Suzanne Peterson is a professional counselor and the assistant director of the Counseling Center. On any given day, Sue can be found wearing many different "hats." First, people seek her expertise in several areas of professional counseling. Next, Sue contributes greatly to the university community in many service domains. Sue is an advisor to the Collegians for Integration and Accessibility student organization and an academic advisor. She also serves on various UNK boards and committees and teaches periodically some sections of the University Foundations course. Ms. Petersen also gives professional presentations to a variety of interested organizations and works with potential UNK students.
A superb example of Sue's commitment to excellence and to student well-being is her work on the annual Disability Awareness Week. Our students see Sue work to integrate fun with diversity and exceptionality during this week of events designed to bring greater awareness to those with disabilities. Sue's dedication to the students she serves takes many forms. She sees a great number of special needs students throughout the year as she works diligently to arrange the necessary accommodations to help them succeed at UNK. Thus, her role as a student counselor/advocate is indispensable in insuring the success of many at our university. Recently, Sue has assumed some management responsibilities in the office, as her director is serving as interim director for Residential and Greek Life.
Sue's sense of teamwork extends to the entire UNK community and beyond. In her role as a special needs counselor, she works collaboratively with other departments as an advocate, as an educator, and as a counselor, for she wants her students to enjoy a holistic university experience. Off campus, Sue has created working relationships with other support organizations. One of them is Vocational Rehabilitation. A dedicated and selfless individual, Sue offers assistance to others whenever needed. When binders needed to be assembled for a NASPA conference, she helped to organize the materials and set up the necessary procedure to assemble the materials in time for the conference. Sue Petersen was also an integral member of the team that prepared Fall Orientation activities this year. All colleagues appreciate and value her reliability and "can-do" spirit.
As she is always available to assist students, Sue Petersen is often in the office beyond work hours. Frequently, she spends her weekends working on projects for the university. Sue is both meticulous and thorough, ever concerned that projects are well planned and executed. Counseling staff members believe that Sue's combination of thoughtful professionalism and well-timed humor is "the glue" that holds them together. They regard her as their office cornerstone: a dedicated leader whose positive attitude helps maintain high staff morale.
Because of her dedication to students, to colleagues, and to the wider UNK community, the University of Nebraska at Kearney is pleased to name Suzanne Petersen its Employee of the Month for December 2000.