[Natalie’s] independent, self-driven leadership ensured that our team’s needs were met without delay… Her ability to rally a team under pressure, combined with her practical technical know-how and impeccable communication skills, make her an exemplary model of dedication and service to the University.
[Natalie’s] mentorship was described as “transformational,” helping colleagues find purpose, confidence, and belonging. She didn’t just welcome new hires— she invested in them, curated experiences, and shaped careers.
Not least among Martine’s excellent leadership this year has been her ability to maintain morale among her staff. Martine somehow has found the time to use active listening and other personalized approaches to support her people so that they can continue to do their jobs.
Martine still somehow found time to come up with innovative solutions to improve routine day-to-day operations. She also maintains her own caseload of international student advisees. In other words, she is maintaining forward progress, not just moving from crisis to crisis (which would be completely reasonable under the circumstances).
Location: Facilities Services
[Jeanie] is continuously engaged in training system users and supporting them as questions arise, and she is known as to go to for assistance when an issue emerges. Employees know that even if she can’t solve their issue she won’t stop until she finds someone who can.
Jeanie goes out of her way to try to connect not only professionally but also personally with the individuals she works with to foster an open line of communication and create a positive working relationship
[Nathan] manages the lab’s operations by facilitating research, instruction, immersion opportunities, and external partnerships around social media listening and analytics. He also provides thought leadership for social media data collection and strategy development for academic and professional communities.
[Nathan’s] ability to inspire and mentor students, empower faculty research, and elevate the College’s reputation is truly exceptional. Nathan’s expertise in social media analytics, combined with his unwavering commitment to supporting both research and teaching communities, makes him indispensable to our College.
[Hallie’s] ability to assimilate information, communicate appropriately, build consensus and move our department forward in a positive way is noticed by everyone that has the pleasure of working with her. She is very often sought out by other departments, University of Florida Physicians (UFP) and our other hospitals for her expertise and guidance.
Not only is [Hallie’s] foresight incredibly intuitive, but she always jumps in to address any issues that arise. As her direct supervisor, if I mention that we will have a new initiative, or something that needs to strategically be figured out, she moves needs from theory to operational excellence efficiently with as little disruption as possible.
What distinguishes Leslie most is her ability to thrive in the face of uncertainty and stress. She has successfully led and supervised several major operational units—Health Compliance, Finance and Accounting, Coding and Billing, IT, and HR—while simultaneously taking on unexpected and time-sensitive challenges outlined above.
Leslie played a central role in managing a major internal restructuring. When all Human Resources (HR) responsibilities transitioned from the Department of Community Health and Family Medicine to SHCC, Leslie seamlessly absorbed the full scope of HR duties—supporting approximately 170 employees—in addition to her existing leadership roles.
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Perhaps most remarkably, Susannah has demonstrated exceptional resilience. Even while coping with the profound personal loss of her mother in Spring 2025, she has continued to perform her duties with grace, professionalism, and unwavering dedication. Her work ethic, positivity, and drive serve as an inspiration to us all.
[Susannah’s] reliability, proactive mindset, and unwavering support for her colleagues make her an ideal team member and a cornerstone of our center’s collaborative environment. Susannah exemplifies what it means to lead by example, and her daily actions reflect a level of dedication that far exceeds expectations.
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Melissa Macarages has made a measurable and lasting impact in just her first year at UF through her leadership in complex system implementation, her advancement of key academic processes, and her exceptional ability to connect with and elevate others across the institution.
Melissa immersed herself in the work immediately, learning configuration tools, testing scenarios, and policy logic in real time. She became a central, steadying presence in
a high-stakes, fast-paced project, often guiding both internal stakeholders and vendor teams toward solutions that protect academic accuracy and enhance the student experience.
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What [Connie] did is so far above the expectations of her job, it is difficult to quantify. What I can quantify is that the Dairy was $500K in arrears in accounts payable in 2023 and now the Dairy is operating strongly in the black with Connie’s helpful tool.
Ms. Pryyma’s ability to help us achieve our educational goal through troubleshooting and identifying areas that could be addressed as “low hanging fruit”, such as developing strategies to track purchase approval requests, making sure orders were placed, and confirming reconciliations of those purchases. Having an efficient process for ordering was very helpful for our faculty who make frequent purchases for their teaching in our clinical program.
Because of Ms. Pryyma’s ability to quickly learn the financial landscape of the department and college, our department chair is able to discuss strategic plans to maintain fiscal health with her and talk through different scenarios. This type of collaboration goes above and beyond simple oversight.
This year St. Pete faced numerous natural disasters and Christina stepped up and handled all tasks during this crisis. In addition, she took over as manager on a temporary basis due to the previous manager’s unexpected departure on extremely short notice. She was able to handle manager duties and step in.
Christina took the initiative to partner with the IT team and local campus SPC team to develop a dedicated hurricane response plan. She also worked to establish a backup WI_FI system that ensures clinic connectivity in emergency situations when the main network may be nonfunctional.
Monica has worked tirelessly to build a fully staffed team for 3 different areas, Floor team, Roving Team, HSC Team. Also, within the year she has filled long-vacant leadership positions that were critical to operational success that were sitting for years in vacant mode.
Ms. Monica is hands on, approachable, and deeply committed to her team. When we’re short-staffed, she doesn’t hesitate to roll up her sleeves, dress down, and jump in wherever help is needed. Her leadership is never about “I“ it’s always about “Us.”
Mrs. Sanchez demonstrates a remarkable willingness to “step-up” and adapt to assist leadership, colleagues and others in managing evolving, and sometimes challenging, circumstances that have greatly benefited the MBI and UF.
Mrs. Sanchez possesses exactly the type of character that every manager wishes for in each andevery team member. Mrs. Sanchez is simply determined to excel wherever she is needed.
Location: Health Affairs
Ish’s deep commitment to understanding complex challenges—such as his proactive research during the EQUIL2 project, where he independently sought out original algorithm references and consulted with medical experts—demonstrates his drive for excellence and precision.
Ish’s responsiveness, patience, and dedication to creating user-friendly, compliant, and reliable applications make him an invaluable partner whose contributions extend well beyond his formal role.
[Nick] was charged with building a new team that would do the following: Analytics/Reporting: This new team has created dashboards, scheduled reports, and self-service data tools. Process Improvement: The team provides analysis on existing processes for streamlining and automation opportunities. Nick has led the team to establish ways to integrate new processes with existing ones.
[Nick] is the person that you can ask — “Can we do this XXX?” and, typically his answer will be — “I think so, let me see what I can do, and I will follow up”. I haven’t seen him fail, nor give up on finding a solution when presented with a problem/proposal/issue.
Mandi’s work ethic is relentless; she adeptly juggles multiple projects without sacrificing the attention each demands. Mandi interfaces well with everyone she works with including college administrators, trainees, staff, faculty and even the contractors who are remodeling our space.
[Mandi] has an innate ability to see the ‘big picture’ and address critical needs of the department. This includes restructuring workflows and assignments for our staff to increase efficiency while at the same time making their workloads more manageable. Mandi has done an outstanding job with our staff to build a cohesive team and improve morale.
With her intensity and passion, [Kayla] has become a bespoken and utterly critical
powerhouse in our office, furthering her teams, advancing pivotal grants, and raising morale with her combination of attention to detail and promoting her staff.
Kayla is often the point person on major projects because of her ability to positively and constructively organize clients. Sometimes, clients can be vague in their vision, and Kayla has adept skills in organizing the process while also scaffolding the client to identify needs and benchmarks better.
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While acting as Assistant to the Dean, Mirela had served with exceptional diligence, while simultaneously managing a wide array of strategic, operational, and academic responsibilities. |
| Mirela’s contributions have yielded measurable improvements across the college: a 30% reduction in evaluation processing time, a 25 % increase in faculty engagement with shared governance meetings, organized and managed the Elevate 2029 strategic plan kick-off, coordinated three major college and Health Science Center wide events and the implementation of technology solutions that modernize scheduling and training. |
| Known for her positivity, reliability, and exceptional service orientation, Ivy is the “go-to” person across UF Health for solving problems and connecting people. She embodies the University’s values of collaboration, compassion, and excellence in every task she undertakes. |
| While juggling her demanding day-to-day responsibilities, [Ivy] also provides extensive support to many of us across the organization to include UF leadership, Practice Managers, Clinical Operations Managers, the Patient Access Center, and many others. She truly embodies the definition of “Superior” and we are fortunate to work alongside her. |
| Rebecca’s expertise was crucial in re-calibrating our flow of funds and distributions for the hard work our coordinator team is delivering. Her initiatives have yielded improved data quality, increased funding, and a more engaged, collaborative workforce. |
| [Rebecca] has worked tirelessly to improve the team culture and provide clear, consistent expectations for the team. She has also strengthened collaborations with Emergency Medicine, labs, imaging, finance, and compliance, improving accuracy in investigational product accountability, sample chain-of-custody, and coverage analysis. |
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| [Ricky’s] leadership during our department’s move to Malachowsky Hall was a prime example of his ability to manage logistics while keeping people at the center of the process. His continued knowledge and oversight of the department space allocations for 200+ employees is also representative of his ability to remain organized for the benefit of the department as a whole. |
Benice Ylagan has consistently exceeded expectations for her role as Recruitment and Retention Manager by expanding the scope and impact of her position far beyond the original job description. While her primary responsibilities center on managing recruitment and retention processes, Benice has transformed these functions into strategic initiatives that have strengthened the entire department.
[Benice’s] commitment to community and culture-building, through events such as graduations, retirements, and the department’s first football tailgate, goes well beyond administrative expectations. Benice’s professionalism, creativity, and empathy have elevated morale, efficiency, and collaboration within the department.
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Joe constantly surpasses all expectations in this role. He not only supports faculty, but assists clinic managers, staff and nurses with their workflows. He develops customized training sessions for new providers that not only give them hands on help in learning the system but also improves their efficiency from day one. |
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| Kevin has created an environment and tradition where all new employees spend time with other new employees on their first day and have an opportunity to build close connections despite where they may be physically working on campus. Kevin’s good work has drastically improved our new employee’s experience. |
| Because of Kevin, the vendor was able to project that their own operations and maintenance costs over the life of a lease would be less than they anticipated, and these savings were able to be passed onto us. This is a direct example of Kevin’s leadership and dedication positively contributing not only to our organizational culture, but also to our bottom line. |
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| [Nia] takes on leadership duties by helping her area supervisor train new employees, and she creates an environment where team members feel welcomed, valued and loved. She is always willing to assist her colleagues, share knowledge to help them succeed and she make sure she tells them how great they are doing in their job duties. |
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| Brittney has consistently exemplified sustained excellence through her exceptional organizational skills, proactive mindset, and unwavering commitment to the success of our research program. With multiple ongoing projects that involve labor- and time-intensive methods, [Brittney’s] ability to streamline processes and enhance efficiency has been critical in meeting project deliverables and maintaining high-quality research standards. |
| Ms. Stokes exemplifies the “work smarter, not harder” philosophy. She continuously evaluates and improves OGME processes, leveraging technology and innovation to enhance efficiency. |
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| Luiz’s contributions have had a measurable impact on the Center’s operations, research visibility, and outreach strategies. His work ethic, integrity , and collaborative spirit make him a role model and a trusted colleague. |
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| Christina Mason’s professionalism, leadership, and dedication made her indispensable to the success of our research enterprise this last fiscal year. Her work not only enhanced the fiscal and regulatory soundness of our operations but also reflected the highest standards of integrity and service. |
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| Our biological station was impacted by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024. This hurricane created the largest storm surge in over 130 years in Cedar Key, and it completely destroyed the downstairs portion of our facility, which is the particular area that Emily relied upon for her K-12 programming. Emily exhibited extraordinary leadership in the wake of this storm, and she used sheer determination and ingenuity to continue our social media and web presence uninterrupted, during a time when miscommunication was rampant. |
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| No matter the task or responsibility, Candace is always one to go above and beyond to ensure her work reaches and impacts students in transformational ways. Candace enters spaces with optimism and eagerness to give the best of herself to everyone. |
| Stephanie is the Coordinator for the Scientist in Every Florida School (SEFS) program at the University of Florida (Museum Operations Coordinator II). Beyond coordinating classroom connections, her position involves building partnerships with school districts, developing outreach and livestream programs, mentoring staff and students, and supporting research that evaluates the program’s effectiveness. |
| Stephanie’s role is complex and involves many moving pieces to support UF scientists as well as Florida’s K-12 teachers and students. She is very passionate about the SEFS program and goes above and beyond to ensure its success. |
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[Shelby’s] work contributes to the professional development of future physician-scientists, while also allowing her to work closely with directors and institutional leaders. Her ability to balance independent work with cross-functional collaboration is a hallmark of her style.
We typically need to interview 30 applicants to obtain 8 matriculants, however, this year we have reduced the number to 25 applicants as our program has become more popular, and we are now concerned about overfilling. I strongly believe that Shelby’s streamlined processes, implementation, and recruitment efforts on the national stage, were instrumental to our results.
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| Although Michael’s official position description does not include responsibilities related to the Engineering Peer Advisors, he has seamlessly integrated the coordination of the EPA program into his role. His ability to balance these added duties with his core responsibilities demonstrates exceptional dedication and adaptability. The EPA program is an invaluable asset to the students and to the college but without Michael’s leadership, it’s continued success and impact would not be possible. |
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| Paige has grown outreach initiatives that bring the Harn to afterschool programs and classrooms across Gainesville. Importantly she has done so by having Docent volunteers support new outreach initiatives, while also involving UF students in the development and presentation of these programs. |
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| Dr. Brown revived, formalized, provided needed structure, and made permanent the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, all while serving in a demanding leadership role as the Interim Assistant Director for Training. Despite the magnitude of this undertaking, she approached the task with professionalism, poise, and an unwaveringly positive attitude. |
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| Beyond his UF course teaching, Hal served in his first year as one of the four UF Faculty Senators for the College of DCP, an elected position voted upon by his faculty peers. |
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| Over the past fiscal year, [Chris] has truly excelled and gone above and beyond his duties, particularly since he was appointed as the Interim Chair of the department in late 2024. |
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Location: College of Dentistry
Beyond her formal duties, Ms. Patel’s dedication to excellence is evident in her proactive communication, vigilance, and problem-solving skills.
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Kathleen Robbins | Christopher Burns | Richard Smiley | Justin Richardson | Reinaldo Vaillant
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Amy McMillan | Angela Love | Tammie Nelson | Jeff Norton | Angela Wong | Justin Sta Ana
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Joel Rowe | Sarah Vas | Robert Baez | Jennifer Royer Kennymore | Heather Dempsey
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Amanda Lovins | Janet Malphurs
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Andrew Feigum | Becky Pusta | Caitlin Morin | Jayson Polvan | Isaiah Fetterman
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Sylvia White | Ashley Hines | Amy Bivens | Kisha White | Michelle Burkhalter
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Kasey Nestor | Michelle Plourde
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Cathy Carr | Christine Richmond | Aaron Ganas | Deborah Jones | Jenna Gonzalez | Maria Saley
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Hannah Farrell | Justin Donnelly | Gregory David | Amanda Pillar
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Robbie Wolf | Melissa Hamilton
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Melissa Jerome | Sarah Tew | Helene Huet
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Ida Aldick | Kristina Smith | Andra Wilke | Laurel Barwick | Tayler Etheridge | Sharon Mills
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Gabby Dolbeck | Lynda Chapaprieta | Barbie Kariuki | Margaret Brito-McVey
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Daniel Purcell | Craig Hill | Josh Bantillo | Hunter Ross | Scott Young | Trevor Freimuth
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Lisa Campbell | Patricia Takacs | Matthew Daley | Hannah Whitaker | Jasmine Simmons | April Hines
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Lindsey Hollingsworth | Shannon Clark | Chanda Jones | Rashell Lewis | Solanica James | Audrey Bringman
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Tony Hayes | Jayme McKenzie | Stefanie Buchanan | Brian Nicholas | Verna Bingaman
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Michael Bogdan | Brandon Waked | Elizabeth Crosby | Geoffery Mullins | David Spearman | Mackenzie Blanchard
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