2018 Pride of the Wolfpack Award Recipients

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. Eight DELTA staff members were honored with the award at the staff meeting Oct. 4, 2018.

This year’s recipients include Leisa Bolles, Jonathan Champ, Shawn Colvin, Allie Giro, Tremayne Grimes, Charlene Pettiway and Yan Shen. DELTA’s Vice Provost Tom Miller read a short nomination about each award recipient and presented them with a framed certificate.

The all-DELTA staff meeting began with a welcome from Miller followed by the presentation of awards. Staff members also heard updates on the wellness initiative, communications team, activities committee and upcoming professional development sessions.

Leisa Bolles, Director of Media Production Services

“Leisa Bolles is deserving of the Pride of the Wolfpack Award this year not only for her continued excellent performance as an employee but for her steady leadership this year during a time of unexpected loss on her team,” said Associate Vice Provost for Academic Technology Innovation Donna Petherbridge.

During the difficult loss of DELTA staff member Joe Gray, Bolles ensured there was business continuity while also showing compassion for her team. She was invaluable in shaping a vision for what the team could do to move forward. On a regular day, Bolles is instrumental in DELTA’s work. She is currently leading her team in an upgrade to Mediasite 7.2 and has facilitated another successful Mediasite Users Group meeting this year.

Bolles was recognized for being the model of what a good leader does during an unexpected loss — taking care of both the people and the business.

Jonathan Champ, PHP Developer/Information Architect

Champ is thought of as the go-to guy by coworkers for any issues involving data, the DELTA website, mailing lists and many other projects. He is always interested in learning new things and passing along knowledge, and if he doesn’t know something, he takes the time to research and learn more.

Champ actively contributes code and bug fixes to the Moodle community and shares software development best practices. He also completed the Pathways Leadership Development Program in 2016 and continues to collaborate with other participants to develop an expectant parent portal and parental leave recommendations.

He is also recognized for his work with DELTA’s Senior Management Team to report accurate numbers for funding. Previously a by-hand process, Champ worked with the Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP) to automate the process and ensure the official enrollment numbers match, a feat he achieved for the first time several years ago, and he continues to work with campus partners to maintain.

“No matter what Jonathan is working on, he takes the time to listen intently to people’s concerns and will assist in finding solutions,” said Communications Coordinator Sherry O’Neal.

Shawn Colvin, Classroom Services Manager

“Shawn continues to show that he is a natural born leader. He continues to tackle every challenge handed to him, performing at an outstanding level,” said Senior Associate Director of VCS Tony Pearson.

Colvin was recognized for his level of quality and performance during a time of transition and additional responsibility. In addition, Colvin maintains the trust of his colleagues, faculty and staff.

Colvin has been instrumental in evaluating various technologies that will directly impact DELTA’s suite of tools used to support the distance education classrooms. He oversaw the implementation of a six-month project to provide proof of concept for the next generation of video transmissions over an end-to-end ethernet network for transport of classroom video sources, audio and control data.

Allie Giro, Program Coordinator and Trainer

“Allie’s leadership and tireless efforts are at the heart of DELTA’s success in all facets of instructional technology training for faculty, students and staff,” said Traci Temple and Sam McCuen who both nominated Giro.

Giro provides excellent program coordination for DELTA’s Instructional Support Services, specifically in organizing workshops, custom training and the annual Summer Shorts program. Giro ensures nothing goes unchecked in planning through ideation for each event which elevates DELTA’s reputation for quality classes. She also has completed multiple professional development opportunities to continue to develop her talents in support of DELTA.

In addition, Giro is currently coordinating and leading an evaluation team charged with improving the synchronous learning management system experience for the entire campus community. As project lead for the search and evaluation, Giro is inclusive, collaborative and transparent. She often seeks input from the team and makes decisions from planning to evaluating to report completion, ensuring the project team is on track and within scope.

Tremayne Grimes, Unix Systems Administrator

Grimes was nominated by Jeff Webster and Dan Deter for establishing a reliable installation and management environment for DELTA’s Linux servers.

During the last few years, Grimes was tasked with improving DELTA’s Linux configuration management environment. The lack of a reliable system for installs and operating system updates became a critical issue. “At one point last August we could not perform Red Hat 7 installs, but we needed additional servers before fall courses started. So Tremayne did partially manual installs of CentOS 7 instead,” said Webster and Deter in the nomination submission.

Grimes worked with campus partners to successfully build a reliable installation, configuration and management environment using open-source tools Katello, Foreman and Puppet.

“The new Campus Linux environment does require some DELTA time to co-manage, but we now have a reliable environment that provides the tools we need to install and manage the servers supporting a large percentage of DELTA’s instructional tools, websites, web applications, etc. Without the work Tremayne put in with our campus partners we would still be struggling with the partial Linux environment, and it would not have neither the management tools nor the reliability we need,” said Webster and Deter in the nomination submission.

Angela Hallman, Business Services Coordinator

When Hallman began at DELTA, she jumped in ready to help the Finance and Business team with keeping track of many moving parts related to growth in DELTA and Academic Outreach and Entrepreneurship. She not only completed her tasks well, but she did them with a positive, can-do attitude and never complained about the extra time and effort required.

Hallman’s job has changed significantly since then and is now one that touches many different facets of the business office. From accounts payable processing to building/suite access management, Hallman puts a strong emphasis on completing her job duties in an accurate manner while also ensuring compliance with university policies and procedures.

“Angela’s attitude is infectious and makes us all want to work harder and learn more. Her strong work ethic and positivity have helped enhance the services provided by the Finance and Business office and increase the effectiveness and cohesiveness of the Finance and Business team. She is a perfect example of what makes DELTA such a great organization,” said Business Operations Accountant Julie Bunting.

Charlene Pettiway, Technology Support Technician  

Since joining the Instructional Support Services team in July 2014, Pettiway has consistently performed at a high level providing instructional technology support to NC State faculty. “When interacting with instructors, she demonstrates strong product knowledge and courteous professionalism, and is a valued contributor to the LearnTech Help Desk team,” said Associate Director of Instructional Technology Support Scott Watkins.

Pettiway provides support to faculty during the evening hours and on Sundays to help meet the needs of a wider range of users. She coordinates weekly meetings with the help desk team and takes the lead on a variety of support-related projects.

Pettiway consistently receives positive ratings and comments from faculty with many comments relating to her helpful, patient and understanding nature. She also makes a positive impact on her teammates and colleagues who noted her exemplary work ethic and invaluable insight toward resolving issues.  

Yan Shen, Instructional Designer

Shen is someone the instructional design team has been relying on for her skills and research background since day one. “She is open and giving with her designs and has acted as a mentor for many. She stands out as an example for all IDs to strive towards. Her leadership, especially in the area of large-course redesign and instructional design research, is important to the team and to all of the instructional production projects she leads,” said Director of Instructional Innovation Services David Howard.

Evaluation is one of Shen’s strong points. She is leading a multi-year evaluation effort for our 360-video learning materials. In addition, Shen has assisted the instructional design team by creating a workflow chart to help them think through evaluating instructional components and attached logistical resources to help them set it up.

Shen is currently leading a connected series of four computer science large-course redesign projects, ensuring a sense of connection between them. The courses had a total enrollment of more than 2,200 students in 2017-2018.

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Congrats to DELTA’s Pride of the Wolfpack award recipients for their hard work and dedication!