2023 Annual Award Recipients

Outstanding Service Award

Diane Hodurski-Foley

Diane Hodurski-Foley

Manager

Department of Temporary Assistance Training (DTAT)

Diane first joined PDP in 1996 as an Education Specialist. She left PDP briefly for North Carolina in 1998 and then returned in 2000 as a Senior Education Specialist. Beginning in 2005, she made rapid progressions from Training Program Coordinator on then Welfare-to-Work, now Employment Services training initiatives to Interim Manager of all Temporary Assistance training, and ultimately moving in 2006 to her current position as Manager of the Department of Temporary Assistance Training, known as DTAT. Diane currently oversees four major OTDA contracts valued at over $7.2 million.

Diane’s excellent leadership skills and strong work ethic are evident in the annual numbers put forth by DTAT. In 2023, they delivered 613 days of training, a 9.3% increase over 2022, to 12,398 trainees, which was an 18.4% increase from 2022. This consisted of eighty-seven unique courses, a 7.4% increase from 2022. The oversight, coordination, and detail skills that Diane brings in leading the delivery of this level of training services year after year is incredible. Her deep knowledge about our temporary assistance training initiatives, both past and present, is highly valued and relied upon regularly by both staff and sponsors alike. She is an organizational expert on curriculum design and development, holds a certification in the Information Mapping process and is a long-time practitioner of the Dr. Ruth Clark based Instructional Design methodologies.

Over the years, Diane has led the development of many important training initiatives, including the five-day Hearing Officers Procedural Training Institute, the 2017 Healthy Families Training Institute, the Program Development and Implementation Considerations for People Affected by Poverty and Trauma course for OTDA staff, the COVID-necessitated conversion of major segments of our key training institutes from in-person to Webex, the Cash Assistance Training Institute for HRA, and the current redesign of the Hearing Officers training, to name only a few. There have been dozens of large training conferences, forums, and regional meetings over the years as well. Our sponsors have sent many favorable comments about the high quality of these events.

More importantly, Diane is a person of high integrity, and she is empathic and caring. She listens intently, thinks deeply, and always offers potential solutions. Her dependability is renowned, and she is always willing to help senior staff, her fellow managers, and all staff alike. Diane serves an organization-wide role co-chairing the IACET CEU Certification and Compliance Committee, doing so since its inception in 2019. She is always the first one to recognize her staff with kudos and award nominations, and it is great to acknowledge her for a change!

PDP Outstanding Team Award

DC01 Regulatory Staff Forum Team

Team Members: Casey Becker, Ron Biggé, Ally Buonanno-Tardy, Sarah Clowe, Kat Costello, Colleen Faragon, Trish Geary, Gary Glinski, Ciara Haag, Jaelyn Jackson, Ed Kirchgessner, Fatma Labeb, Katie LeClair, Emily McCurty, Debbie McGuire, Dan Meade, Noellie Medina, Joan Meyer, Michele Reedy, Laura Remia-Borthwick, Lisa Stanco

The DC01 Regulatory Staff Forum Team.

From the start this project was all about change. The DC01 Regulatory Staff Forum team took each “ask” from the sponsor and figured out how to make it happen. This team exhibited a willingness to brainstorm and problem-solve every step of the way. Here are a few examples:

• Switched from three smaller regional events to one event for 400+ attendees.
• Identified a venue in Albany. A conflict arose with the Albany date and a new venue in Syracuse was found.
• Secured rooms at the event venue and five surrounding hotels to accommodate 400 and directly supported the individual needs of many.
• Planned thirteen breakouts and two keynote sessions. PDP staff designed and delivered a morning and afternoon breakout session.
• Learned how to use the Whova conference app. Branded the WHOVA conference app for this event, had all the breakout session registrations and materials available for all trainees through the app. Added general surveys and evaluation materials and live-streamed both keynotes, and a morning and afternoon breakout session.
• Media production captured the event by capturing still photos and video. Media production also recorded a morning and afternoon breakout session for future training use.
• Sponsor asked to include exhibitors and the team secured 10. PDP had an exhibitor table and ended up managing the needs of a few other exhibitors that needed assistance with set-up and printing materials for their table.
• Chartered buses to transport attendees from Long Island and NYC to minimize travel costs.
• Maneuvered getting a large (and heavy) drum package to the venue and back to the home of the keynote in Orange County.
• Created a day one event that focuses on connections and team building, instead of a more traditional conference activity. This required PDP to plan for (bring and set up) over 35 small group activity stations throughout the ballroom of the venue. Activities included painting murals, team building stacking of pizza boxes/cups, playdough, 4 square, wheel of child care, giant checkers, giant connect four, corn hole, to name a few.
• Strategized how to “move” 400 people to the various activities to mingle and meet the activity objective in the scheduled time.
• Recognized there would be confusion around the venue parking and so the PDP team made a sign, wore a costume, and stood out on the street directing attendees to the correct parking garage in downtown Syracuse.

PDP Outstanding Trainer Award

Rachael Mason

Eric Gleason

Rachael Mason

Senior Trainer

Throughout 2023, Rachael went above and beyond her normal job duties and was highly effective as a trainer and training team leader (TL). She exceeded the expected level of performance as a Senior Trainer and made outstanding contributions to the work of PDP. Rachael consistently spends extra time preparing for training to ensure a smooth delivery, whether that means thinking about what support her teams will need, logistics, or identifying improvements to be made on slides. In October 2023, as a result of a department vacancy, Rachael transitioned from focusing on HEAP and Employment Services trainings to Temporary Assistance (TA) trainings and demonstrated expertise in both areas. Within ten days of transitioning into the Temporary Assistance team leadership role, while still supporting the HEAP and Employment teams, Rachael began observing, coaching, and assisting the TA trainers. When training coverage for a TA program (ITAP) was unexpectedly needed three weeks into her TA leadership role, Rachael expeditiously prepared to deliver lessons and ensure trainees had no interruption to their training experience and that the training team had the support needed.

Rachael is always ready to go the extra mile for her teams and for PDP. For example, as a result of a Senior Trainer vacancy, Rachael volunteered to make a lateral move to take over training team leadership of the ITAP team (and several related TA courses) in October. Rachael’s willingness to make this change for the good of the organization while recognizing the extra work that comes with such a change is demonstrative of her commitment to the organization. During this transition period, Rachael went above and beyond and participated on both the Employment Services/HEAP training teams and the TA training teams to ensure a smooth transition from one position to the other. Rachael constantly checked in with all members of the training teams in both areas to ensure that they felt comfortable with the change, to learn about her new team members, and ensure each team had a solid foundation moving forward. Rachael was the leader of Poverty and Trauma-Informed assistance, a one-day training that is designed to be co-trained with two trainers delivering for the whole day. By special request, an on-site offering was scheduled for Schuyler County for April, however, due to an unexpected trainer illness, this delivery had to be canceled at the last minute. The county wanted the training rescheduled quickly, but it was not clear when there was availability for two team members to make the trip. Rachael took it upon herself to volunteer to make the trip, prepare for both trainer roles, and train this delivery solo to meet this district’s need. Rachael’s work was appreciated and she received recognition from the Schuyler County SDC. A second example: Upon transitioning to the ITAP team, Rachael was immediately able to jump into assisting with training preparations for team members, even after having different assignments for several years. Overall, Rachael consistently considered what is best for her teams, and in order to make sure the TA, Employment, and HEAP teams have what they needed, Rachael put in extra time to ensure the projects went off without a hitch.

PDP Outstanding Professional Staff Award

Christine King

Christine King

Event Planning Coordinator

Department of Temporary Assistance Training (DTAT)

Christine is the lone Event Planning Coordinator in the Department of Temporary Assistance Training (DTAT). Christine supervises the department’s “Logistics Team” and completes a broad range of hands-on event planning and execution work. Christine both individually and with the department’s logistics team completed a high volume of work, most times within short timeframes. Christine routinely went well above and beyond the norm to meet emerging projects and customer needs and get the work done. Christine is a recognized event planning expert. She is a highly valuable resource to her own staff and to training staff in this 34-person department. Additionally, PDP staff in other departments frequently reach out to Christine with questions about venues, information about direct bill hotels, best practices in planning conferences, and event planning in general. After carrying an event planner vacancy since December 2019, this position was finally filled in January 2023. Christine spent a significant amount of time and effort throughout 2023 orienting, onboarding, and training the new event planner on the varied range of tasks and project work. Christine went above and beyond to do this and put in countless extra hours to help keep up with the fast pace of work while this new staff member was learning their job. In addition to this, the other event planner went out on six months of approved leave at the beginning of August 2023. Unfortunately, this absence corresponded with a significant increase in training deliverables and event planning/support work. Again, Christine went above and beyond and put in countless extra hours to ensure there were no interruptions in event planning/logistical operations and to personally help keep up with the project work so that the OTDA project sponsor and our district customers would not see the incredible void we were dealing with internally. Christine did not miss a beat, kept up DTAT’s productivity, and made it all look seamless. In addition to “normal” job duties, Christine has gone above and beyond the norm to aid the department’s recruitment, interviewing, and onboarding efforts. Christine served on four lengthy and time-consuming search committees resulting in eight hires. Upon staff hiring, Christine supported onboarding in several ways. She gave staff tours, held orientation meetings regarding various procedures, and provided hands-on support for preparation of onboarding materials. Christine has been invaluable in these efforts.

PDP Outstanding Administrative Support Staff Award

Verena Kemp-Nugent

Verena Kemp-Nugent

Senior Administrative Assistant

Public Service Workshops Program (PSWP)

Senior Administrative Assistant, Verena Kemp-Nugent, leads all aspects of administrative support for PSWP including vendor contracting and procurement, workshop posting and enrollment in the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS), data management in the SLMS and PSWP Access Database, and additional support for program staff and any other additional tasks resulting from new sponsor priorities. In 2023, Verena and her unit provided enrollment, contracting, and all other required administrative support for 295 workshop deliveries over 400.5 days of training, with over $1.17 million dollars in vendor contracting and invoicing.

Additionally, in 2023, even in the face of ongoing staffing challenges and a unit never fully staffed all year, and supporting a record-setting number of workshop deliveries, Verena took on new increased responsibilities related to the OER Learning and Development Series and NYS Train-the-Trainer deliveries, as well as support for a new NYS mandated course on Equal Employment Opportunity—Workplace Discrimination Prevention (EEO-WDP) Train-the-Facilitator that required substantial coordination and support within a very short time frame. Verena always leads the PSWP administrative unit to successful outcomes.

Verena leads by example and has earned the utmost respect from the staff she supervises and everyone else within PSWP, as well as our colleagues from OER, PEF, RF, and other PDP staff.