michelle is a true champion for women at Indiana University, demonstrating a remarkable blend of passion, expertise, and empathy. Her deep knowledge of gender equity issues in the tech industry, along with her commitment to advancing IU’s role in addressing these challenges, is truly inspiring. She is deeply invested in the success of our students and is a powerful advocate for their growth and development.

Beyond her commitment to our students, Michelle prioritizes the professional growth and well-being of her staff. She has implemented performance reviews designed not only to track progress toward the Center’s goals but also to ensure that all team members feel valued, heard, and supported. Michelle’s regular outreach to staff highlights her genuine concern for job satisfaction, fostering an environment where both performance and fulfillment are paramount. Her leadership embodies two essential qualities: a relentless drive to advance the mission of the Center and a profound care for her team.

Michelle continually seeks innovative ways to further our objectives while also celebrating team milestones and encouraging camaraderie among staff. Her efforts to enhance our connections, both within the Center and across the broader IU community, reflect her commitment to inclusivity and support. I believe it is crucial to recognize and honor leadership that prioritizes both the mission of the university and the well-being of its staff. Michelle exemplifies the type of leadership that we should aspire to cultivate in our work environments and her staff and community appreciates her very much!

Fruzsi Szabo

Department: KISI - Kelley Institute of Social Impact

Nominated by: Alex Martens, Kelley School of Business

Nomination text: Fruzsi was recently promoted to Assistant Director within the KISI office at the Kelley School. She always goes above and beyond in helping fellow staff, and students. Recently, she led KISI's Social Impact Fair which led to dozens of students attending to learn about issues we face, and how our student groups are helping fix the problem. She's extremely kind, and is always a great help!

Tara Holbrook

Department: Luddy Informatics

Nominated by: Ann McCranie, Isray Institute

Nomination text: Tara wears many hats, both as a Program Manager for an NSF AccelNet-MultiNet project in which she has handled the many logistics for about 50 long-stay international exchanges of graduate students and early career around the world. Many Fellows come from or come to IU for their visit, but most don't, so she has had to navigate all kinds of challenges with visas, funding, travel, and programmatic issues since 2019. Tara is very patient, detail-oriented, and reliable in this work and keeps all the rest of the project team in line and organized. We could not do it without her. She also is the primary administrative support for a group of informatics faculty associated with the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research and is the "nerve center" for those faculty. Tara has been with IU for over 15 years now, and chances are, if she doesn't know the answer to something, she knows who will have the answer. She's a great team player.

Amanda Lueck

Department: Academic Advising, College of Arts & Sciences

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: As an academic advisor, Amanda is a caring and determined advocate for students. She works diligently to make sure that her advisees receive the most useful information, understand the variety of options they have, and are connected to resources across campus that will improve their experience in Bloomington, academic and otherwise. She supports her colleagues unfailingly, collaborating generously and communicating well. She always answers questions helpfully and excels at sharing her deep knowledge of academic policy. Her knowledge helps the advisors around her succeed in their jobs while her kind and humorous presence in the office brightens their days. Bloomington is a better place to work because of Amanda.

Missy Deckard

Department: Borns Jewish Studies Program

Nominated by: Anonymous

Nomination text: Missy has been with the program for close to 40 years. She has done it all and seen it all. Currently with staff adjustments she is tackling the responsibilities of two positions. She does it cheerfully and with aplomb. I appreciate her deep knowledge of the program and guidance.