Tracey Velasquez was selected by fellow staff members for the 2022 Gevirtz Graduate School of Education Staff Citation of Excellence Award.
Velasquez, the Gevirtz School Employment Analyst, is an integral part of the School administration, providing exemplary service far beyond her job duties. This last year, she also took on several additional and often complicated tasks that needed to be covered while certain staff positions were vacant. She did so calmly and with a willingness to train new staff once they were hired. Velasquez is truly a team player and she continues to see where she can help others while still having her own workload to manage. Velasquez has been a GGSE staff member since 2010.
“I am honored to be selected for this award,” Velasquez says. “This School is an amazing place to work and I am proud to be a member of the GGSE team.”
Also nominated for the 2022 award were Aaron Ballett (Academic Personnel Analyst), Samantha Cole (Program Administrator for the Teacher Education Program), Brenda Lavin (Program Coordinator for the Education Department), Amy Meredith (Manager, Student and Academic Affairs), Luis Narvaez (formerly Administrative Assistant for the South Coast Writing Project, the McEnroe Reading & Language Arts Clinic, and the California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network), and Maria Sanchez-Gonzalez (Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology Program Coordinator).
The previous winners of the Staff Citation of Excellence Award were Shannon Rivard (then Department Administrator for the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology) in 2021, Katie Tuccarione (Credential Analyst) in 2020, and Kelly Hayton (Manager, Finance and Administration) in 2019.