Kudos & Congratulations

University IT staff recognized for their excellent work

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I would like to recognize Adam Smith (Natural History Museum of Utah) for his excellent partnership during the security review of a recent firewall request. When our team identified that additional patching and version validation were needed before the request could safely move forward, Adam responded promptly and fully understood the importance of addressing the concern.

He quickly arranged for the affected systems to be updated and rebooted, then followed up with the updated kernel version so that we could confirm the vulnerability had been remediated. His responsiveness, professionalism, and willingness to collaborate made the review process straightforward and allowed the firewall request to proceed without unnecessary delay.

Adam’s actions helped reduce the risk to systems that would be accessible through the firewall change while supporting the continued availability of the services his team provides. This is a great example of how collaboration between IT system owners and the Information Security Office helps protect university systems, business operations, and the people we serve.

Thank you, Adam, for your ownership, prompt communication, and commitment to keeping the university secure.

~ Farid Lopez, UIT

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Big thank you to Warren Malupo (UIT) for making a change that we needed to make things smoother for our users, and he did it fast! It was only so fast and easy for us because of his clear expertise!

~ Carrie Felton, UIT

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Working with Carrie Felton (UIT) can be briefly summed up with, “She’s ahead of the curve!” Whether Carrie is communicating with you directly or relaying information from stakeholders, she comprehends the standards and definitions being used, has a vision for how things SHOULD work, and quickly closes knowledge gaps when brought into scope. Regardless of the obstacles and challenges, Carrie is consistently beating my expectations and timelines. Carrie’s down-to-Earth personality, coupled with her pleasant tenacity, make her a pleasure to work with! Thank you, Carrie!

~ Warren Malupo, UIT

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Samantha Lankford (UIT) is someone who consistently exceeds expectations. She goes above and beyond with every request I have submitted. Her support makes me look incredible to my boss and coworkers.

Whether she is offering hands-on help or pointing me in the right direction, she always knows exactly what I need. I truly love working with Samantha, she is an absolute joy.

~ Cindy Hanson, University Connected Learning

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Kudos to Ian Boss (School of Medicine) for his outstanding support and responsiveness! He is always patient and helpful, even with my many new requests and questions. He consistently finds solutions quickly and efficiently, making our work at Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health so much easier. His positive attitude, technical expertise, and willingness to help are truly appreciated. Thank you for all you do to support our team, Ian!

~ Suzy Bindrup, RMCOEH

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The entire Biochemistry Department would like to say “THANK YOU” to Chase “CJ” Twitchell (Biochemistry) for all that you do for us. Your professionalism and friendly customer service is greatly appreciated. Whenever there is a computer/IT problem, you are there to help. Again, many thanks to you!!

~ Judy Montano, Biochemistry

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Kudos to Rob Bateman (UIT) for being helpful and responsive even if an inquiry is technically outside of his main area of expertise. He always lets me know my IT problems can be solved and usually how long it will take.

~ John Nilsson, Financial Services

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Kudos to Zach Zitterkopf (UIT)!

I want to recognize Zach for his outstanding work in successfully leading the Oracle PeopleSoft database migration to our new Exadata platform. Despite a very aggressive timeline, Zach demonstrated exceptional technical expertise, dedication, and attention to detail to ensure the migration was completed on schedule and with minimal disruption.

His efforts not only met a critical deadline but also delivered significant performance improvements that directly benefit our customers through faster, more reliable service. Zach’s commitment to excellence, proactive problem-solving, and ability to execute a complex project under pressure were key factors in the project’s success.

Thank you, Zach, for your hard work and for making such a positive impact on our team and customers. Job well done!

~ Peter Mo, ITS

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Please join me in recognizing Scott Patten (UIT) and Brian Samuel (UIT) for their exceptional collaboration and dedication in navigating a complex technology security exception that was essential to supporting a faculty member‘s critical research. This was a challenging process involving specialized research equipment, significant IT security considerations, and a thoughtful review to ensure both institutional compliance and research continuity.

Brian, from the Governance, Risk & Compliance team, provided outstanding guidance throughout the process by helping Scott, the associate director for IT management for Liberal Arts and Sciences, identify the necessary requirements, asking the right questions, and ensuring the exception was thoroughly evaluated and documented. Scott partnered closely with the faculty member and Brian to translate research needs into a complete and well-supported exception request. Together, they not only enabled an important research initiative to move forward but also established a repeatable process that can be used to efficiently evaluate similar high-impact requests in the future. Their teamwork, professionalism, and commitment to balancing research enablement with institutional security exemplify the collaborative spirit that makes UIT successful. Thank you both for your outstanding contributions to LAS and the University of Utah.

~ Dean Keyek-Franssen, UIT

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Mythri Mani (UIT) is a team player. She is honest, grounded, and positive, and enthusiastically helps out where needed. Thanks, Mythri!

~ Isabelle Solvang, UIT

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Kudos to Steven Jeffs (UIT).

Please join me in recognizing Steven Jeffs for his exceptional commitment and technical leadership in responding to a critical research data incident involving the Department of Neurosurgery. When a research server failed and years of valuable research data appeared to be at risk, Steven immediately partnered with the Neurosurgery research team and colleagues across UIT to help identify and implement a path toward data recovery.

Throughout the incident, Steven demonstrated outstanding problem-solving and collaboration by helping coordinate immediate and long-term solutions. As the recovery effort progressed, he proactively offered CSBS computing resources to provide temporary storage for the recovered data, ensuring the research team had a secure location to safeguard nearly 100 terabytes of irreplaceable research data while a permanent solution was developed. Steven’s expertise, responsiveness, and willingness to go above and beyond helped prevent the potential loss of decades of critical research and exemplifies UIT’s commitment to supporting the university’s research mission. Thank you, Steven, for your outstanding service and dedication.

~ Dean Keyek-Franssen and Scott Patten, UIT

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I can’t thank Patrick Oberg (UIT) enough for the time and effort he put into helping me and one of the departments I support through a time-sensitive and complex access issue.

He never hesitated to continue working with me, reach out to the appropriate internal contacts, and make it happen. His dedication and willingness to research an issue when the only answer at the time was, “I don’t know why,” truly exemplify the One U commitment.

I am incredibly grateful for his partnership throughout the process. Thanks again, Patrick!

~ Hannah Skarsten, Human Resources Management

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There was an issue with connectivity between the campus Sympa listserver and its MySQL DB, and Joshua Grey (UIT) took ownership of the issue, contacted all stakeholders, and was able to effect the fix in short order. Excellent customer service!

~ Todd Green, SCI Institute

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I wanted to send a note sharing how great it was to work with Michael Tyler (UIT) and the Cable Team on our Pharmacy credit card project. I was able to partner with Michael for this project, and he was great at walking me through the ticket process, prioritizing our work based on tight timelines, and communicating with me when things came up.

~ Miquelle Leslie-Cheng, ITS PMO

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Thank you, Thomas Portz (ITS), for documenting processes in the wiki, taking over duties from a coworker who moved to another role, and your willingness to help me with my first on-call with the team. It is all much appreciated!

~ Tyler Sauer, UIT

 

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