MAR. 25, 2013

Celebration to honor staff, award winners

BY ELIZABETH DEVITT

Hundreds of School of Medicine employees will be honored April 3 for their dedicated work and accomplishments.

The annual Dean's Recognition Celebration in the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge will salute 426 employees who are marking their five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years of service.

In addition, three employees will receive awards for making a difference to their own departments and programs as well as to the broader school community.

The Inspiring Change Leadership Award, which will be given to Rhonda McClinton-Brown, recognizes a staff member who has helped make "transformative improvements in service, efficiency, value, effectiveness, outcome or satisfaction" for an entire work group or department. The Dean's Spirit Awards honor one exempt and one nonexempt employee for their contributions to the school's mission and vision. This year's recipients are Jzesern Tan and Walter Damm. Each of the three award winners will receive a cash prize of $1,500.

Rhonda McClinton-Brown

Six years ago, when the search committee began looking for the first executive director for the school's Office of Community Health its members knew they needed someone special to foster strong relationships between the university and the community, which are crucial for its mission: to develop and promote education, research and clinical training programs aimed at building leaders in community health and improve the health of underserved populations. The committee also knew who they hoped would fill that leadership position: Rhonda McClinton-Brown.

"We knew Rhonda from her stellar reputation in the community, where she led a coalition of community clinics," noted the office's faculty director Marilyn Winkleby, PhD, MPH, in her letter nominating Brown for the award. For 11 years, Brown was executive director of Community Health Partnership of Santa Clara County, an association of nine nonprofit community health organizations, the city of San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital Systems. Brown had also served on the Office of Community Health's advisory board since it was founded in 2005 and taught several courses on campus, too.

After their favorite candidate stepped into the office's leadership role, associate director Ann Banchoff, MSW, MPH, wrote in her letter of support, "I breathed a tremendous sigh of relief. Rhonda was exactly the right person to take on this new position."

Although Brown said she wasn't looking for a change when she got recruited, she also thought it might be the right new challenge. "I felt I could bring a voice to these faculty who are in the trenches, doing their work in the community," she said, adding that she particularly wanted to highlight the school's many contributions "because Stanford isn't known for all the great things we do in the community; we're known for our research in the basic sciences and our specialty clinics."

Since Brown came to the Office of Community Health, Banchoff credited her for using a "process-and-relationship-oriented style," which meant taking the time to ask questions of faculty, students, staff and community members before developing an action plan. That approach enabled Brown to establish and strengthen clinical, educational and research partnerships with more than 25 health-related agencies in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In addition, she initiated seed grants and set up workshops for community-based research. Banchoff said Brown also was instrumental in saving the student-run Pacific Free Clinic by revamping the administrative oversight to ensure smooth operations and sustainability.

"Trust has been developed because Rhonda and her staff have partnered with our local communities, responded to their unmet health needs and leveraged resources at Stanford to help them enhance the health of the poor and underserved. Few people can ever do this in their lifetimes — Rhonda has done this in the short time she has been at Stanford," wrote Winkleby.

But, Brown isn't stopping to smell the roses. While roses are her favorite flowers, the success of her work motivates her to continuously increase Stanford's reach. "That's what I do," said Brown. "I bring people together."

Jzesern Tan

Until now, faculty affairs administrator Jzesern Tan has been an "unsung powerhouse" in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. He's the go-to person for everything from ordering products and setting up labs, to writing grants and recruiting faculty, wrote assistant professor Lucy O'Brien, PhD, in a letter to the award committee.

While his organizational skills are greatly valued, Tan's colleagues equally appreciate the reliability, resourcefulness and enthusiasm he brings to his work. "Jzesern has never said that something can't be done," noted Kristina Micheva, a senior research scientist in the department.

That positive attitude carried the entire department through a recruitment effort two years ago for two new faculty members, said Tan's supervisor Elisabeth Einaudi, director of finance and administration, in her nomination letter. He'd never done a faculty search, so Tan consulted other departments, developed a protocol and then launched a massive outreach effort that garnered twice the number of applicants that another leading school received at about the same time. Tan didn't stop there; he smoothed the selection process for committee members and assigned himself to the new hires to ensure an easy transition.

"I like to work smarter, not harder," said Tan. His organizational secret is "to put in as little legwork as possible and make every project self-sustaining." He also solicits ideas from everyone; good or bad, he learns from them. Tan believes his background in film production gave him the creative, problem-solving skills that enabled his successful transition to Stanford four years ago.

Tan also credits his supervisor, Einaudi, for helping him acclimate to the university environment. "She always finds a way to make my good ideas even better," said Tan, and then continued with a smile in his voice, "And she never stopped me from doing anything I wanted to do."

The annual pie-baking contest was one of Tan's ideas. Faculty and staff throughout the department contribute pies that are judged and then, of course, eaten. Making pies may be the only thing he's not able to organize well. Tan admitted he's "really bad" at making pie crust. But, he's researched new techniques and is optimistic about this year's contest entry.

Walter Damm

It isn't typical to find those who like to work with numbers as much as they like to work with people, but Walter Damm has distinguished himself by doing both, with pleasure. A financial analyst with the Department of Surgery for the past six years, his co-workers know him as a man who never says "no."

His patient, helpful nature, professionalism and "willingness to walk with you through whatever you need to understand," earned him a handful of nominations for the Spirit Award.

"Walter has one of the best attitudes I've ever seen, always remaining positive, accepting any work that needs to be done, covering what needs to be covered, whether or not it's his 'job,'" said Stephanie Edelman, the department's director of finance and administration, in her testimonial.

He sees himself as a "people person," not just a numbers guy. With that outlook, Damm said his job just grew into a position where people would call him for general financial information, too. If he didn't have the answer, he wanted to find it for himself as well.
"He's become a trainer for all incoming division managers and financial staff, providing them with as much training as they need; he covers for many of them when they go on vacation, holding down the fort for weeks at a time, even though he has his own deadlines and responsibilities to meet," Edelman added.

But Damm doesn't see anything remarkable about his actions. Whenever the department was shorthanded, it seemed natural to step up to handle the additional work. "It works both ways," he said. "If you let it go, it's more work for everyone. But if you keep up, it's just a matter of handing everything over."

His favorite accomplishment is teaching someone a skill or a process, and then finding they don't need him anymore. "It's nice to know they can go on and do things on their own," said Damm.

"Walter is the type of person every department wants, in spades!!" wrote his supervisor, associate director of finance Sree Gupta, in her letter of commendation.

Fortunately for the surgery department, Damm really enjoys working with people and loves his job. "There's never a day that I wake up and don't want to go to work," he said.

---

Elizabeth Devitt is a science-writing intern for the school's Office of Communication & Public Affairs.

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For more information, please visit the Office of Communication & Public Affairs site at http://mednews.stanford.edu/.