Staff Stars
December 2025 Staff Stars
Winners: Becky Rogers, Danny Lorenzo, Deborah Jordan Bright, Diana Chacon, Peter Doust
- Amy Scheelke, Librarian - Library Services
Amy is working on new curriculum for an SME course in the most thoughtful ways. She also developed a lab session for BIOL 1615 this fall, and trained librarians and instructors on the content. Amy constantly prioritizes our student experience when developing her content and sticks to best teaching practices. She is an inspiring colleague! - *Becky Rogers, Assistant Director - Concurrent Enrollment
Becky has completely kept concurrent enrollment afloat during challenging times. As we have new employees coming on, and a long-time director departing, she has ensured consistency while also providing on-the-job training for all of us. Becky is consistently the lone point of knowledge for incoming questions from ALL our constituents and stakeholders. We have been challenged to excel as the college focuses on concurrent enrollment as a spear head of the vision matrix and Becky has been our stalwart leader through it all. - *Becky Rogers, Assistant Director - Concurrent Enrollment
Becky is an amazing leader that is always willing to help. Our department would be lost without Becky! - Brent Cox, Program Manager - SAT Instruction
Brent has been a consistent and reliable presence in the Division of Health Care Technologies through years of significant change. He is detail-oriented, a strong advocate for students, and approaches challenges with humility and grace. Brent embraces feedback and continually strives to improve, making him an invaluable member of the SLCC community and an amazing team-mate. - Clay Cranford, Coordinator - Accounts Receivable
Clay really is amazing to work with. His responsiveness and clear communication have been essential in building and maintaining strong industry partnerships and securing student sponsorships. He is truly a pleasure to work with. - *Danny Lorenzo, Operations Associate - Institutional Research
He did an incredible job learning the course evaluation software and getting everything up and running. He is incredibly helpful and brings new ideas and perspectives to the table. - *Deborah Jordan Bright, Administrative Assistant - Associate Provost of Academic Affairs
Deborah's ability to handle a demanding workload while remaining kind and generous makes SLCC a better place to work. She consistently goes above and beyond to support colleagues and leadership. She juggles complex tasks for both academic affairs and SLTech, always with a positive attitude. Her kindness and generosity make her an invaluable part of SLCC. - *Diana Chacon, Advisor - Student Support Services
Diana has made a meaningful difference in PACE through her dedication, organization, and innovative programming structure at Cottonwood High School. She ensures that tasks are completed on time and communicates clearly. Her willingness to step in where needed has strengthened our workplace culture and built confidence among team members. Diana's proactive approach whether coordinating cross-school activities, math space programming or following up with students shows her commitment to both the program and the people she works with. Overall, she has helped create a more supportive, structured, and collaborative environment. - Drake Heap, Advisor - Accessibility & Disability Servies
Drake Heap is an excellent member of our department and our institution. Drake brings such a positive energy while keeping up with difficult tasks! He makes collaboration enjoyable and efficient at the same time. Our team recently took on a big project and with Drake's proactivity we were able to finish sooner than anticipated. Also, during the collaboration Drake would take on the role of writing everyone's input in and ensuring accuracy which is very important to our work. It's rare to find someone who can combine such a vibrant personality with such strong attention to detail, and we are lucky to have him! - Izzy Decker, Technician - Facilities Architects
I am nominating Izzy Decker for a Staff Star award in recognition of her exceptional performance. Despite conflicting projects and unexpected circumstances that pulled her coworkers away the day my ticket was being worked, Izzy took the initiative to reorganize the new SLTC Records office space almost entirely on her own. When the project couldn't be completed in one day, Izzy went above and beyond by adjusting her schedule to come in early the following business day to finish the work. Her positive and charismatic attitude made her a pleasure to work with, and her extensive knowledge ensured everything was done correctly. My team had been waiting on this ticket for months due to staffing changes in Facilities and competing high-priority projects. Without Izzy's help, we would likely still be working out of boxes and waiting for our office to be organized. I truly appreciate the effort she put in to help us settle into our new space. Izzy exemplifies the qualities of a Staff Star. She demonstrated commitment, professionalism, and a willingness to go the extra mile. I can't thank her enough for her help! - Keith Slade, Librarian - Library Services
Keith was able to step in and teach some library workshops very last minute for me a few times this semester. He is also traveling to a high school to work with CE students for most of a day at the end of the term. Keith has worked hard to keep the book collection at South updated and useful. Thanks, Keith! - Tom Thompson, Network Engineer - Information Tech
Firstly, thank Tom for being the most amazing Infrastructure person to our team. He is always willing to help us whenever we call, whether in a meeting, working from home, not technically working, he is the best. We have been trying to update all the equipment firmware for the past couple of months, and it wouldn't have happened without him. Each time a site controller went down, he was ready to help us get a new one up and running. Honestly, we wouldn't be able to do our job efficiently and secure the college the best we can without him. - Patton Kirkpatrick, Specialist III - Office of Learning Advancement
Patton is an outstanding contributor in the Engaged Learning Office and at SLCC in general. They provide outstanding guidance and support to our students in Civically Engaged Scholars and Study Abroad. They lead with kindness and compassion and because of this, they help our students feel like they belong. They have also been patient and extremely helpful with our new student employee as they are learning their new job. Patton took on additional responsibilities with ePortfolio, and they have shown excellent initiative with this program. For example, students have been coming to our office for help, and Patton provides effective guidance and good advice. Patton recently took the initiative to conduct a class presentation at Jordan campus even though they needed to take the bus to get there. After the presentation, the faculty member made a point to reach out to Patton's supervisor to express appreciation. We are lucky that Patton has been able to continue in a permanent position at the college! - *Peter Doust, Specialist II - Biology
Peter has been such a huge asset and help to the Biology Department - our labs, students, faculty and staff - over the course of his employment and being a student here. He is willing to support, assist and help in so many areas including biology lab set-up, lab improvement, lab organization, student learning, technical support, ideas for streamlining processes, feedback and general procedure improvement, promoting safety, helping and encouraging undergraduate research, among so much more! Peter is always encouraging and does so much to promote through his actions, integrity, and intent the mission, vision and values of SLCC. He works well not only with others across the Biology Department, but across Science, Math, and Engineering, fostering collaboration, community and inclusivity. He has not only trained other lab aides, but he also provides continued support and is a ready resource for questions and ideas. He is always coming up with innovative, unique, fun, and positive ways to do things, to teach students, to interact to develop procedures to help methods for improvement, and to create as well as foster a good learning and work environment for all who interact with him. Beyond his job, he has also helped with creating a successful and improvements to the SME poster presentation portion of UP3RC the past several semesters. Personally, Peter has been an invaluable asset, support and help to me through the past years. This last semester has been no exception, where he has provided so much needed assistance and support during a time where I have really needed it. He truly cares and I am deeply grateful to have and have had him as part of my work environment as well as a wonderful person and friend in my life. Let alone his presence to help the lives of our employees and students.