Tony Houdek
It’s impossible to just chose one story about Tony’s consistent and strong leadership and guidance so I’ll share some general thoughts on why I believe he deserves to be recognized for VTTC.
I’ve been at Mason 6 years and the past 1.5 with the excellent team in the IT Security office. During my time in ITSO I’ve seen Tony clearly articulate his expectations while never forgetting to pause and listen to all of us (from the new hires to the old guard) and offering actionable insight for even the most mundane questions we have. Tony consistently acts with integrity and happily engages in all work tasks be they guiding our interns on a new problem they’re facing or preparing findings for Curtis to present to senior leadership on a security incident.
Two of the greatest things about working with Tony though are his commitment to providing a respectful workspace where everyone feels comfortable voicing their opinions and his commitment to teamwork – be that diving into the weeds on a large scale complex IT security issue or simply joining us analysts for a quick pick-up ping-pong game at the end of the day. Our team wouldn’t be where we are or as good as we are without him.
-J.D. Sayle
Ryan LeBreton
Ryan always takes the time to help me out no matter how wild the ask might be. He takes his time to teach me how to do things and point me to resources. When we work together, it’s so seamless because we can communicate so effortlessly. I have learned so much from him, and enjoy working with him. Thank you Ryan!
-Christina Crockett
Lisa Carr
Thank you to Lisa for helping out with an urgent user-account issue today. She was immediately accessible, checked on the issue herself, and gave us the information we needed to develop a plan. With Lisa, I could probably submit one of these every week, but today’s assistance was especially appreciated!
-Kathi Gelona
Brad Sullivan
Thank you to Brad with assistance in an urgent user-account issue today. We were in uncharted territory, and he gave us the information we needed plus some important background for going forward. The conversation was very collaborative, which is always appreciated.
-Kathi Gelona
Noor Aarohi
We had a contractor who had difficulty completing the required security training and was going to lose access. Rather than sending us into a frustrating loop of trying to get access and have the security training completed (which we understand is our own responsibility), Noor offered assistance to both our department, and to the contractor to make sure the training was able to be accessed and completed.
Noor understood that the goal of the mandatory security training is helping people be compliant with security processes and procedures and that we needed this contractor to be compliant with our security. She worked persistently with us through all of the issues until the training was finally successfully completed. Even after all of the back and forth, she took seriously the contractor’s feedback about the training, and offered to look into his questions. She demonstrated that she cares about the security compliance and the individuals involved in our work.
-Aileen Miller
Michael Kramer
Thank you to Michael Kramer for his assistance with an urgent user-account issue today. Michael immediately contacted the appropriate administrators, submitted a ticket on my behalf, and then followed up with me twice. We were able to solve our problem hours before we’d expected to. Thank you to Michael for being so proactive, in this situation and with previous tickets.
-Kathi Gelona
Nico Clemente, Richard Jackson, Brandon Capes, Mark Craft & Michael Rothgeb
I would like to recognize the effort this excellent team has been putting in for the MESA migration project. They put on their engineering hats, diligently and proactively work ahead of what’s asked of them to move the migration project forward. In addition, they have been resolving issues, some of which the vendor/consultants have not encountered before, and sharing their observations with others. It is a great collaboration they are performing!!
-Yuko Kuo
Jennifer Newsome & Benita James
On nights and weekends the Data Center team monitors the [email protected] email box for outages, and on weekdays members of the ITS Support Center monitor it. Over the past several months, there have been multiple occasions when we were short staffed at the ITS Support Center, and didn’t have anyone to monitor the mailbox during the day. I would call the Data Center and ask if they could take over the monitoring early or watch it for a few hours when we didn’t have anyone. Every time I called, Jennifer or Benita would cheerfully agree. I really appreciate their willingness to help out, it truly shows their commitment to One ITS!
-Teresa Gibbons
Elizabeth Redwine
I just received outstanding service and I am compelled to let you know. Teams on my iPhone stopped working with a password reset over winter break. I tried to fix it then and I was unable, and latter forgetting its broken state. Last Friday a serious production server issue occurred and because Teams was broken on the phone, my colleagues experienced delays in contacting me. Fast forward to today, and the pressing task of getting back in the communications loop was corrected by Liz with calm, her great knowledgebase, her persistence, and, ultimately, success. I am so very grateful!
Keep up the great work and thanks again,
-Peter Rea