Robeson receives School’s Staff Excellence Award

Sue Robeson is shown here in her busy office. Always nearby are photos of beloved 8-month-old granddaughter, Chloe.

Sue Robeson, student services specialist for the Public Health Leadership Program (PHLP), has been selected to receive the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s 2009 Staff Excellence Award. Her friends and co-workers at the School are invited to a reception in her honor on Friday, July 31, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Michael Hooker Research Center atrium.

Robeson, who began working at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988, joined the PHLP staff in 2005. Previously, she had worked at The Graduate School, the UNC Registrar’s Office and with Student Health Service (SHS), now Campus Health Services, where in 1995 and 1996, she won the N.C. State Employee Suggestion and Ketner Awards.

The awards provided $2,800 in prizes for Robeson’s recommendations to cut wasteful spending at SHS. She showed how reuse of office materials could save her department $7,440 each year.

“From the day I first interviewed Sue,” says William A. Sollecito, DrPH, clinical professor and PHLP director, “she made it clear that the reason she was interested in the job was to be able to work directly with students. She meets student requests with good humor and provides a wide range of support – from complex technical advice to ‘comfort food.'”

Every year at graduation, Sollecito says, Robeson plans a reception that includes a big cake inscribed with ‘Congratulations, PHLP graduates.’

“Everyone enjoys the celebration, especially those with children,” he says. “It feels like a family reunion. Sue’s feelings for our students always result in warm feedback about how they were treated by her.”

Lori Evarts, MPH, clinical assistant professor in PHLP, agrees. “Sue was described as the ‘goddess of student support’ by one incoming student,” Evarts says. “This sentiment is often expressed by the nearly 250 students who enroll each year in the program.”

PHLP has three distinct concentrations: health care and prevention, public health/occupational health nursing and public health leadership, as well as two certificate programs. Evarts says Robeson is the “guiding light and sometimes-mom to a host of diverse individuals, including students, faculty and staff.”

One student nominator wrote of Robeson, “The School is a better place because of administrators like you who genuinely care about students and are willing to go the extra mile for them.” Another gave her a card, the outside of which read, “Thank you! You made my day!” Inside, the student had written, “Heck–you made my whole three years!”

“I enjoy spending time with every student,” Robeson says, “making sure they know I’ll work hard to do whatever they need – getting them into the course that seems to be full, making sure they register on time and take the courses they need, encouraging them to strive to go out and become great leaders, not only in the nation but around the world.”

The Staff Excellence Award was first presented in 1991. A committee of staff members from throughout the School votes on nominees each spring, using the criteria of leadership, initiative, and attitude, and forwards a recommendation to the School’s dean.