Perry selected as recipient of School’s Staff Excellence Award
| August 30, 2010 | ||
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You have to figure that turnabout is fair play.
Chris Perry
Chris Perry, assistant director of communications at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, spends most of her work day developing and maintaining the School’s website. She takes great pride in featuring students and members of the faculty and staff whose research, teaching and service make a difference to people around the world. Now it’s her turn to be in the spotlight.
Perry was selected recently as winner of the 2010 Staff Excellence Award, a Schoolwide honor that acknowledges outstanding work, as measured by excellent attitude, leadership and initiative. She was nominated for the accolade by those she has helped to train as well as her directors, a tribute to the number of audiences she is called upon to serve.
“Chris not only keeps the content of our website up-to-date,” says director of School communications Ramona DuBose, “but she is very innovative in making the best use of new technology and social media. Chris has worked with others to keep the School connected through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and other formats. Her efforts help communicate the School’s work and worth to students, prospective students and others.” “Chris has been an absolutely essential bridge between Communications and Instructional and Information Systems (IIS) in our collaborations to enhance the School’s Web presence,” says Kathy Barboriak, PhD, assistant dean for information technology at the School. “Her command of both content and technology has enabled the two groups to work together seamlessly.”
Barboriak says the partnership and collegiality between IIS and communications is enhanced by Perry’s “knowledge, skills, commitment to excellence and willingness to do what it takes.”
Nancy Beach, computing consultant for the Department of Health Policy and Management and content manager for that department’s Web pages, praised Perry’s professionalism and grace under pressure.
“It’s always a difficult process to overhaul a website as large as the School’s,” Beach says, “and her coordination of this gargantuan task [on several occasions] has always been done calmly and efficiently. … Even when I know she’s very busy, she has always taken time to get back to me when I had a question or a problem with a website-related task, and if there’s not a clear answer to the issue, she will take the time to think it through with me until we come up with something that works.”
With such a long “to-do” list, one would think Perry would stay glued to her computer. That isn’t the case, according to DuBose.
“While helping lead website redesign, restructuring site navigation, updating content, training content managers, providing social media innovations, Tweeting, prioritizing projects, and facilitating new content sections for a number of new programs at the School, Chris also found time [this past year] to complete her master’s degree in mass communication and teach classes at Greensboro’s Bennett College for Women,” DuBose says.
“She has applied knowledge gained in her classes to the structure and content of our website, and her experience in the classroom has sharpened her understanding of the needs of faculty members and students at the School.”
Perry, modest and unassuming, says she is just doing her job.
“I’m honored to receive the award, knowing that our School has so many employees who equally deserve to win it,” Perry says. “I am also fortunate to work with such a great team. Ramona [DuBose] knows how to bring out the best in people by emphasizing our strengths and giving us the positive feedback and the tools we need to achieve success.”
Perry joined the UNC public health school communications team in 2005, after spending 12 years managing parent counseling and agency communications at a national, early childhood nonprofit organization located in the Triangle area. She also has held positions as director of a child care center and director of Girl Scout leader training.
“I love my job because I get to work with a variety of people from across the School,” Perry says. “I have to admit there’s a warm spot in my heart for Web content managers and students, but I also enjoy collaborating and coordinating with faculty, School leadership and our great IT and communications teams. I’m a problem solver by nature, so I am especially thrilled when we can identify a problem – say, website navigation, search engine optimization or visual presentation – and solve it to the satisfaction of all the key stakeholders.”
Perry lives in Durham with husband Vernon Perry. She has a son, Kevin Clark, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus who now lives in Chicago, four stepchildren and three grandchildren. In addition to her duties at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Perry teaches a public relations course in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication and branding and website classes at Duke University. She has been a board member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Association for Women Faculty and Professionals (AWFP) since 2006. A devoted student at SafeSkills® Movement Arts in Durham, she holds a green belt in karate.
The Staff Excellence Award has been presented annually since 1991. This year’s selection committee included co-chairs and previous awardees Sue Robeson (PHLP, 2009) and Brent Wishart (Facilities, 2008), Vera Bennett (BIOS), award manager Lori Evarts (PHLP), Phyllis Johnson (EPID), Linda Mitchell (HR), Helena Mullen (HBHE), Cathy Padgett and Lynnette Jones (HPM), Elise Pohl (formerly in ESE), Sherry Roberts (NUTR), Betsy Seagroves (BIOS), and James Wolfe (OGH).
More information about the award is available online.
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UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.
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