Iowa State’s Professional and Scientific Council held its annual Cytation Awards on Thursday, giving recognition to ISU employees for going above and beyond throughout the pandemic.

Iowa State’s P&S employees fill a wide range of responsibilities from research and investigation to academic affairs. These employees are essential to making sure that all of the processes and functions of the university run smoothly. To show their gratitude, the P&S Council holds a Cytation award ceremony every year.

This year’s Cytation awards took place in person for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19. The awards began at 7:00 a.m. with a breakfast banquet in the Alumni Center Reiman Ballroom, and at 8:00 a.m., the awards ceremony began with a word from Wendy Wintersteen.

“We have made it through one of the most extraordinary times in our history and we’ve done it together,” Wintersteen said. “And we can come back together in a room like this to celebrate individuals for their leadership, the impact that they’ve had, this is a good thing.”

After Wintersteen finished her speech, Chris Johnsen, the current president of the P&S Council, took the podium to begin the awards ceremony. Johnsen expressed his gratitude for all P&S employees and the significance of the awards to be presented. He then handed the podium off to Suzanne Ankerstjerne, the P&S Council Award Committee chair, to announce the award winners.

“The last two years have been especially hard and with the extraordinary ​​effort that the campus has gone through, professional and scientific employees have carried a huge load in supporting the efforts for the universities functions,” Ankerstjerne said. “And this event this year is extra special because we were virtual for the last two.”

While the last two Cytation awards took place virtually, with awards presented through the mail, P&S employees held strong and persevered through the challenges they faced. Many of the Cytation recipients received awards for exceeding their responsibilities and helping the university to quickly adapt to changes brought on by the pandemic.

“It’s great to recognize the individuals in person in front of the senior leadership, but also, it’s just it’s an important event to have every year because there’s such great work that occurs here every single year,” Johnsen said. “coming out of the pandemic, there’s just so much cause for celebration of all the great work of professional scientific staff do.”

Four different awards were presented at the Cytation Banquet, the Cytation award: the individual Cytation Award, for outstanding service by P&S employees, the Woodin Cytation award, for an individual who has shown willingness to go above and beyond their personal tasks, the Outstanding new P&S Council Member Cytation Award and the team Cytation Award, to celebrate teams who excelled during the previous year.

Cytation Award Recipients:

• Danise Jones, graduate student services specialist

• Stephanie Schoeller, assistant finance manager

• Zoe Kiefer, research scientist

• Beth Minner, research administrator

• Spencer Braly, audiovisual support

• Ana Clymer, program specialist

• Keara Doocy, assistant director for TRIO, Student Engagement and Leadership

• Alisha Carroll, alumni relations specialist

• Matt Shriver, senior manager utilities

• William (Bill) Beach, communications specialist

• Huigang Shen, diagnostic associate

• Alison Doyle, Program specialist

• Tiffany Schieffer, head early childhood teacher

• Valyn Bodensteiner, marketing specialist

The Woodin Cytation recipient was Heather Paris, associate vice president for finance and support services.

The Outstanding new P&S Council Member Cytation recipient was Sarah Larkin, the customer relations coordinator.

Four separate Team Cytation Awards:

• The Audiovisual Experience Team, consisting of:

• Mike Pedersen

• Dan Brauer

• Casey Weldon

• Phil Kuhlman

• Rusty Pidsosny

• Shane Sparks

• Spencer Braly

• The CARES Pre-Award Team:

• Ásrún Ÿr Kristmundsdóttir

• Kerry Bilsten

• Kendra M Lee

• Natalia Rogovska

• Lisa Stephany

• Mandy Voyek

• Seth Wilmes

• Kelly Yohnke

• Wenli Su

• The Finance Service Delivery Operations Team:

• Bonnie Tinker

• Dave Baker

• Stephanie Schoeller

• The ISSC International Student Canvas Course Team

• Santos Nunez

• David Sappenfield

• Melody Schobert

• Joyce Lai

• Meng Xiao

• Alejandra Flores Renteria