Professional staff awards

The Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences offers awards to professional staff to recognise excellence in managerial, administrative and/or technical activities. Up to four awards are available annually, two for sustained excellence and two for special achievement.

2023

Nominations are now closed for 2023.

For other queries, email: fmhsprofstaffawards@auckland.ac.nz

About the awards

Purpose
The FMHS professional staff awards provide an avenue for the faculty to acknowledge and reward professional staff who have made a valuable contribution to the faculty. The awards recognise excellence in managerial, administrative and/or technical activities, and can be awarded to individuals or teams. Up to four awards are available annually, two for sustained excellence and two for special achievement.

Ian Houston Award for Sustained Excellence
This award acknowledges continuous outstanding effort by an individual or team in the performance of duties over multiple years in support of the faculty’s mission. Awards will be given to nominees who have clearly demonstrated sustained excellent service, and have demonstrated the faculty’s values of excellence, innovation, partnership, professionalism, equity and integrity. Up to two awards are available in this category annually.

Stuart Glasson Special Achievement Award
We have great pleasure in announcing that from 2022 this award will be known as the Stuart Glasson Special Achievement Award. This award will acknowledge the significant contribution by an individual or team to the faculty’s operations. Nominees should have provided extraordinary service beyond their basic job description, towards a single event, project, innovation or idea that supports the Faculty’s mission. The contribution may be to their immediate work unit, department, school or the Faculty. Up to two awards are available in this category annually.

Stuart Glasson was a member of FMHS for over 35 years, and as Director of Faculty Operations provided guidance and leadership through several transformative projects. Stuart was universally respected for his knowledge, experience, professionalism and commitment and he left a lasting legacy of professional staff leadership in both the faculty and university.

Eligibility
All professional staff employed by the University, and working in the faculty, irrespective of their method of funding, are eligible to be nominated. Nominees must not have won an award in the same category in the past three years, unless they have previously received the award as an individual and are now being nominated as part of a team (or vice versa) . Nominees for the award of the Ian Houston Award for Sustained Excellence must have been employed by the University for at least three years, with a minimum of two years of service to have been in the faculty.

Award
Recipients of an award will receive:

  • A certificate and award
  • Their name on a perpetual plaque housed in the faculty, and listed on the faculty’s website
  • $2500 as a grant to be used at the recipient’s discretion for the purpose of professional development, travel for professional development purposes, the purchase of books or equipment, or with the approval of their manager and the director of operations, as a taxable prize.

In the case of an award being made to a team, the monetary award will be divided evenly between the members.

Progression to Vice Chancellor’s Professional Staff Excellence Awards
Nomination for or winning an FMHS professional staff award does not automatically lead to faculty nomination for the Vice Chancellor’s Professional Staff Excellence Awards, as the guidelines differ. However, nominations that most strongly meet the university award criteria in each category will be identified by the FMHS Selection Committee and offered support to pursue a nomination at university level once the format of the 2021 awards are released.

Awards Subcommittee
The Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences will make the awards on the advice of a Subcommittee, including the Director of Faculty Operations (Chair), the Dean or nominee, the University of Auckland Deputy Vice Chancellor (Operations) and Registrar, a senior professional staff member from FMHS and a previous recipient of the award.

Method of nomination
See above under ‘2023’

2023 Award Winners

2023 Ian Houston Award for Sustained Excellence in Job Performance

John West – Facilities and Services Team Leader, Faculty
Operations

Teresa Timo – Practicum
Placement Coordinator, Medical Programme Directorate

2023 Stuart Glasson Special Achievement Award 

Practice Practicum Placement Team - Ruth Bayley, Patrizia De General Veyra, Yeo-Jin Jo, Jaimie Tang.

2022 Award Winners

2022 Ian Houston Award for Sustained Excellence in Job Performance

Megan Putterill - Strategic Development Manager, Faculty Administration

Virginia Parslow - Practicum Placement Coordinator, School of Optometry and Vision Science

Highly commended: Katie Elliot, Marketing Advisor

2022 Special Achievement Award

Jane McGhee - Laboratory Manager, Department of Ophthalmology

Lisa Wong- Research Operations Manager, Manaaki Manawa & Pūtahi Manawa

Highly commended: Anthony Davies, Teaching Technician

2021 Award Winners

2021 Ian Houston Award for Sustained Excellence in Job Performance

Eamon Ellwood - Data Manager, School of Medicine

Robyn Auld - Group Services Team Leader, School of Nursing

2021 Special Achievement Award

Medical Programme Directorate Team - Shika Sharan, Teresa Timo, Viveca Dourado, Nathan Ryckman, Claudia Makgil, Thiviya Sritharan, Sharmyn Turner.

Technical Managers (Research) Team - Damian White, Mary Spellman, Rebecca Marnane, Alhad Mahagaonkar, Mike Goldthorpe.