2017 Pride of the Wolfpack Award Recipients

October 2, 2017 Cassidy Jo Colson

The Pride of the Wolfpack Award recognizes staff members who go above and beyond and make a special or unique contribution to their unit or university as a whole. Seven DELTA staff members were honored with the award with a framed certificate at the staff meeting September 22, 2017.

DELTA’s Vice Provost Tom Miller presented the awards to staff members who continue to make an impact at DELTA. The 2017 recipients are Yiling Chappelow, Laurie Gyalog, Bill Hicks, Katie Richardson, Rebecca Swanson and Erica Wisecup.

The all-DELTA staff meeting began with a welcome from Miller and consisted of introducing new staff members, presenting Pride of the Wolfpack Awards and years of service awards. Miller also presented on student success, DELTA Testing Services shared updates from a conference, and the Instructional Media Production team shared highlights from recent innovative projects.

Yiling Chappelow, Lead Instructional Technologist

Chappelow was recognized for her decade of service and exemplifying DELTA’s core values of communication, collaboration and transparency. “She combines friendliness with a strong drive for excellence in her work, and she does this with a ‘quiet leadership’ style that is understated, yet effective,” said Director of Instructional Support Services Stacy Gant.

In her nomination, coworkers and supervisors attested to Chappelow’s work ethic and positivity. Many comments included words such as kind, humble, dedicated and professional. “She is very thoughtful in her interactions, and has great insight into how things work,” said Bethany Smith, associate director of Instructional Technology Training. Smith also mentioned Chappelow’s dedication to working with faculty at NC State.

Laurie Gyalog, Executive Assistant, Academic Technology Innovation

Gyalog was an integral part of DELTA’s move from Venture II to the Center for Technology and Innovation. Her excellent support and guidance during the process was appreciated across DELTA. “She truly went outside her normal boundaries of her job to share her expertise to lead the project management of all communication, internally and externally, required for such an undertaking,” said Communications Coordinator Sherry O’Neal.

The excellent customer service and communication from Gyalog gave DELTA staff members a sense of security during the move. In addition, Gyalog was the point person for ordering, managing the Kanban board for Marketing and Communications and ensuring all the deliverables necessary were completed on time and within budget. “Laurie always made a point to communicate information thoroughly,” said O’Neal.

Bill Hicks, Senior Systems Architect

After the move to CTI, Director of Educational Technology Services Lou Harrison had a few things planned to make the space fun and inviting, and Hicks has been instrumental in making the plans come to life. In addition to adding lights to the phone booth and other small items, Hicks installed signs by each office and cube to dynamically show the status of the occupant.

Harrison and Hicks spent less than $50 per device and gave DELTA staff a way to designate how welcome they are to visitors. Hicks is currently working on adding LED lights to allow staff members to see statuses from afar. “Hicks has brought his knowledge of microcontrollers and ingenuity to this project, and it could not have been done without his countless hours of work,” said Harrison.

Katie Richardson, PHP Web Developer

Photo of Katie Richardson and Tom Miller — Katie Richardson and Tom Miller

During her first year, Richardson helped deploy the DELTA News site, maintains the back-end of the Online and Distance Education website, redesigned the web-based DELTA Annual Report and is entrenched in the new WolfWare WordPress development project.

Richardson built the Annual Report WordPress instance from scratch to align with the Chancellor’s Report. “Another college at NC State has even requested the code so they may deploy the same type of annual report next year. That is a high compliment,” said O’Neal. She mentioned Richardson’s pleasant and helpful personality and how Richardson is attentive and a great collaborator.

Rebecca Swanson, Associate Vice Provost for Online and Distance Education

Photo of Rebecca Swanson and Tom Miller — Rebecca Swanson and Tom Miller

“Swanson is exceptionally hard working, deeply dedicated member of the DELTA Senior Management Team who contributes greatly to the success of our organization. We recognize her for her commitment to excellence, her compassionate leadership and her dedication to service throughout the years,” said Swanson’s fellow SMT members in their joint nomination.

Involved in distance education since 1996 and a founding member of DELTA in 2000, Swanson has grown enrollments and programs and also managed the growth and expansion of Online and Distance Education proctoring.

Swanson is a key member of various university committees and task forces including being tapped by the provost to temporarily lead the SACS Substantive Change Review team. “This assignment was a testament to Rebecca’s deep knowledge and experience regarding the accreditation process and criteria,” said SMT members.

A compassionate leader and an advocate for her staff, Swanson cares deeply about the well-being of her staff and always takes into account what is best for each person. Personally, SMT noted Swanson’s personality and wonderful sense of humor make working with her enjoyable for all.

“Swanson represents some of the best of DELTA’s values — hard work, dedication, compassion for others and a strong desire to provide the best customer service possible for those that we serve,” said SMT members.

Traci Temple, Assistant Director of Planning and Assessment

Photo of Traci Temple and Tom Miller — Traci Temple and Tom Miller

Temple is an extremely hard working and very productive employee according to Donna Petherbridge and Rebecca Swanson who nominated her. “Her work in the assessment area helps provide data to support the wonderful things we are doing in DELTA!” said Petherbridge and Swanson. Temple works effectively across teams in DELTA and Online and Distance Education faculty and program directors to see assessment as a collaborative effort.

Temple’s outstanding organizational skills ensure the monumental amount of assessment work she is responsible for is completed on time. She is instrumental in making sure the assessment work that she and others do is transparent and available to others in DELTA and is open for review and feedback.

“Her diligence in research, survey development and reporting is a key component of DELTA’s ability to meet the continuing demand for technology-supported education in a very dynamic environment,” said Petherbridge and Swanson.

Erica Wisecup, Executive Assistant to Senior Vice Provost

Photo of Erica Wisecup and Tom Miller — Erica Wisecup and Tom Miller

Nominated by Miller, he credits Wisecup with going above the call of duty to make him more productive and efficient. “She’s always working behind the scenes to make sure everything within Academic Outreach and Entrepreneurship runs smoothly and appears to all our constituents as the well-oiled machine that it is,” said Miller. She works with the utmost courtesy, efficiency and professionalism.

Wisecup serves as a member of the Senior Management Team for both DELTA and the Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI) and manages the overall budget for the EI. “Wisecup’s outgoing nature and friendly personality help create a positive working environment within Academic Outreach and Entrepreneurship. She is a tremendous asset to the entire organization,” said Miller.