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April 24 , 2006
Recognizing Emory: Boice, Braxton win AODs

Katherine Hinson is HR communications director.

“Recognition can take many forms: a spoken thank you, a public congratulation during a staff meeting, a drop-by the desk or office, an occasional written note of email, or an inexpensive gift. Recognition is the single most important thing that we can do to improve morale, improve perception of work and create loyalty to the employer and workplace.”

—Peter Barnes, vice president for Human Resources

Recognition is the act of acknowledgement or giving notice of excellence. The act of recognition can take place in the workplace, among those with whom we interact and even within ourselves. Recognition at work is significantly important, given that most of us spend some 80,000–90,000 hours in the workplace during the course of our careers.

Every year Emory recognizes 10–15 university employees, who through their initiative, innovation or leadership have made outstanding contributions to the Emory community. This year the University celebrated 12 such individuals at the Awards of Distinction ceremony, held May 29 at Miller-Ward Alumni House.

This year’s recipients included: Gordon Boice, Kim Braxton, Debbie Cowan, Donna Crabb, Cheryl Elliott, Ellen Canup Hale, Marty Ike, Tim Lawson, WeiMing Lu, Steven Marzec, Neville Whitehead and Donna Wong. In recognition of their accomplishments, each recipient will be highlighted over the next several months in the Emory Report HR column. This month features Gordon Boice and Kim Braxton.

Gordon Boice
is often referred to as “G”, which is short for Gordon; others would say it stands for words such as “great,” “genius,” and “gracious.”

Boice (shown with President Jim Wagner) is a great example of where courageous inquiry can lead. Twelve years ago when Gordon joined what’s now called the Emory Creative Group (ECG), he had a small graphic-design portfolio and a large dream. Over time he became a preeminent print designer, well respected for his skills and customer service.

Boice continued to teach himself new techniques in design technology and learned to create websites, again moving forward with great success—and bringing back to ECG many design projects internal clients had been outsourcing.

But Boice did not stop with those accomplishments. His curiosity also led him to learn how to design eFlash projects, building an important capacity in the Creative Services group—one that serves the University well as it reaches constituents through all available means in a world of advancing technology.

Kim Braxton
is the secret to the success of the Computing Center at Cox Hall. She is there everyday, leading the way for a nationally recognized working model of the computing lab of the future.

Braxton came into this job without a playbook, but that did not stop her. Instead, she rose to the challenge, making the center one dedicated to living, learning and playing.

She took on the challenge of developing support models for multimedia products, like iMovie and iDVD, creating custom documentation for students, and developing tutorials for faculty so that they would feel at home with the 21st century technology.

Braxton’s successes have helped triple the center’s use in the Emory community, from 5,000 users a month to 15,000. She has created a space that is characterized by pride and energy for everyone who walks inside

 

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