Congratulations to all of our 2022 Making A Difference Award nominees and winners, who were honored at an awards program Jan. 4 in the Memorial Union Ballroom.
Senior Administrative Aide Darlene Saari was recognized as an unsung hero.
Darlene’s nominator says: While managing the many responsibilities she routinely handles with care and enthusiasm, Darlene is a constant and welcoming presence for our team and our students. She serves as the safety officer for our department, handles the extensive payroll, supplies, and other purchases required to keep things running smoothly, course scheduling, TPR processes, and the numerous reports required for budgeting and other purposes. With the addition of research active faculty, she now also helps to manage large research related expenditures. Darlene is always on call and ready to drop everything and run to a classroom to deliver supplies, batteries, assignment copies—whatever the team needs. She is our active-learning emergency classroom support. The tasks are endless and yet are always met with a passion to excel in everything she does. She takes great pride in her invaluable role in the Engineering Fundamentals department, and we are all very thankful to have her on our team.