Managers and peers can submit a nomination for an individual or team. Then the Selection Committee, comprised of staff from across campus, reviews nominations in November. Winners are notified and announced in early December.
A Celebration of Excellence is an invitation-only breakfast celebrating excellence award winners. This intimate celebration features senior leaders and nominators highlighting the accomplishments of individual and team winners.
We are happy to announce the winners of the 2024 Excellence Awards! Thank you to our 2024 Selection Committee for reading through all the nominations and selecting this amazing group of winners. This year’s winners are as follows:
Michelle Blais and Tom Wegner-Foskett (Team)
Dining Services, Facilities Management
Michelle Blais and Tom Wegner-Foskett have made outstanding contributions to Dining Services, particularly through the inception of Topanga’s ReusePass program, an ongoing initiative that rolled out in the spring 2024 semester. The ReusePass initiative encourages students and staff to reduce single-use packaging by promoting reusable containers in Brown’s all-you-care-to-eat residential dining facilities.
Since the full-scale implementation of the ReusePass initiative in the last academic year, the program has achieved significant sustainability outcomes. The program has significantly reduced waste from single-use packaging while conserving water and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. It has eliminated nearly 3,000 pounds of waste from single-use packaging, saved over 20,000 gallons of water, and reduced 21,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. 
These metrics clearly demonstrate the program's positive impact on our environment and reinforce the commitment to promoting responsible consumption and sustainability within our campus community.
Through their vision and dedication, Michelle and Tom have not only decreased waste and raised awareness about environmental issues but have also engaged our community in meaningful ways that align with the University's sustainability goals. Michelle is actively incorporating feedback from students to further enhance the program’s impact on sustainability within our campus community. Their collaborative efforts have fostered a culture of sustainability and environmental stewardship on campus, effectively minimizing waste and encouraging responsible consumption among students.
Michelle Graves
Division of Biology and Medicine
Michelle started in June 2023 and has provided the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCB) with exceptional leadership during her short tenure. MCB is a huge department with a lot of complexity. Michelle has created simple, easy-to-follow standards of procedures and checklists for all things human resources, and created a roster of everyone in the department that is used by MCB staff and faculty on a daily basis. She has also created similar tracking spreadsheets for managing all types of hires, onboarding, terminations, time management, visas, and appointments.
Michelle has become the go-to person for all things HR in the BioMed Division. The other departments seek her advice and help frequently. She shares her templates and even helps train their new HR staff. Michelle is also a policy guru. She can sift through long-winded policies and provide wise counsel to faculty managers and others in BioMed departments and central offices. Michelle works to meet faculty where they are and provides tailored communications for them.
Michelle is very proactive and instituted cross-checks and audits on MCB’s over 300 TrainCaster accounts to ensure the list is current, which helps reduce risk to the University. She created an easy intake form for key card access to simplify the process for everyone, as this was previously a pain point and caused confusion. Michelle has been a game-changer to the department.
Brynne Connolly
Division of Biology and Medicine
Since stepping into the role of the Warren Alpert Medical School’s first-ever digital content producer in 2022, Brynne Connolly has transformed the medical school's social media presence, leveraging it as a powerful tool for community building, inclusion, and communication. She has implemented a data-driven social strategy, developing a content calendar strategically aligned with campus and community events, key academic milestones, and the medical school's broader communication goals.
In her first year on the job, Brynne boosted publishing rates across the medical school's social platforms by 259%. In ensuring cohesive messaging across five social platforms, Brynne has given the medical school a unified voice that speaks directly to the priorities of our audiences. Her forward-thinking approach to content generation has led to a twofold increase in followers across all platforms, with engagement rates soaring by over 91% since 2022. Beyond the numbers, Brynne has cultivated strong and productive relationships with key partners across campus and pioneered frontline journalism on social media, logging countless hours on nights and weekends documenting student and faculty outreach.
Brynne’s work highlights the impactful work happening here every day while making community members feel seen and valued. Whether promoting events, sharing faculty and student achievements or amplifying the voices of our campus partners, Brynne's leadership has made social media an integral part of the medical school's communications framework and enriched the Brown community as a whole.
Madyson Crawford
Campus Life | Sarah Doyle Center for Women and Gender
Since joining Brown nearly three years ago, Madyson Crawford, associate director of the Sarah Doyle Center for Women and Gender, has cultivated community within the center and across campus for students, staff, and faculty; stewarded new programs and initiatives; and positively contributed to making the Sarah Doyle Center a space where people feel welcomed and supported.
The Sarah Doyle Center has increased its portfolio of programs through Madyson’s management and stewardship of the Disability Justice Student Initiative, her facilitation of new initiatives centering on trans and gender-nonconforming students, and her new collaborations with academic units. As such, the center has seen a 25% increase in programs and events and an increase in the number of students who frequent the center. Additionally, through Madyson’s work with the queer and trans students of color support group, the center has doubled their efforts for weekly student offerings.
One of Madyson’s most critical contributions to the center and the campus community is the care and passion that she brings to feminist praxis and in welcoming all members of the campus community to the center. In a world where gender inequalities persist, staff like Madyson provide students with tools and spaces for imagining feminist futures. Working as an assistant director of a busy center involves an alchemy of sorts, and Madyson has honed her work to a science, with humor and a positive, can-do attitude.
Kerri Evans-Ruggieri
Division of Research
Kerri Evans-Ruggieri is the director of the Research Administration Information Systems (RAIS) team at Brown University, having been promoted multiple times in her tenure on this team. She is dedicated, driven and exceptionally adept at forging relationships across offices and with individuals at all levels of the organization. Kerri also possesses a great sense of empathy and compassion, traits that have endeared her to all of her colleagues, both faculty and administrators. These traits enable her to navigate complex and challenging situations in a data-driven role while keeping her personable, caring nature intact.
Kerri’s ability to relay the needs of the research business processes to the Office of Information Technology, while also playing a key component in system configuration, is truly remarkable. Since 2016, Kerri has led the implementation of five modules, including the current transition into Huron, the new grant management system. She has shown, time after time, her incredible ability to take on multiple projects without affecting performance. Kerri's skills and leadership are what drove each of Brown's research systems to a successful rollout.
Kerri’s benevolent qualities are further exemplified through her management style and skills. Kerri has stepped up and positively flipped the RAIS team’s morale around. Kerri makes sure to appreciate and support every member of her team. She focuses on each individual, promotes work-life balance, highlights goals and achievements, and prioritizes career development.
Sheila Haggerty
Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship
Sheila Haggerty, associate director of the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, has been a difference-maker and the heartbeat of the Nelson Center for years. This past year, the former associate director’s extended leave left many programs in need of leadership. Sheila not only held down the fort when the five-person team was reduced unexpectedly, but she also made the Nelson Center far better. She enhanced each of the programs by implementing formalized communication protocols, providing participants with clearer expectations, and recruiting exceptional team members.
Sheila has led the Nelson Center’s academic programming and Entrepreneurship Certificate program, absorbed oversight of the B-Lab program, managed the search for three adjunct lecturers for the Entrepreneurship Practicum course and a search for a tenure-track chair, and provided programmatic oversight for venture support. The Entrepreneurship Certificate program has grown significantly under her leadership, from 13 students in 2022 to over 68 expected graduates in 2025, and Sheila now orchestrates more than 100 events at the Nelson Center each year.
Based on her long tenure in various departments, Sheila has deep knowledge of and passion for the University, making her adept at pointing students toward opportunities that suit their interests. Sheila’s efforts to conduct searches for new instructors and staff members also resulted in a more diverse entrepreneurship center, furthering the mission that entrepreneurship is a structured process for solving consequential problems available to anyone at Brown.
Aldo Luna
Facilities Management
Aldo Luna, senior building operator for Facilities Management at the School of Public Health, always makes himself accessible and encourages staff to communicate any maintenance needs to him, assuring that all is functioning well and safely in the human research laboratory. He has responded to many requests, including solving heating and AC issues, moving furniture, and accommodating new research lab spaces with new equipment needs that require his expertise and direction.
Aldo’s commitment to going above and beyond has had a profound impact on the School of Public Health, influencing everything from study design to research integrity. An excellent example of the impact and scope of his work was especially brought to light this past summer with the installation of a new HVAC system in the School of Public Health’s lab space. Aldo’s organizational and communication skills made this complex process nearly seamless. The outcome was a new and improved HVAC system, essential for reaching the School of Public Health’s research goals.
In addition to overseeing the HVAC installation, Aldo has managed numerous other critical needs, including addressing floods in the wet lab and handling power failures that disrupt remote study sessions. He responds to urgent needs quickly and efficiently, always with a smile. He solves problems in a calm, professional manner and always follows up to be sure that the work he has done has met the team’s needs.
Office of Financial Aid (Team)
Finance and Administration
In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Education rolled out a simplified version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the primary application families complete to apply for federal student aid. In the summer of 2023, Brown’s Office of Financial Aid did in-depth planning for the anticipated changes and became a resource for students, parents, colleagues, and other institutions. The implementation of the simplified FAFSA has been widely viewed as a failure, and resulted in delays, glitches and unreliable data.
Since FAFSA information was not released until April 2024, federal aid could not be estimated appropriately and provided to both early decision and regular decision students. The Office of Financial Aid needed to plan for and produce estimated aid packages that represented an accurate offer for families while also adjusting those same aid packages after the FAFSA applications were received, which they normally would have started reviewing in the fall and completed over the course of five months, rather than one.
Brown receives thousands of FAFSAs yearly and has a reputation of being responsive to families. The Office of Financial Aid put in significant extra hours, including nights and weekends, to ensure that students would have aid offers in time for the fall bill. This extraordinary team put significant efforts into dealing with numerous issues and pivoting when the process or policy changed, which happened frequently over the past year.
Jeanne Loewenstein
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
The remarkable growth of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) over the past decade is due in part to IBES’ academic program manager, Jeanne Loewenstein, who is considered a cornerstone of the environmental community at Brown. In her 14 years at Brown, Jeanne has not only helped build the foundation of IBES, she has also streamlined various critical processes from summer internship applications to course proposal submissions.
With her extremely organized nature and passion for inclusivity, Jeanne has helped IBES support and expand its summer internship program and Voss Undergraduate Fellowships, supported the curriculum committee in fully revamping the degree requirements for the environmental sciences and studies concentrations, and supported the department in using environmentally friendly and sustainable products in events and classrooms. In addition to coordinating IBES lunchtime seminars for the undergraduate community, she also leads the IBES weekly student newsletter, received by more than 1,000 members of the IBES community every week.
Jeanne is incredibly organized with a great attention to detail, which has proven invaluable for internal and external communications and IBES’ ability to collaborate with members of the Brown University community. She has spent tireless hours developing syllabus templates for faculty, well-drafted and -timed emails to undergraduate classes, and thorough advising guidelines. Jeanne’s eagerness to assist is heartening, and she has a way of making sure everyone feels seen, heard and valued.
David Saenz and Dave Cavallaro (Team)
Campus Life | Office of Residential Life
Due to a departmental reorganization in 2023, the Residential Life operations team went from three staff managing housing assignments and processes to two: Manager of Special Housing David Saenz and Assistant Director for Assignments Dave Cavallaro. At the same time, student demand for pre-selection processes, which typically require hand-placement by Residential Life, skyrocketed. Dave and David both stepped up and worked well above capacity to ensure our students receive excellent service.
During the fall 2024 housing pre-selection process, Dave and David created almost 1,300 housing assignments by hand over the course of just a couple weeks. Given the complexity involved, this work could not have been automated, and required a skilled and dedicated team to review each application and find the appropriate housing assignment. Oftentimes, this involved collaborating with campus partners, consulting floorplans and visiting rooms in person to confirm whether or not they’d meet a particular student’s needs.
Dave and David have also focused their efforts on continual improvement, optimization and automation to maintain high service standards. They have learned new techniques so they can focus their time working directly with students and providing excellent service, despite limited staffing. Dave and David are efficient because they are both team players who care deeply for the team. Their close collaboration and hard work have allowed the University to meet its student housing goals in a budget-neutral manner.
Gabriel Navarro
Advancement
Gabriel Navarro, prospect management analyst, has been an enthusiastic member of the Prospect Development team since he was hired nearly 18 months ago. His role on the Prospect Development team is to support pipeline development and health, particularly by ensuring data integrity. As Gabriel increased his knowledge of Brown Advancement and advanced his technical skill set, he began to translate prospect data and analysis into strategic insights for fundraising partners.
Gabriel has elevated his data analytics skills by proactively learning Tableau and Power BI. He developed dashboards for the team that have been instrumental in guiding decisions related to activity volume and solicitation strategies critical to successful fundraising. In FY24, he developed a methodology to assess open solicitations for their likelihood of closure within the fiscal year. He analyzed four years of solicitation data to identify key success indicators. This approach will allow fundraisers to quickly identify solicitations that may require additional attention.
Gabriel is a valued member of the Prospect Development team whose curiosity and analytical skills have allowed Advancement to create efficiencies within their team and innovate existing processes. He looks at data differently and asks thoughtful questions in an effort to improve Brown’s prospecting and fundraising practices.
Project Management Community of Practice (Team)
Various Brown Project Managers
In early 2024, the Project Management Community of Practice (PMCoP) was formed by a group of volunteers across campus, including Bethany Warburton from the Office of Information Technology, Sydney Menzin from the Office of the President, Wendy Wallace from the Office of Community Engagement and Kara Kelley from the Office of the EVP of Finance and Administration. They formed it with the purpose of fostering a collaborative network of project management professionals on Brown’s staff, empowering them to enhance their skills, share best practices and advance the success of University initiatives.
Since launching the community of practice, its founders held an inaugural soft launch meeting with 175 attendees, led a panel discussion on Staff Development Day and formed four subcommittees. They also held a fall kickoff launch with 70 attendees in early October, began monthly subcommittee and community of practice meetings in September, and began scheduling brown bag lunch-and-learn sessions. As of October 2024, there are 287 members.
The PMCoP vision is to be a dynamic hub for project management excellence at Brown, recognized for its impact on individual growth and collective achievement. The PMCoP aspires to inspire a culture of continuous learning and professional development, while fostering collaboration and innovation among project managers. The PMCoP is well on its way to achieving the vision set forth by its founding four: Bethany, Kara, Wendy, and Sydney.
Mary Ward
Alumni Relations
Mary Ward, senior director of alumni belonging, exemplifies Brown’s values through her strategic leadership, commitment to diversity and dedication to creating an inclusive alumni community. She has made transformational contributions to our community, and under her exceptional leadership, Alumni Relations has nurtured, expanded and stewarded diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging values and programming for more than 110,000 alumni.
Mary’s impact is significant, exemplified by her work on the 2023 Black Alumni Reunion, which brought together more than 1,200 alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends and earned two CASE Excellence awards, and her work on the Mosaic Newsletter, a tool she launched to highlight the experiences of Brown alumni of color, which received a CASE District I award. Mary worked on the 2020 historically underrepresented groups (HUGS) survey, which laid the groundwork for ongoing conversations about social and political complexities faced by Brown’s alumni. She also played a pivotal role in the CASE District I award-winning Alumni Affinity Career Initiative, which addresses urgent career support needs.
Through her dedication to community building, Mary has cultivated an environment where dialogue with diverse alumni is celebrated. By strengthening relationships with diverse alumni, she has ensured Alumni Relations’ strategies reflect community needs and aspirations, advocating for inclusion and connection. Her leadership has propelled initiatives that foster a deeper sense of belonging and engagement among our alumni, significantly enhancing the University's relationship with these important stakeholders.
Ruby Cheng
Campus Life & Student Services | Global Brown Center
Ruby Cheng’s exceptional work at the Global Brown Center (GBC) for International Students has transformed the support available to international students, especially during challenging times, including the past spring semester marked by global conflicts. Her compassion and insight helped students navigate these uncertainties, reinforcing a sense of belonging and stability. Her influence is seen through her impactful leadership, her dedication to mentoring international students and her commitment to fostering an inclusive community at Brown.
Since joining Brown in May 2023 as the inaugural assistant director of the GBC, Ruby has increased international student engagement and connection significantly. Under Ruby’s leadership, the GBC saw increased attendance at International Orientation in 2024 by over 75 students. She has also developed the International Mentoring Program, cultivating a cohort of International Mentoring Leaders who support incoming first-year students. Ruby’s creativity and strategic thinking are evident in the new Identity Conference, an event embedded in International Orientation, which received positive feedback. Additionally, Ruby has increased international graduate student engagement by 35% by expanding support and building community and mentorship opportunities.
Ruby’s work on assessment strategies, program frameworks, and strategic partnerships has exceeded expectations, showcasing her high performance potential and commitment to Brown. She is deeply dedicated, skilled, and continuously fosters an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students, beyond just the international student community.
Leah Burgin
Department of History | Choices Program
Leah Burgin was hired by Choices two and a half years ago to the newly created digital sales manager position. She has both expanded and streamlined customer communications and provided new modes of customer support via Zoom sessions and instructional guides. Leah has consistently produced new systems for tracking customer interests, developed sales benchmarks and created digital sales support aids to both drive sales of Choices’ Digital Editions and guide their strategic planning.
Leah increased digital site license sales by more than $150,000 and improved Choices’ quote closing rate by 11%, which means that the innovative scholarship generated at Brown University and found in our curriculum units will reach even more high school students around the world. Leah is also an inaugural member of the Choices DEAI committee, where she worked on a program to offer Title I low-income schools discounted access to Choices curricular materials. If Leah had not created this program and pushed it to the public, it's unlikely that the schools involved would have been able to afford the materials.
Leah has transformed Choices’ ability to provide Digital Editions customer support and outreach to the teachers that they serve. Leah’s patient manner with customers’ questions, her inexhaustible energy for creating improved systems for driving and tracking sales, and her welcoming work demeanor make the entire Choices team thankful that she joined the team.
Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations to this year's Excellence Awards.
Don’t forget that BEAR Day 2025 is on March 26, 2025, so save the date! Any questions about the Excellence Awards or Years of Service can be sent to ldeteam@brown.edu.
The Excellence Award for Citizenship will be presented to an individual or team that has enhanced the quality of life and made a substantial difference for employees, Brown University, or the greater community through a conscious commitment to public service. An individual or team may have initiated positive change in public service initiatives, enhanced Brown’s commitment to sustainability, creatively encouraged community participation, or heightened awareness.
An individual or team may have:
The Excellence Award for Diversity and Inclusion will be presented to an individual or team that has helped foster the six priority areas of Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University: people, academic excellence, curriculum, community, knowledge, and accountability.
An individual or team may have:
The Excellence Award for Efficiency will be presented to an individual or team that has improved fiscal or operational management in a department or in the Brown community, without compromising necessary services or operations. Initiatives or achievements may have significantly improved a work process or system, increased the efficiency and productivity of an operation or department, or increased revenues or resources. The accomplishments may have also reduced costs, conserved resources, or eliminated redundancies or errors.
An individual or team may have:
The Excellence Award for Environmental Stewardship will be presented to an individual or team that has made a significant and positive impact on the University’s Sustainability Initiative as outlined by President Paxson in February 2019 or the University Sustainability Plan presented to the community for feedback in February 2020. Stewardship is defined as the “careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.” In that spirit, an individual or team has initiated change at Brown or in the local community that advances Brown’s aggressive goal to cut its campus greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent by 2025 and to achieve net-zero no later than 2040 or supports the University Sustainability Plan.
An individual or team may have:
The Excellence Award for Innovation will be presented to an individual or team that has developed and/or implemented an innovative program, service, policy, or process that has had a resoundingly positive impact on a specific department, Brown University, or the greater community. These innovators may have envisioned and implemented novel ideas and new methods that effected powerful change. This individual or team may have either developed new programs or may have improved upon previously existing programs in new and original ways that proved a benefit to the campus community.
An individual or team may have:
The Excellence Award for Leadership will be presented to an individual or team that has demonstrated excellence in managing people with a commitment to empowering, educating, and supporting staff. These managers have served as a role model by inspiring confidence, respect, and professional development in their department. At the foundation of this award is the ability to recognize, reward, and foster greater individual contributions and/or promote greater team cooperation to achieve higher levels of performance. This award may not be limited to individuals who directly supervise others.
An individual or team may have:
The Excellence Award for Rising Star will be presented to an individual or team that has worked at Brown for a minimum of one year and less than three years and has made an immediate impact on their department and the University. This award recognizes the energy, enthusiasm, knowledge, and innovative ideas a new employee may bring to the workplace. An individual or team may have achieved any one of the accomplishments described in any of the categories.
The Excellence Award for Service will be presented to an individual or team that has a greater appreciation for customer’s needs and how best to respond to them by approaching work through the eyes of the customer. This individual or team provides service or leadership that exceeds expectations, providing extraordinary assistance to students, faculty, staff, alumni, or parents that results in a positive outcome for the University.
An individual or team may have:
Special thanks to this year’s Excellence Award Selection Committee who read dozens of nominations. We could not have done this without their incredible insight, expertise and hard work.