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PSS honors award winners
Honored yesterday at the Professional Staff Senate’s annual recognition luncheon are Peter Rittner (foreground) and (from left) Jennifer Markee, Michael Basinski, Erin Danna-Bailey, Letitia Thomas, Linwood Roberts and Candise Morris. Photo: LAUREN NEWKIRK MAYNARD
The Professional Staff Senate has honored Jennifer R. Markee, Candise A. Morris and Linwood S. Roberts Jr. with its Outstanding Service awards for 2011. The awards, which are given to full-time professional staff member for outstanding volunteer service to the community and excellence within individuals’ professional positions, were presented during a luncheon yesterday in the Center for Tomorrow, North Campus.
The annual luncheon honoring professional staff members also recognized this year’s recipients of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service: Michael Basinski, curator, Poetry Collection; Erin Danna-Bailey, director of grant management, School of Social Work; Peter Rittner, assistant dean for educational technology, College of Arts and Sciences; and Letitia Thomas, assistant vice provost and director, Cora P. Maloney College.
Jennifer Markee is a graduate of UB’s master’s degree program in higher education administration. As finance and general operations manager for the UB Art Galleries, Markee is responsible for managing the galleries’ financial systems, daily gallery operations and event logistics for gallery rentals and receptions. Prior to joining the galleries in 2009, she worked in University Residence Halls and Apartments and Student Academic Records and Financial Processing.
Involved in many organizations on campus, Markee has served as a liaison for UB’s Campaign for the Community since 2004. In addition, she has organized campus bone marrow drives for Be The Match Foundation since 2005, and most recently joined committees for two UB cancer fundraisers: the Artful Bra and the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life.
Markee’s service to the wider community mirrors that of her service to UB: She is a community ambassador for recruitment and education for the Be The Match Foundation, and serves as chair of recruitment and retention for the Relay for Life of Lockport. She recently was asked to serve as event chair for the 2012 Relay for Life of Lockport.
Candise Morris joined the UB professional staff in 1991 as a records and registration clerk. She currently serves as assistant dean for resource management in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, a role she assumed in 1999.
In addition to co-organizing the school’s upcoming move from the North Campus to John and Editha Kapoor Hall on the South Campus, Morris manages the pharmacy school’s budget and provides oversight for the school’s human resources department. She was named SEFA volunteer of the year in 2003.
Morris is currently in her second stint as a unit representative to the Professional Staff Senate. She currently serves on the PSS’ mentoring committee. In addition, she has worked on both the IT and HR Transformation initiatives, as well as the pharmacy school’s staff awards committee.
Morris is a co-founder of the professional organization for pharmacy school administrative financial officers, and has served as the Eastern region representative and as secretary. She currently serves as educational coordinator.
Morris received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Daemen College and an MBA from UB.
A professional staff member for more than three years, Linwood Roberts is neighborhood outreach coordinator in the Office of Community Relations, Division of External Affairs.
He is charged with establishing, leveraging and nurturing relationships within the communities surrounding UB’s three campuses and linking those community needs with university resources. Among the university initiatives he’s coordinated are the Christmas adopt-a-family and the university-wide school supply drive.
He’s also is active in the wider community, volunteering on behalf of a variety of community concerns, such as wellness, environmental stewardship, progressive media and the Peace Bridge expansion project.
A former U.S. Marine, Roberts earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and a JD and LLM in criminal law, both from UB.
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