Congratulations to the 2014 Spirit Award Recipients

It is hard to capture all of the ways that Debbie impacts the School of Medicine. Her incredible Spirit is the best place to start. Debbie's commitment to Stanford, the School of Medicine, and her colleagues has been unwavering throughout her 37 year career at Stanford.

Her "can do, will do" attitude has allowed her to build and retain strong relationships within the School and University. Debbie is frequently asked by various University teams to act as the key representative for the School on upcoming change initiatives and pilot programs. Debbie maintains an open door policy - there really isn't a day that passes by where there isn't someone who stops by her office seeking some type of financial advice.

Debbie is outstanding as an accountant, her vast knowledge of the University and the School of Medicine's financial arena - the budgeting process, understanding the University's policies and procedures regarding Stanford's accounting process all make her the ultimate "go to" person for anyone who has financial questions.

Debbie always has a positive attitude, even if it means working after hours or weekends during year-end close, she will remain upbeat and keep a positive attitude. When it comes to customer service, she gets a triple A rating. Anyone can come to her with any question or issue and her willingness to help is always the same - she is never too busy!

Jessica invariably does more than her job title would suggest. She is the goto person for almost any question that affects the department or the medical school.

Last year, Jessica helped us relocate 6 faculty labs on the fourth floor of the Beckman center. Some of the labs had been in the same location since 1989! This involved a considerable amount of coordination - new spaces needed remodeling, space rooms were retrofitted for new uses and equipment needed to be relocated to new locations on the floor. There was no way the entre process would have been accomplished so successfully without Jessica! Over the Christmas holiday, she oversaw the remodeling of our administrative offices.

This year Jessica has supervised the move of another faculty member to Beckman and helped guide the remodeling of tissue culture facilities to accommodate this new lab. She is organized, professional, works well with contractors, and has such a can-do attitude that benefits the entire department.

Equipment and resources of the Biochemistry Department are used by many scientists within the Stanford research community. Jessica goes out of her way to help them accomplish their experiments. She makes sure that they get the training they need, and organizes schedules to maximize equipment productivity. Her unwavering determination keeps the Biochemistry Department operating at its highest level.

She is acknowledged at every thesis defense as a critical factor in the success of newly minted PhDs. She is the hub that makes the Biochemistry Department work - the critical factor in maintaining the ethic of sharing that has existed in the department since Arthur Kornberg brought it to Stanford in 1959.

Elias coordinates the use of the necropsy lab which is in high demand by researchers throughout the medical school. He assists researchers and trains many new graduate students, lab technicians, post docs, and undergraduate students. His consistent upbeat, jovial, and enthusiastic persona toward every faculty, researcher, or student he helps is truly evident. He never says "no", and his follow-through is exceptional on tasks he is assigned or asked to assist.

Elias has been an exceptional asset to the Department during a time of need. This past fall, due to staff family leave and sabbaticals, he was totally responsible for making decisions about necropsy equipment, supplies, and maintaining the data base, working independently with investigators that needed pathology support.

He worked exceptionally hard to keep the Necropsy Service running in a manner that posed no interruption of service to our customers and to the other members of the Department around him. His performance was outstanding - our customers and his peers reported that he continued to provide the same level of excellent service, while maintaining a positive and upbeat attitude despite being overworked.

Elias is not only popular among his peers but also respected by the students because of the time and energy he puts into helping people improve their skills in the Necropsy room. One of the students has acclaimed, "Elias has been a formative figure in my education during comparative anatomy laboratory coursework. His patience, joviality, and kindness were pervasive during all of his interactions with us undergraduates, and we were always genuinely pleased to work with him. His deep respect for animals, quiet knowledge, and upbeat attitude are traits that I admire, and hope to emulate in my future career as a veterinarian. Thanks, Elias for teaching and getting to know us. You're amazing!"