The annual Chancellor’s Employee of the Year Award is presented to CU Boulder staff in recognition of and appreciation for exceptional job performance and remarkable contributions to the campus community. Recipients of this distinguished award join a rich heritage of past awardees who display outstanding performance, inspired leadership, extraordinary service to the campus and community and exceptional interpersonal skills.
CU Boulder is filled with passionate and dedicated individuals who, day in and day out, shape tomorrow’s leaders, inspire innovation and positively impact humanity. The 2017 recipients embody this, regardless of who, if anyone, is watching. Congratulations to the 2017 award recipients: Carol Bender, Vanessa Dunn and Ed von Bleichert.
The award recipients will be honored at a private reception with Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano and guests.
Carol Bender
Bender is the department administrator in the Department of Political Science. She provides support through office administration, budget oversight, undergraduate curriculum development and graduate student administration. The priority she gives to supporting campus initiatives and her ability to enhance the undergraduate experience makes her highly regarded by department leaders and colleagues.
Bender is recognized for her ability to carefully scrutinize department expenditures and identify several areas of cost savings, but it is her leadership on infrastructure projects during a department renovation that is consistently called out.
She led several projects during a department renovation including the creation of a new tech cart funded by an ASSETT grant proposal she wrote, enabling guest lecturers and colleagues to participate in classes and meetings using low-cost off-the-shelf software and technologies. During the renovation of Ketchum, Bender also spearheaded the huge undertaking of the department’s move to Fleming and back to Ketchum.
Bender is described as an ethical steward of university resources with a tremendous commitment to the success of the department.
Vanessa Dunn
Dunn is the director of student engagement in engineering’s Broadening Opportunity through Leadership and Diversity (BOLD) Center. The BOLD Center fosters success through academic resources, student leadership opportunities and a supportive community in order to break down the barriers that keep many of today’s young talented students from reaching their aspirations.
Dunn has oversight of BOLD scholarship programs and provides support for other academic and retention programs in the BOLD Center. She is committed to creating an inclusive and supportive environment for all students, but especially those who have been traditionally underrepresented in STEM.
Highly regarded by both students and colleagues, Dunn is described as thoughtful, meaningful and optimistic when it comes to her work in diversity and inclusion. Dunn started the Tail Gateway to Engineering event so incoming students and families could meet current students and attend a CU basketball game together. She regularly meets with students one-on-one, often those who are struggling or considering leaving engineering.
In an annual survey, more than 35 students shared that she is responsible for them getting involved with research, landing their first internship and even helping them go “from thinking I couldn’t do this major to pulling 4.0s.”
Ed von Bleichert
Von Bleichert is the sustainability and resiliency program manager in Facilities Management. He is responsible for coordinating the many different sustainability functions across facilities management.
In more than 23 years at CU Boulder, von Bleichert has played a significant role in programs such as the automated cardboard collection program, Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM) and Stadium Zero Waste initiative. IPM included the campus commitment to pesticide-free turf management, and the Stadium Zero Waste initiative was the first of its kind in the nation, bringing national recognition to the university and hugely increasing the amount of recyclable and compostable material collected.
Von Bleichert’s work often requires partnership with constituents across campus, however, it is his inspired leadership and unwillingness to accept the “status quo” that are continuously recognized by colleagues. Regarded for his passion and energy, von Bleichert is described as consistently “going the extra mile” for the university. He has a strong ability to collaborate with multiple departments and groups across campus to develop solutions, implement operational improvements and build new programs.
