President’s Exceptional Effort Awards
The President’s Exceptional Effort Awards are presented to up to eight Professional or Classified employees or faculty who have demonstrated an exceptional effort in support of one or more of the three core themes of the strategic plan: Advancing Inclusive Success, Increasing Washington Impact, and/or Enhancing Academic Excellence.
Selection Criteria
Nominees must be either a permanent classified employee, a permanent professional staff employee, or faculty member that have clearly demonstrated an exceptional effort supporting the strategic plan through the following:
- Excellence of Performance: Performance that consistently throughout the year exceeds the quality that is expected, and has resulted in important and significant contributions to their work unit and the University.
- Personal Interaction: Performance that demonstrates exceptional ability and willingness to work positively and effectively with others.
- Initiative and Creativity: Performance that demonstrates an innovative approach to the job and a willingness to manage changes in work priorities, procedures, and organization.
- Outstanding Achievement: Performance that has resulted in important and significant contributions to the work unit and thus has furthered Western`s mission and strategic goals.
Award/Recognition
Award Administration
Nomination Process
Each Vice President will review the nominations of employees nominated in their division and forward all nominations, in ranked order, to the President, who will personally select the up to eight final award recipients.
The nomination process for the 2025 award is now CLOSED. Thank you to those that took the time to nominate a deserving colleague!
2025
Meagan Bryson - Academic Advising & Student Achievement Center
Meagan Bryson’s relationship with Western began as a student, earning a B.A. in Human Services and an M.Ed. in Student Affairs Administration. After several years working in the two-year college system, Meagan returned to Western in 2014 as assistant director of the former Academic Advising Center.
In fall 2023, Meagan became the director of the new Academic Advising & Student Achievement Center, where she helped bring together the strengths of Academic Advising and Student Outreach Services. Meagan and her team have focused on building a welcoming, student-centered environment, leveraging technology like Navigate360, and prioritizing ADEI professional development including strengthening shared equity leadership practices.
Meagan consistently keeps students at the forefront of her work, prioritizing student retention, access, and success. She is known for her honesty, strong work ethic, and collaborative leadership, creating connections across departments to better support both students and advisors.
As one nominator shared, “Meagan offers a human-first approach that invites all who are around her, in. Watching Meagan show up each day and tirelessly advocate for and support her team and students inspires me to try to bring my best each day.”
Axel Cichocki - Disability Access Center
Axel Cichocki (he/they) is an Access Manager for Neurodiversity Inclusion at the Disability Access Center. In this role, he facilitates disability-related accommodations through an interactive process, supervises the Disability Outreach Center, a disability culture center, and its student employees, and assists in coordinating neurodiversity inclusion and accessibility initiatives across campus.
Within his first year in this role, Axel’s exceptional communications, interpersonal and leadership skills have produced a significant number of accomplishments. He has launched programming including DisOrientation, a part of Western Welcome, Disability Action Month in October, Autism and Neurodivergence Celebration Month in April, DisCo (Disability Community) Celebration of Graduates and Awards Ceremony, and Disability Pride Month in July. He helped launch and co-coordinate the Neurodiversity Inclusion Collaborative, a cross-university initiative and working group made up of students, staff, and faculty working to address systemic barriers to access and inclusion for neurodivergent people on campus, and the Disability Employee Resource Group, a resource group for disabled staff, faculty, and student employees and allies. With a student utilizing the Shared Equity Leadership model, Axel co-developed a Disabled Peer Mentorship Program to support newly self-identified, and recently disabled first-year, transfer, and graduate students by partnering them with an upper-level disabled student for academic, social, and professional mentorship.
Caitlyn Daniels - University Marketing
Caitlyn Daniels is a proud WWU Communication Studies alum who started working at Western shortly after graduation as a Communications Consultant in University Residences. After a year, she moved to University Communications as Western’s Social Media Coordinator, and was recently promoted to Assistant Director of Digital Engagement Strategy in University Marketing. In this role, she oversees both organic and paid digital media strategy, and has made WWU’s social media a vital tool for inclusivity and student engagement, ensuring that Western’s digital spaces reflect the diverse voices, experiences, and achievements of its community. With a monthly reach of over 3 million users, many of them previously unconnected to WWU, her work ensures that stories of student success, equity initiatives, and underrepresented voices are not just told but amplified on a larger scale. She strategically builds platforms that foster participation, highlight diverse perspectives, and make all students feel connected to WWU. Through real-time engagement, student-driven campaigns, and thoughtful representation, she has turned WWU’s social media into a dynamic, welcoming space where students feel seen and valued. WWU now has the highest social media engagement rates (based on relative audience size) of any public university in Washington, directly increasing the institution’s visibility and influence.
Deborah Frost - Enterprise Application Services
Deborah Frost brings nearly 40 years of WWU experience to her role as senior project manager in the Project Management Office. Having started at Western as an undergraduate student and working in a variety of offices as a student and then as a new professional, she gained invaluable insight into numerous departments, offices, and systems at WWU. She currently brings her collaborative spirit, organizational and analytical skills, and a love of working with people to solve problems and meet challenges to her role as a project manager.
Much of her career has been in Student Affairs, including 24 years in IT with University Residences. As the assistant director for Information Technology, Deborah designed and brought life to the ResTek program and the Western Card office.
Deborah successfully integrates her education and work. Principles and concepts from her self-designed B.A., “Language Learning from a Cross-Cultural Approach,” with a minor in Japanese (WWU, 1991) and M.S. in Information Management (University of Washington, 2015) inform every single project she leads, with overarching goals of meeting users’ needs, while increasing accessibility, reliability, and ease of use with innovative strategies and implementation.
As Enterprise Application Services senior project manager, Deborah has led a variety of projects from enterprise-wide to cross departmental.
Monica Jackson - Risk, Ethics, Safety, & Resilience
Monica Jackson serves as Western’s first full-time director of Emergency Management & Business Continuity, bringing over 20 years of first responder and fire service experience and 13 years of leadership in emergency management.
Since joining WWU in 2023, Monica has significantly advanced campus safety and resilience. She leads the Emergency Management Committee, spearheaded the development and launch of the Western Safe mobile app with University Communications, and partnered with Facilities Development & Operations and Transportation Services to formalize the university’s collective snow response. She has designed and facilitated numerous tabletop exercises, drills, and trainings across the university community, while also supporting emergency planning for major events such as Fall Move-In and Commencement. Monica has strengthened WWU’s response framework by reinforcing ICS-based incident management practices.
Her partnerships with city and county partners, including emergency management agencies, have expanded WWU’s regional resilience. Recognized as a trusted advisor by university leadership, Monica played a key role in supporting several high-profile student-led expressive activities in 2024, providing sound judgment and expert guidance. Her knowledge, communication skills, humility, and approachability have improved WWU’s ability to respond to and recover from emergent events, inspiring a more engaged and resilient campus community.
Katy Potts - University Police
Katy Potts, assistant vice president for Security and Chief of Police, came to Western in January 2023. Her law enforcement career started in 2000 in her hometown of Elgin, Illinois, where she served in various units and concluded her tenure as a lieutenant after two decades of dedicated service. Katy continued her law enforcement career at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia, before joining Western. Throughout her 25-year career, her approach to policing has consistently centered around fostering understanding, empathy, and collaboration with the community she serves.
By collaborating and actively engaging with students, faculty, and staff who have selected WWU as their educational and professional home, Katy finds purpose and fulfillment in her law enforcement career.
In her current role, Katy leads with a focus on building relationships, embracing transparency, and prioritizing the needs of the diverse WWU community. She views her position as an opportunity to ensure that every individual on campus can feel safe while they learn, grow, and thrive in an environment that embodies the values of equity, compassion, and partnership.
Christina Van Wingerden - Human Services Program
Christina Van Wingerden began her journey at Western Washington University as an office assistant in the Viking Union, later serving in a variety of classified staff roles. Through WWU’s employee fee waiver program, she earned her bachelor’s degree in 2011 and a master’s degree from the Woodring College of Education in 2014. That same year, she was honored to serve as Woodring’s student commencement speaker.
Her lived experience as a full-time employee and student shaped her deep commitment to access, equity, and student success. Christina now serves as academic program director, field studies coordinator, and instructor for the Human Services programs in Woodring, where she supports students’ academic, field, and professional development.
She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Technology and Learning Design from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, with a research focus on the sense of belonging in higher education. Christina is currently engaged in collaborative research with the University of Victoria, exploring belonging and inclusion among students and faculty in academic and professional spaces.
Her contributions have been recognized with WWU’s Outstanding Classified Staff Award and the Equity Forum Community Inclusion Award. Christina remains inspired by students, colleagues, and the WWU community, and is committed to giving back by empowering others on their educational journey.
Amy Salinas Westmoreland - Multicultural Student Services
Amy Salinas Westmoreland serves as the inaugural director of Multicultural Student Services, where she leads efforts to foster an inclusive and supportive campus environment. In this role, she oversees several vital centers, including the Ethnic Student Center, the Blue Resource Center, the Black Student Coalition, and La Plaza—the university’s new Latine Student Center. Amy is dedicated to empowering students from diverse and historically marginalized backgrounds.
She holds a Master of Education from Pennsylvania State University and earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With over a decade of experience in higher education, Amy has consistently advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Before joining Western, she served as director of Assessment at Penn State’s Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity, where she helped launch the university’s first DEI climate survey. She also previously worked at UW-Madison as assistant director of Social Justice Programs, facilitating impactful workshops and events.
Amy is a passionate advocate for social justice, building strong campus and community partnerships to ensure all students feel seen and supported. She regularly leads trainings on topics such as power, privilege and oppression, fostering a campus culture where every student can thrive.
Past Awardees
7 awardee(s) for this year
2024 Awardees
Jamie Lawson - Office of the Registrar
Registrar’s Office Management Analyst Jamie Lawson may be better known as the catalog and curriculum specialist during the past 11 years, and it’s his excellence in performance and achievements during the past academic year that have left a positive impact on Western far into the future.
When the Faculty Senate and Academic Coordinating Commission lost their administrative support in spring 2023, Jamie stepped in on short notice to take on the necessary work in addition to his normal job duties throughout the 2023-24 academic year.
Jamie's demonstrated initiative and creativity were apparent with the launch of a redesigned Faculty Senate website prior to the start of the academic year. Jamie also led the transition of committee agendas to be web-based for more efficiency and accessibility. He also led the implementation of fixing Writing Proficiency points for all classes that will go into effect for the 2024-2025 academic year. In his continued support of the ACC as the institution strives to meet expectations of alternate method course offerings, Jamie re-imagined curricular review processes and made them more efficient, effective, transparent, and collaborative for the campus community. His award-winning University Catalog website continues to be recognized among peer institutions.
Kimberley Ayre - Budget & Organizational Management
Kimberley Ayre, director of Budget and Organizational Management, joined the Business and Financial Affairs team in 2021 and has been instrumental in building a strong team in Strategy, Management, and Budget and the division. Kim has led multiple high-profile, high-impact projects, such as developing a management reporting process that was informed by listening sessions and pilots with partners in each division, leading the position control work team in considering how to structure this important critical financial control, developing and delivering new training for financial managers, and leading a cross-university team in developing a new approach to the administrative services assessment that is more transparent and better aligns with operations.
Kim is a resource for problem-solving and information, which she approaches by engaging in collaborative discussions that help build capacity in others rather than simply providing an answer. Kim’s exceptional work ethic and her deep care for the university’s mission, for advancing strategic initiatives, for public education, and for her colleagues show in her dedication and willingness to stick with challenges or projects and see them through.
Liliana Deck - Small Business Development Center
As the community business development director for WWU SBDC, Liliana Deck brings her transnational leadership to her work with local and global organizations in the public and private sectors. Her passion is reflected in her research and professional experience in migration and economic inclusion of vulnerable populations. She is a lecturer in the College of Business and Economics where she teaches non-profit and social marketing in the Finance and Marketing Department. She earned her MBA at WWU and her doctorate in international and multicultural studies at the University of San Francisco. She also serves on WWU’s Marketing Advisory Board and the LALA (Latino Advocacy Leadership Association) Steering Committee. This journey at WWU started after creating Familia Latina at Brigid Collins Family Support Center as her first social marketing program in Whatcom County.
In her position at WWU SBDC, Liliana launched a multicultural, multilingual, innovative pilot delivery model, Bocados y Negocios. With local partner organizations’ support, the outreach efforts of this program have resulted in newcomers from more than 20 countries connecting with the SBDC. She continues to advocate for their economic inclusion by removing barriers, supporting their entrepreneurship journeys, and fostering a sense of belonging in our community.
Maggie Savage - Communication Sciences & Disorders
Maggie joined WWU as a clinical educator in the graduate Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Program during the early days of the pandemic. Originally from New York, Maggie completed a B.A. in international studies, political science, and Spanish in 2009 from Nazareth College. After working in education abroad for several years, she returned to the U.S. and made Washington state home. She became a speech-language pathologist in 2017 after earning a B.S. from University of Washington in 2015 and an M.A. from WWU in 2017.
Maggie is passionate about education and healthcare that empower individuals to live their fullest lives. In her current role, she trains SLP student clinicians and teaches a graduate seminar on Autism. Her professional interests include clinical education, leadership studies and supporting Autistic, multilingual, & early childhood populations. Within the CSD department, Maggie has served actively on committees for Admissions, the SLP Graduate Program, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Maggie’s colleagues highlighted her contributions across three main endeavors: supporting students and the department during the unique circumstances of the pandemic; the recent implementation of an electronic medical record system in the Speech-Language Clinic; and her year-long collaboration and leadership in a redesign of clinical experiences for SLP students.
Nia Gipson - Multicultural Student Services
Nia Gipson (she/her) is the inaugural coordinator for the Black Student Coalition. Nia attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she earned her B.S. in Agricultural and Consumer Economics. She went on to earn her M.S. in Educational Leadership with a concentration in college student development from Oklahoma State University.
Before joining the Multicultural Student Services team, Gipson began her career at Western in July of 2021, as the resident director of Beta/Gamma, which also included managing Western’s COVID housing. In her short time here, Nia has served as the FSOCC Rep for PSO, led the 2024 MLK Day planning with the Community Consortium for Cultural Recognition, is the current president of the Faculty and Staff of Color Council, and is the chair of the Black History Month planning committee, just to name a few.
Serving as coordinator of the BSC is immensely important to Nia because she is able create community and systems of support for our Black identifying students. Nothing matters to Nia more than making students feel a sense of belonging, so she hopes to continue to create an environment that is more than just a place to learn, but a place that feels like home.
Rick Benner - Capital Planning & Development
University Architect and Senior Director for Planning and Development Rick Benner began his career at Western in 1985. He graduated from Sehome High School, obtained general university requirements from WWU and completed his Bachelor of Architecture from the UW.
Rick has been involved with over 800 projects at Western valued over $1 billion , but Rick's impact on Western extends far beyond the tangible structures he helped create. He has also made Western a more equitable and sustainable place.
Rick developed and successfully implemented a new capital planning process and established strong relationships across the university and beyond, gathering data to create spaces and learning tools that are truly responsive to the needs of a diverse student body. Rick is generous with his time and knowledge of his craft and campus history, but his true mentorship comes from the example of living his values and working toward a vision of campus where the built environment fully reflects Western’s mission and values.
Rick’s experience extends beyond campus, obtaining his fellowship from the American Institute of Architects in 2014, assisting in writing test exam questions for the national Architectural Registration Examination, and participating in several visiting architectural accreditation teams across the United States.
Whitney Morrison - SMATE
Whitney Morrison is an educator who has dedicated 15 years to public schools and shaping the next generation of teachers. As a Western alumna and passionate advocate for inclusive education, Whitney's journey led her to Western's SMATE (Science, Math, And Technology Education) Program, where she serves as the Facilities, Collections and Technology manager.
Whitney has shown outstanding commitment to advancing WWU’s strategic plan by fostering inclusive communities, spaces, and learning experiences within SMATE. Since May 2023, she has played a key role in building partnerships between SMATE’s faculty, staff, students, and K-12 educators. Whitney’s dedication extends beyond her official duties, as she has been pivotal in transforming SMATE’s spaces to promote a sense of belonging. She has gone above and beyond her regular responsibilities by helping SMATE become a welcoming and supportive community where student learning thrives.
With experience as a public-school teacher and WWU faculty member, Whitney brings valuable expertise to her role. Her commitment to ongoing learning enriches the SMATE community. Whitney's leadership has not only made SMATE a welcoming and inclusive space but also a vibrant community that fosters growth and collaboration.