WNED’s Award-winning Staff

By Annmarie Dean

Last Thursday, WNED staff and board members gathered in the Big Studio for our annual board meeting. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and listened to Vincent Curren, executive vice president and COO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (and graduate of UB,) talk about the future of funding and collaboration of public broadcasting stations. During the board meeting, awards were given out to staff that have gone above and beyond over the past fiscal year.

The Sue Wardynski Award is given to the employee who volunteers in the community during non-work hours. Recipient- Nancy Hammond, Vice President of Finance and CFO; Nancy serves on the board of Benedict House which provides housing opportunities and supportive services for people living with AIDS. She also volunteers many hours at the agency and heads up the WNED Christmas Adopt-A-Family drive.

The Kevin I. Sullivan Award is given to the employee who demonstrates the most team spirit. Recipient- Gwen Mysiak, Manager of Media Relations and Promotion; Gwen promotes our productions throughout WNED and the community. She worked with WETA (a fellow PBS member station in Washington, D.C.) for the national broadcast of the War of 1812. She also was the main contact for the premiers of the production at the US and Canadian Embassies.

• The Fred R. Dentinger Award is given to the most helpful employee who even assists with projects outside of their department. Recipient- Tom Vogel, Engineer; Tom helps with projects from our development department to programming and production. He strives to keep WNED on the cutting edge of technology.

 

• The Mary Ann Lauricella Award is given to a group/department who has demonstrated the greatest creativity and innovation to communicate the mission of WNED. Recipients- Christy May, producer/director, Chris Thomas, senior editor and Beth Critoph, manager of Learning and Technology; Christy, Chris and Beth teamed up to produce the War of 1812 PBS website. Because of the cross department effort, the content and media made the website very user-friendly.
• The Robert M. Greene Award is given to the employee who has used the greatest initiative to benefit WNED. Recipient- Nadia Danyliw-Kobzar, Controller; Nadia and her team have developed a grant tracking system that will help WNED to be in compliance with regulations and streamline our grant reporting process in general.

A big congrats to all of our winners!