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Northwest Missouri State University on Wednesday honored four employees who exhibit a positive influence on its academic community through their dedication, collegiality and unassuming excellence.
The Academic Impact Awards, which the University presented for the third consecutive year, were announced during a meeting of staff and faculty who are involved with academic affairs units at Northwest.
“We started the Impact Awards to recognize staff or faculty who have done something amazing, something outstanding, something beyond and above what they normally do – but also those individuals who quietly work behind the scenes and do an outstanding job,” Provost Dr. Jamie Hooyman said. “These individuals help Northwest shine.”
Recipients of the awards and a summary of their nominations are provided below.
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Miranda Hoyt, CRM administrator in the Office of AdmissionsHoyt was hired in April as Northwest’s first customer relationship management (CRM) administrator and has been instrumental in implementing Element451, the University’s new recruitment and admissions CRM platform for admissions applications and prospective student communication, among other processes. Hoyt is always seeking ways to use the system to streamline processes, introduce features and include other campus stakeholders. With her leadership, the graduate team has joined the undergraduate team on the CRM for the first time, and her contributions have led to many process improvements, making Element451 a tool that will have a positive impact at Northwest for years to come. |
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Dr. Ming-Chih Hung, professor of geography in the Department of Humanities and Social SciencesHung has played a key role in creating a partnership between the University and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that allows Northwest staff and students to work on creating maps for use by the U.S. government. Because of Dr. Hung’s vision, the program recently expanded to hire a second staff member, thus increasing the number of maps the University can produce as part of its agreement with NGA. |
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Charles “Buddy” Mayfield, director of financial assistance in the Office of Scholarships and Financial AssistanceMayfield has been active in Northwest’s preparations and rollout of the federally required FAFSA Simplification Act. His leadership and involvement in national and state organizations helped ensure Northwest had an effective implementation plan for the required changes. He collaborated with colleagues in the Office of Information Technology and the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness to formulate an appropriate timeline and ensure students received their financial aid packages. Mayfield and his team continue to tackle challenges and pivot when necessary to help students and families as new guidelines and processes are released by the U.S. Department of Education. |
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Tye Parsons, grants coordinator, Office of the Grants CoordinatorParsons joined Northwest as its grants coordinator in 2013 and has worked on numerous federal, state and private grant projects and contracts. Since Parsons joined the University, it has received grant funding totaling more than $30.5 million on more than 250 projects with at least 90 different project leads. During the past fiscal year, Parsons worked with 32 projects that were newly awarded or continuances from a previous year for a total of $3 million in funding. There are few people, spaces, programs or units at Northwest that have not felt the impact of his work as grants coordinator. |
