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2006 Employee Recognition Award Recipients
EXCELLENCE AWARD
Marc Heileson has been honored with our Excellence Award. The recipient of this award has a distinguished and consistent record of many achievements in advancing the Club's message or implementing ideas, systems, programs or team efforts that have resulted in substantial improvements, efficiencies and/or savings to services and operations Club-wide, or who has greatly helped advance the message of the Club. Marc started with the Club in 1997 and is currently our Regional Representative out of Salt Lake City Utah. Marc's hard work developing favorable news coverage, recruiting volunteers and coalition partners, and crafting a winning campaign strategy helped turn a sprawl and pollution inducing highway project into a model transportation plan. We are honoring Mark for his contributions towards the Club's huge Legacy Parkway victory in Utah.
COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Adrian Cotter has received our Community Service Award. The Community Service Award is given in recognition of a commitment to helping others through public service or community involvement in a non-Sierra Club cause. Adrian started with the Club in 2002 and is currently our Senior Webmaster. He is being honored for his wonderful work with children in the San Francisco public school system. Adrian volunteers in a third-grade classroom at Moscone Elementary School. He helps children with English comprehension, grammar, and math skills. The kids love the accents he uses when he reads stories to them and apparently he does an amazing John Muir impression! He always sheds a positive light on the joy of learning and stresses the importance of getting an education. His dedication and contributions to his community serve as a model to all of us.
VIRGINIA FERGUSON AWARD
Ella Vasquez has been honored with the Virginia Ferguson award. This Virginia Ferguson Award honors an employee who has demonstrated consistent and exemplary service to the Sierra Club. Commitment to the organization is demonstrated not only through competence and longevity of employment, but also in congenial attitude, extraordinary spirit, and unquestionable integrity that makes this individual's performance an inspiration to the rest of the staff. This award is named after Virginia Ferguson who was the first paid Sierra Club employee. She served for many years as the sole employee of the Club, working directly under Will Colby and performing multiple staff functions for the Club. Virginia worked for the Club for 30 years and retired in 1959. During her tenure, the Club's membership grew from 2,500 to more than 14,000. Like Virginia Ferguson Ella has been here almost 30 years. Since Ella started with the Club membership has grown from 178,000 to 782,000. Everyone is always happy to see Ella for she is the one that hands out the checks as our Accounts Payable Cashier! Ella's wonderful attitude inspires us to share that same spirit with others.
BEHIND THE SCENES HERO AWARD
Scott Dye is honored with our Behind the Scenes Hero Award. This award is given to salute an employee whose tremendous efforts, skills and talents have repeatedly and consistently supported and enabled others to advance the Club's mission in a significant way, or to accomplish a large and important project. This employee is an invaluable behind-the-scenes contributor who can be consistently relied upon by others for his or her highest service standards. Scott started with the Club in 1998 as a Rural Organizer for our Ozark Chapter in Missouri. Today he is a Senior Regional Representative for the Water Sentinels program. This program educates the public about water quality problems, the lack of environmental law enforcement, and encourages people to become active in protecting their local waterways. Feedback from the individuals that work with Scott consistently highlight his wonderful ability to mentor, advise, and support from behind the scenes. It is said that Scott intuitively provides support, fosters development, encourages individuality, and promotes a fun working environment. He inspires those who work with him with his dedication, tenacity, energy, humor, and willingness to give of his time above and beyond the call of duty.
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Julia Reitan (below) and Johanna O'Kelley (at right) have won our Special Achievement Award for their tireless effort at designing and implementing our 2005 Sierra Summit. This award is given to acknowledge an employee’s special achievement that has benefited, changed, or streamlined the work of the Club, or enhanced its public image. Julia is our Director of Volunteer and Activist Services and Johanna is our Director of Licensing and Membership Marketing.
They successfully worked across departments to create a cutting edge event that brought together Sierra Club leaders, green business vendors, and speakers in many different categories for a unique combination of decision making, dialog and commerce. The Sierra Club as an organization is better for their efforts.
MIKE MCCLOSKEY AWARD
Annette Souder is our Mike McCloskey award winner. This award is bestowed upon an employee whose work has reflected and strengthened the meaning, purpose, and mission of the Sierra Club, and who has contributed to the prestige of the Sierra Club in the world community. The Mike McCloskey award honors a distinguished record of achievement in national or international conservation causes. Annette has been with the Club since 2001. As director of the Sierra Club’s Global Population and Environment Program Annette built public support for one of the most pressing yet often most politically charged issues our planet faces today. Annette is engaging, empathetic, articulate and passionate about the topic while at the same time being disarming. Whether she’s speaking to a Sierra Club group, to the participants at United Nations conference, or to a single young woman in an impoverished African village, she engages and builds coalitions of support on this topic at home and abroad.
20-YEAR EMPLOYEES
Congratulations to our colleagues who have each completed 20 years of service at the Sierra Club.
Debra Asher - Debra works in Outings in San Francisco. For much of her Sierra Club career, she has been involved with the inner city outings (ICO) program, helping disadvantaged youth get into the outdoors. Under her stewardship, the program has more than doubled in size -- now serving 12,000 youth on 1,000 outings. She has developed a wonderful rapport with hundreds of ICO volunteer leaders who have come to rely on her support and counsel, and have allowed themselves to be nudged along by Debra to higher levels of training and standards compliance. As Debra said, "20 years ago, (even 5 years ago) I never imagined being on 'the plaque'. And here I am. I guess there's something to be said for being part of Sierra Club history."
Susan Golden - Susan works as a programmer and manger in IT in San Francisco. Without torturing any metaphors, everything Susan touches does turn to gold, as recognized by her receipt of the Employee Excellence Award in 2001. While Susan has had a hand in nearly every Club information system, her recent work has been primarily with HR, Finance, OEP and Conservation Law, helping streamline business processes and help others work more efficiently and effectively.
Vicky Hoover - Vicky is an honorary member of the Alaska Chapter for good reason: emulating the Sierra Club motto of "explore, enjoy and protect," Vicky has navigated waters and trails all across Alaska, making her the envy and consult of many. Her approach to lands protection is to see it firsthand. Vicky’s intimate knowledge of places in peril helps her maintain an active database of dedicated volunteers across the country. As the coordinator of Dr. Edgar Wayburn’s Sierra Club Alaska Task Force, and sitting on the Alaska National Outings Subcommittee, Vicky works hard to create a passion for Alaska in the hearts of every Sierra Club member. If you know Vicky, you know about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Mark Maslow - Mark also works as a programmer in IT in San Francisco. Mark's work has often been on the forefront of IT technology. His work in integrating our website and our databases began in 1997, well before many companies began to think of such possibilities. Mark has been on IT vendor advisory boards and been profiled in IT publications. When he is not behind a computer, Mark also leads service outings in his beloved Ventana Wilderness for the Sierra Club and other organizations.
Danny Moses - Except for a five-year period in the early 1990s, Danny has been at the helm of Sierra Club Books' editorial department since September of 1979. Held in the highest regard throughout the book publishing industry for his extraordinary editorial talent, his broad knowledge of books and authors, and his impressive publishing track record, he is held in equally high regard by his colleagues here at the Club for his hard work, dedication, and generosity of spirit--not to mention his quick wit! Over the years, Danny has been responsible for acquiring and developing many of SCB's top-selling classics, including Jerry Mander's IN THE ABSENCE OF THE SACRED and THE CASE AGAINST THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, Thomas Berry's THE DREAM OF THE EARTH, and David James Duncan's MY STORY AS TOLD BY WATER and THE RIVER WHY.
Evelyn Parangan - For 20 years now, Evelyn has been an invaluable employee of the Sierra Club. She has always been a dedicated, reliable, and extremely hard working member of the many teams she has had the opportunity to be a part of. Evelyn's enthusiasm and strong work ethic are currently being utilized (and much appreciated) in the Office of Development where she provides primary support for the Fundraising Team, working on a variety of core programs including the Life Member, Wilderness Guardian, Prospect Direct Mail, and Licensing programs. Perhaps most importantly, in her many years of service, she has rarely been spotted without a smile on her face, and it is this positive and supportive attitude that make Evelyn one of the most well-liked and respected employees in the Club.