Good Steward Awards

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Jeanelle Boyer has devoted significant time above and beyond her teaching and advising responsibilities to ensure the health and safety of the KSC campus community. She has worked tirelessly, with grace, and has continued to openly share her ideas and innovations. More specifically, Dr. Boyer has drawn upon her rich experience in the areas of microbiology, public health, and stress management to support the viability of the campus throughout the current pandemic.

From the beginning of the pandemic, she invested innumerable hours staying informed in the current state of the science related to COVID 19 including being on the forefront of testing wastewater as a public health surveillance strategy. She has also served on the Rapid Response and COVID Contact tracing team, hosted Facebook live events through the NH Public Health Task Force, developed and implemented the KSC Quarantine Buddy System, and hosted weekly yoga and meditation events for the campus and community.

The most impressive aspect of all of this work by Dr. Boyer is the selflessness that she displays while still meeting her obligations to her classes, students, and her current research.

Kenn Walker lent his time, talents, and expertise to deepening our partnership with the Moore Center and redefining how our college serves and works with community members with intellectual disabilities. Kenn is the Director of Saint Anselm College's Academic Resource Center and oversees the college's disability services. Two years ago, he approached the Meelia Center with an idea that has turned into an impactful program for community members, students, and faculty.

Kenn worked closely with Moore JOBS, an internship program at the Moore Center that prepares individuals with intellectual disabilities for meaningful employment, to create an opportunity for Moore JOBS interns to experience academic and social life on a college campus. Moore JOBS has a classroom component that prepares the interns for their internship placement at a nursing home. Kenn worked with the Moore JOBS team and a nursing faculty to create an on-campus classroom experience for the interns where they learned alongside college students. Our students helped teach the lessons and complete learning activities with the interns. They also supported social activities out of the classroom, taking students to the dining hall and other activities on campus. The program was very successful and led to partnerships with other faculty in disciplines related to the Moore JOBS internship, like psychology.

While the Moore Center has been a Meelia Center partner for many years, Kenn's development of this program has taken our partnership to the next level. He and this program created a space where the Moore JOBS interns feel welcomed and part of our community, a unique opportunity for faculty engagement, and an experiential classroom where Saint Anselm students are able to apply their learning. Most importantly, it has helped to break down barriers between our campus and community members with intellectual disabilities. By creating an opportunity for our students to engage and learn alongside the Moore Center interns and opening up our campus, this program has helped to address stigmas and commonly held misconceptions about students and community members with intellectual disabilities.

Laura Anderson has distinguished herself among the staff over the last year. During these unsettling times, Laura has provided leadership to ensure the safety of our entire college community. As the Director of our Wellness Center, Laura has lent her medical expertise to the overall operations of the COVID Response Team, planning for the pandemic, executing plans, providing support to others, and working countless hours each week.

Of note is the personal support Laura provides to faculty, staff, students, and their families. She meets individually with anyone in need of medical support and advice, is always willing to listen and help people feel more comfortable and helps get them the information they need. This usually occurs well beyond business hours.

Laura truly cares about the individuals that make up our community. This is seen by her service, acts of kindness, and dedication. She is truly a Good Steward.

Sarah Baillargeon has gone above and beyond utilizing her professional expertise in service to the wider community. Early this winter, Sarah volunteered her services to the community by participating in discussions and then strategizing the development of a Covid-19 Vaccine clinic. Her efforts, volunteer time, and professionalism has contributed extensively to community and public health in northern New Hampshire during the Covid-19 pandemic. Given her expertise as a registered nurse and educator, her input was highly valued. Further, Sarah saw an opportunity to use a current health crisis as an educational opportunity and incorporated the vaccine clinic into her clinical rotations for her students. Under Sarah's leadership and innovative thinking, students and faculty have been participating in vaccine clinics in Berlin, Gorham, and Littleton. Even after their clinical rotation, students are volunteering to go back to assist at the clinics as part of their efforts to respond to a global and local health crisis. Students have had an opportunity to learn first hand vaccine administration, monitoring for post injection reactions and observation of the coordination of such clinics. I applaud Sarah for her efforts and her contribution to the wider community.

Mack Bean, Ed.D., Associate Professor of Finance in the College of Business, serves as the advisor to Business Minds Club and the Monadnock Incubator at Franklin Pierce University. In this role, Dr. Bean has formed partnerships with area organizations, providing expertise on various business strategies and mentoring students to take what is gleaned in the classroom and share that knowledge in practical applications with Monadnock area businesses, helping to solve various challenges faced.

With the support of student members of the Business Minds Club, Dr. Bean has recently worked with New Hampshire Ball Bearing, DDBean, Peterborough Maker Space, Rookery Hammock Station, Nuttin Ordinary, and Crotched Mountain Center. Under his leadership, students completed market research, drafted business plans, designed marketing strategies, and offered feedback website design. Students are recruited by current Club members and assigned to different projects, working directly with clients to identify issues and provide the assistance needed. Dr. Bean provides the steady mentoring and strategic guidance that keeps the students engaged and moving forward toward their goals.

In recognition of Dr. Bean's continued outreach efforts and commitment the local economy, Crotched Mountain Rehab Services has partnered with the Business Minds Club on three different aspects of their business. His enthusiasm continues to inspire his students, and fosters positive relationships between Franklin Pierce University and the greater Monadnock Business Community.

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, Granite State College, an adult-focused public institution, was already supporting its students in a predominantly online environment. As such, the core work of the College—instruction, academic support, academic technology, student services, library services—were essentially intact and fully operational; however, the lives of our full-time faculty and staff—and the lives of many our students and adjunct faculty—reflected the same disruptions and disorientation that affected this nation and much of the world, exacerbated by gaps in access to reliable, accurate information.

In this context, Peter Conklin stepped forward, both in and ultimately beyond his formal role with the College, to serve as a trusted source of information for colleagues across the College. First, in weekly (and later bi-weekly) College-wide meetings, Peter took the lead in identifying accurate, science-based information, and distilled that information into an accessible format, not simply to inform the work of the College as an organization, but to inform the members of the College community as people: as citizens, as parents, as caretakers for others. In presentations that reflected scientific and technical insights that informed our collective understanding, Peter also demonstrated the humanity and shared the vulnerability that we all felt in the midst of a public health crisis that shuttered schools, caused unemployment to surge, and created ripple effects that were felt in virtually every household of the GSC community.

Through his regular communications, his empathy, and his sense of humor, Peter kept the College community informed, educated, and coordinated during the pandemic. For his inspiration to the administration and for being a lifeline for the faculty and staff of the College, GSC is proud to recognize Peter Conklin as the recipient of the 2021 Campus Compact New Hampshire Good Steward Award.

President's Good Steward Award - Dr. Amanda Couitt, Physical Therapist Assistant Professor & Director of Clinical Education

In the COVID pandemic, Dr. Amanda Couitt was able to think outside the box to implement a creative solution to ensure that the senior PTA students would be able to graduate on time. When it became clear that COVID was going to decrease the number of Practicum sites to a point that there would not be enough to support all of the students, Amanda worked with members of other PTA programs across New England to problem solve ways that River Valley could meet the clinical requirements of our program. She created a simulation lab on two campuses which incorporated both computer-based clinical problem solving and face-to-face simulations. She wrote the curriculum and the scripts, trained the clinical educators and the mock patients, and coordinated the entire program. Her dedication and tireless work allowed students to meet their clinical hours and hone their clinical skills despite not having the traditional practicum experience. As a result, every single PTA student at RVCC will graduate on time.

Pam has been instrumental in creating, implementing, managing and monitoring our pandemic response return to campus plan for the past twelve months. Pam also serves as our Student Government Association advisor and she maximized her connections with those student leaders to create educational opportunities, morale boosters, and informal focus groups to provide the administration feedback and ideas about how we could improve the student and campus experience. Pam also created service opportunities for both staff and students. Pam proposed and implemented a ``sophomore connect`` program that matched staff volunteers with a group of students as a way to have regular communication with them when we moved to remote learning. She worked with Student Government to send post cards of inspiration to underclassmen. In a time of isolation and uncertainty, her efforts have been instrumental in keeping students engaged and healthy both physically and mentally.

Miriam Siwale has been at Hellenic American University since 2006. As an undergraduate student, she served students as an Executive Officer of the University Student Council for many years and represented our institution in a volunteering initiative - led by the students and in collaboration with the Student Affairs Office - an outreach to the general community. Her efforts did not go unnoticed and in 2011 she became the Recipient of the Campus Compact Presidents' Leadership Award for her outstanding contributions to community service, service-learning, and civic engagement efforts on their campus as a student. As a graduate student, she never lost touch with the student community and acted as a mentor to undergraduate students who also wanted to excel both in academics and community service.
Today, as an employee of Hellenic American University, Miriam continues to serve her community. Her role as Registrar goes beyond the job description. As an alumna, she always has at heart what is best for the students. Through the years, her desire to help those in need, pay forward the help that she once received, share her skills and knowledge with others, only grows stronger. A little over a year ago, after completing the Advancing Migrant Women EU project with Dr. Sofia Protopapa, Director of the Career Development Office, with her help, they revised the training material and made it youth-oriented. Since then, Miriam was able to work with the youth from her church. Her goal is to be able to work with any youngster that might feel ``stuck`` and might need a gentle ``push`` to move forward.
Finally, Miriam states that she could not have achieved this accomplishment without her colleagues, who from day one have supported and been part of her dream; Ms. Dimitra Diamantopoulou, Ms. Stavroula Floratos, Dr. Ermioni Karachaliou, and Dr. Sofia Protopapa.

Ann Thurston arrived at Plymouth State College as a 17-year-old undergrad. ``I didn't understand the value of a degree,`` she recalls. But her mother, who had finished her own degree while raising three children, certainly did and brought Ann to visit Plymouth State. She's been here ever since. And she's learned the value of a degree, or in her case, three of them. Thurston's life at Plymouth State has spanned four decades and numerous positions and awards. She started by working in Lamson Library, and has served as manager of campus services, bursar, and associate vice president for academic administration and finance. ``I get to work with really fantastic people,`` she says. ``I have the opportunity to participate in the life of the University through supporting our students and faculty.`` In 2016, Thurston stepped into the role of Plymouth State's first Director of Planned Giving. ``I realized I had been training my whole career to be a Planned Giving Officer,`` she says. ``I am delighted when I speak with alumni who graduated in the 1940s and 50s who never thought about leaving Plymouth State in their legacy, but who speak about their great experiences at Plymouth. So many people credit Plymouth State with their successes in life. There is tremendous value in continuing to raise awareness that planned giving is an option and the different opportunities that exist to give.`` In the past five years as Director of Planned Giving, Ann Thurston has transformed Plymouth State's planned giving operation, which was in its nascence when she took the role. She has worked with the vendor PG Calc to develop the University's promotional materials and website outlining the variety of charitable gift planning options. She has cultivated relationships between Plymouth State and estate planning professionals to ensure that bequests and other planned gifts left to the University are received accurately and efficiently. Through her thoughtful stewardship of deferred gift donors, Thurston has inducted over 40 new members to the Holmes Heritage Society, an honorary society for alumni and friends who have included Plymouth State in their financial and estate plans through a will, trust, retirement plan, life insurance policy, or life income gift. New members are honored and inducted every year by Thurston at the University's annual connections event between students and their scholarship donors. In addition to her role as a steward, Thurston has been a generous donor to Plymouth State for nearly four decades. She and her late partner, Betsy Cheney '89,'99G, set up their own significant planned gift to the University more than ten years ago. Ann Thurston's forty-year career has covered every facet of Plymouth State University, from working with department chairs, to the registrar's office, to the Office of Sponsored Programs, to securing over a million planned giving dollars for future generations of Plymouth State students. She draws from her wealth of experience at the institution when connecting with potential donors, who trust her because they know she legitimately believes what she says. The institution provided her with an education and a career, with mentors, friends, and family. Raising funds for Plymouth State is not a job for Ann Thurston; it's a responsibility and a calling. Though she will be retiring from Plymouth State in the summer of 2021, we look forward to her continued involvement with the University as a triple-alumna, donor, volunteer, and Holmes Heritage Society member.

For Dr. Svetlana ``Yana`` Grushina, engaged pedagogy and iterative learning are not simply teaching tools, but rather the values that undergird both her research and teaching. As a Senior Lecturer at the Dartmouth's Institute of Writing and Rhetoric, Yana teaches engaged learning courses centered on public speaking and the ``rhetoric, theory, and praxis`` of how new media shape our current lives and livelihoods, in both instances finding creative ways to support students grappling with big questions. She has partnered with the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact to integrate community-driven experiential learning projects (called Social Impact Practicums) into her courses where students apply their knowledge to advance issues in community health, education, sustainability, and equity across myriad additional social sectors. In addition to community-based learning in her own courses, Dr. Grushina's work at a broader level contributed to Dartmouth's Speech department being awarded the Rex Mix Program of Excellence award in 2019 by the National Communication Association in recognition for being the ``top undergraduate communication program`` in the nation. In addition to her impressive array of pedagogical enterprises with community partners, Dr. Grushina publishes in top journals and mentors students who rave that she is an ``absolutely outstanding prof `{`who`}` inspired me to go on living in this pandemic and to become a better person, `{`not to mention`}` a better writer`` and ``always available to meet and genuinely cares about every student. Class discussions were always interesting `{`and one-on-one conferences were hugely beneficial....she makes a ton of comments on drafts but if you work hard, you'll learn a lot``. Yana Grushina is a leader in her field and both the Upper Valley and Dartmouth are lucky to have such an accomplished, inspiring, and dedicated faculty member in their midst.

Kristine Willett, PharmD, FASHP is a Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the MCPHS University School of Pharmacy-Worcester/Manchester. Her clinical practice site is Concord Hospital in Concord, NH, where she has precepted over 250 pharmacy students in their internal medicine rotation. Because of her work related to the COVID-19 immunization efforts within the State of NH, Dr. Willett is the ideal recipient for the Presidents' Good Steward Award. Dr. Willett has volunteered at State wide immunization events, such as the Vaccination Supersite event at the NH Motor Speedway, helping to immunize over 11,000 patients. She is also been involved with State wide efforts at the National Guard's fixed vaccination sites. Additionally, Dr. Willett has been working with MCPHS University leadership and NH Department of Safety leadership to coordinate vaccination efforts of faculty and students, which has made a relatively complicated process, much easier, thereby prompting more faculty and students to get involved on behalf of the University. For example, during the week of March 15 - 21, faculty and students at MCPHS University completed 18 shifts as vaccinators at various sites, include Nashua, Salem, Hooskett, and Plymouth. Dr. Willett's continued contribution to the State and University, and by extension the greater NH community is much appreciated.

Dr. Paula DelBonis-Platt is the Chair of Liberal Arts, overseeing the Social Science, General Studies, ESOL, and Liberal Arts programs. She teaches writing, literature, mindful communication, and French at NHTI-Concord's Community College. Dr. DelBonis-Platt has served on a number of committees, including the Teaching and Learning Team; the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Task Force; the Convocation Team; the Guided Pathways committee; the First-Year Experience team; the Service Learning Team; and others. She also oversaw a pilot program to study data and improve offerings and outcomes for developmental writers, students not yet ready for college-level offerings. She serves as the faculty advisor to The Eye, NHTI's journal now in its 32nd year ( and to Campus Reads. Her contributions to NHTI and our students are unmeasurable. We are grateful to have Dr. DelBonis-Platt as a member of the NHTI faculty.

A true advocate for students is how Stephanie Weldon can be described. She has done such an amazing job with handling everything to do with all the CARES Act and CRRSA Act funds--from developing the application process, creating the forms to reviewing all of the applications. She fought to ensure that as many students as possible received the needed support to meet their basic needs and continue their academic studies. This was a monumental task, and Stephanie accomplished it all while maintaining her regular work-load that is in no way light. Stephanie's exemplary efforts impacted students' lives, families and futures. It is for this reason, along with the unwavering support she provides our students on a daily basis, that we honor Stephanie Weldon with the MCC Presidents' Good Steward Award.

UNH Manchester would like to nominate the UNH Manchester COVID Response Team for the President's Good Steward Award. The entire COVID screening process for UNH Manchester faculty, staff, and students has been a tremendous success, allowing our campus to stay open for targeted face to face operations thanks to the tireless efforts of this UNH Manchester COVID Response Team. Working with colleagues at UNH Durham, Mary Stewart, Kristen Johnson, Mary Young, and Dana Pierce were involved in numerous aspects including the leadership of the scientific/clinical implementation of a screening process for potential SARS-CoV-2 samples. For over a year, this entire team implemented a recurring testing process for over 300 students, staff, and faculty, with roll out beyond our own campus including assistance to other USNH campuses and the Manchester community as well as worked tirelessly - sometimes well into late nights and weekends - in the management of testing results, sample kits, and other logistical concerns as they arose to ensure a safe and effective testing operation for the Manchester campus.