2021 Annual Award Recipients
Outstanding Service Award
Emily Harrison
Emily Harrison
Emily Harrison first joined PDP in June 2014 as a Project Staff Assistant, reporting to the PDP Finance & Project Support Unit Manager while providing support to now retired PDP Executive Director Eugene Monaco and the senior staff, June Mastan and Debbie McGuire. She very quickly jumped into her role playing a major part in proposal packaging and delivery, as well as coordinating many of the planning needs for the annual PDP Staff Recognition and Awards Program. She provided major assistance with the search and recruitment process, developing a new employee orientation program to help new PDP staff settle in quickly. If she did not know the answer to a staff person’s question, Emily went to work to find it. Shortly after joining PDP, Emily played an integral role in our 2015 move from UAB and Corporate Woods to our current 4 Tower Place offices. In short, Emily quickly became an important “go to” person at PDP.
In recognition of her expanding role with both human resources and finance, Emily received a promotion in 2017 to Assistant Operations Coordinator. She took on even more finance and human resources responsibilities. When the pandemic struck in March 2020, we all quickly learned how to work remotely and use the many technical tools we had available. But Emily happily returned to the office once we received the all-clear to do so. Throughout the later part of 2021 and into 2022, PDP experienced a significant growth in the number of searches and recruitment activity taking place. The University also significantly expanded the role of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in the search process with new policies, procedures and forms showing up regularly. Emily managed these many changes with patience, grace and efficiency – qualities that are her hallmarks. She kept senior staff and managers updated, and she worked with search chairs. Emily also kept the intranet continually updated, so staff always had a current reference place to go to.
It would have been difficult to have made it through 2021 without Emily’s arduous work and efficiency.
In recognition of Emily’s excellent work, we are pleased to present her with PDP’s 2021 Outstanding Service Award.
PDP Outstanding Team Award
New Educational Incentive Program (EIP) Processing System Implementation Team
Team Members: Debbie McGuire, Bryan Sotherden, Julie Aversa, Michele Reedy, Aria Moshari, Yehui Liu, Lily Lee, Mesfin Solomon, Dan Meade, Bridget Sutton, Katie LeClair, Ally Buonanno Tardy, Kaitlyn McCormack, Meaghan Hurley, Chris Dutkiewicz, Kristine Choppa
After many months of developing and planning, the new EIP scholarship award system launched December 2, 2021. The features of the new system remove nearly 100% of paper-based communications, enhance document security and significantly speed up processing time. Applicants upload application supporting documents during the application submission process rather than faxing or emailing or mailing them. Applications and awards are signed electronically, and email notifications regarding new awards, status changes and reminders are automatically generated and sent. With this new system, applications have the potential to be awarded, electronically signed, and prepared for payment within 1 day rather than weeks.
The team spent months discussing, developing, and fine-tuning programming, conducted thorough testing, demonstrated the system to the program sponsor and educated training organizations about the new process. Details had to be coordinated between multiple PDP and University at Albany departments: EIP, Information Services, Media, Finance, and Sponsored Programs Administration.
This system has been years in the making and as we were in the final stretch, the lead programmer left PDP. The team pulled together and successfully launched on Dec 2. EIP team worked closely with ISP detailing eligibility requirements for multiple programs, testing and conducting quality assurance.
The new system has received accolades from our sponsor.
In recognition of the EIP Implementation Team’s excellent work, we are pleased to present the team with PDP’s 2021 Outstanding Team Award.
PDP Outstanding Trainer Award
Susan Bippus
Susan Bippus
Throughout 2021, Susan Bippus shined as a master trainer and training team leader. She consistently demonstrated her outstanding training skills and subject matter expertise in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Welfare Fraud Investigation. Susan trained nine different training programs via Webex in 2021 and contributed subject matter expertise for two additional curricula.
She is masterful in training of complex OTDA policy and regulations. Susan consistently impressed audiences and achieved high to very high Participant Reaction Questionnaire results (4.5 to 5 range) and positive trainee and sponsor feedback. Trainee comments exemplify Susan’s expertise: • “Susan Bippus is the best trainer I've had. She's personable and knowledgeable.” • “The course pace was great, and Susan was a wonderful presenter! She made the information interesting and held everyone's attention. Very knowledgeable!” • “Course was awesome, the instructor Susan Bippus was great.” • “Looking forward to more trainings with Susan. Great job.” and (From and OTDA Hearing Officer) • “Susan is absolutely amazing, she needs to do all of our trainings!”
In addition to excelling as a trainer, Susan is an outstanding leader, coach, and mentor. Susan spent numerous hours teaching new training team members the training content and how to deliver a range of training programs, teaching the trainers how to effectively use Webex, coaching the trainers on developing and enhancing their training skills, and helping them to develop subject matter expertise.
Because of Susan’s outstanding training skills and subject matter expertise, supervisors selected her to aid curriculum development and serve as the sole trainer for a special delivery of Hearing Officer Training: Intentional Program Violations and Administrative Disqualification Hearings. She put a great deal of thought, care, and preparation into this program, which was delivered to 144 OTDA Hearing Officers/Administrative Law Judges and administrators in November and December 2021. Although the audience was new to Susan, she confidently took charge to successfully update an older curriculum (last delivered in 2013) and convert the material from an in-person to a virtual format. Susan also played a key role in working with a colleague to convert the TA Overpayments, Recoupments, and Claims training from a one-day in-person format to a one-day virtual classroom format for delivery via Webex. Susan put diligent efforts into the leader guide, presentation slides, and training preparations. She and a colleague completed a successful internal pilot prior to the end of the year and are gearing up for statewide implementation in 2022.
In recognition of Susan’s excellent work, we are pleased to present her with PDP’s 2021 Outstanding Trainer Award.
PDP Outstanding Professional Staff Award
Ed Skawinski
Ed Skawinski
Ed Skawinski, Manager of PDP’s Instructional Technologies Unit, constantly goes above and beyond to support the people he manages with their work. Specifically, he has a habit of rolling up his sleeves and jumping into his team's projects to help them meet the deadlines. He does this in addition to the many tasks associated with being a manager. He has a genuine desire to see his team succeed. A team member commented "Ed often takes time to review work that I have done, even when it is for another manager's department. Ed is also thorough in these reviews – he often takes the time to offer alternate ideas, constructive critique, and fresh eyes – all greatly helpful when looking at a project for a long time. The end result is that the product comes out even better!"
PDP "makes government work better." Ed makes his team work better, which allows PDP ITU to fulfill this mission. It is clear to everyone on his team that their efforts are appreciated. He does this by being supportive and trusting his team to deliver. Comments received from his team include: "Ed's ability and willingness to help out however necessary is so crucial to the success of not only the project I work on, but my success as his employee." “Very understanding and respectful of the fact that we are all professionals here. He's also very complimentary in his responses to daily goings-on. Daily pats on the back keep us motivated and make this a great work environment.”
Ed cares about each and every project his team works on. He offers thoughtful and helpful criticism that improves/supports the project and worker's confidence. Comment from his team: "To insure a project was done to clients’ specifications, Ed spent many hours after closing time talking with client to insure we provided exactly what they wanted."
Ed manages 12 people. He takes it upon himself to learn the specific details of each of their jobs and situations which allows him to understand current or potential deadline obstacles. Comment from his team: "I most appreciate Ed familiarizing himself with our programs and processes, so he understands the challenges of the work... the many application flukes to be overcome, and myriad details that go into each course. He has first-hand experience that course development is complicated and time-consuming, and he is a strong advocate."
In recognition of Ed’s excellent work, we are pleased to present him with PDP’s 2021 Outstanding Professional Staff Award.
PDP Outstanding Administrative Support Staff Award
Alaina Maldonado
Alaina Maldonado
In 2019, in addition to her other duties, Alaina Maldonado became the primary project support staff person working on the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s (OTDA) Upstate Homeless Services Training Resource System project. This project provides training to all levels of staff that implement homeless and housing services in the community. In 2019, the project offered in-person training only, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 halted all in-person training. This became particularly difficult for the Homeless Services Training project, as it had not yet done any instructor-led Webex classes. The general assumption at this time held that this method of instruction could not work for shelter provider staff. In addition, the training audience for this project did not use, the online registration system customarily used for OTDA and OCFS projects.
As the pandemic continued during the latter part of 2020 and into 2021, the Homeless Services project moved with OTDA approval to convert a number of in-person training courses to the instructor-led Webex platform. Once thought a gamble, the introduction of Webex classes turned out to be extremely successful with attendance numbers increasing dramatically. The issue now became how to streamline the communication and registration process for the training audience.
The project had selected Constant Contact, an email marketing company as the communication and registration system for the project. Intrigued by the possibilities within Constant Contact, Alaina played a leading role in early 2021 in researching and designing a pilot registration portal. Approved for pilot use by OTDA on May 27, 2021, this new webpage and registration system allowed the Homeless Services training audience to “apply for all upcoming trainings with the click of a button.” The link included descriptions for each training, along with dates and times for offerings. Updates to course offerings are now sent every six to eight weeks in one email, rather than one for each course, with a link to the portal for registration. Alaina's critical research and design work helped make this project the ongoing success it has become. Registrations continue at a strong level for all Homeless Services Training project offerings using an effortless process for trainees.
In recognition of Alaina's excellent work, we are pleased to present her with PDP's 2021 Outstanding Administrative Staff Award.