Julie Klahn
Associate Director – Health Care
UNK Employee of the Month
April 2008
The UNK Staff Senate is pleased to recognize Julie Klahn, Associate Director of Health Care, as the April 2008 UNK Employee of the Month. Hired in July 2005, Julie Klahn serves as a Nurse Practitioner who is directly responsible for the medical care of students at UNK’s Health Care clinic.
In the short time since Julie arrived, she has made an incredibly large and positive impact on campus. Almost immediately, she was asked to sit on UNK’s Emergency Operations Team (EOT). Because the EOT’s most imperative and urgent task was, and is, adequate campus preparation for a disaster from Pandemic (Avian) Flu, Julie was looked to for leadership and knowledge.
In order to meet this challenge, Julie set about training and educating herself regarding this acutely recent event facing the entire world. Julie found herself writing policy, educating staff, and determining adequate clinic supply levels to prepare. Soon, it became apparent to Julie that a much broader level of communication was needed among many UNK departments who were not directly involved with EOT. To achieve this interaction, she organized an EOT subcommittee comprised of members of Facilities, Hazardous Materials, Residential and Greek Life, Services for Students with Disabilities, International Student Services, Public Safety, Business and Finance, Counseling and Health Care, Student Life. This committee addressed the challenging tasks of determining which of the residence halls would best serve as a hall for sick students and which hall for well students, how to provide medical care to those sick students, how to dispose of hazardous, contaminated wastes, as well as how to provide food to students—to name just a few.
Through this subcommittee, Julie organized a state-wide Town Hall Meeting at UNK at which local and state dignitaries and Pandemic Flu experts were invited to speak, including the Lt. Governor. Julie was able to obtain funding from Two Rivers Public Health Service to produce a DVD for the purpose of education of the public. This was determined to be a huge success and clearly put UNK “out there” as possessing expertise in knowledge, preparation, and response to a pandemic disaster.
For all of her efforts in going above and beyond on these key issues, as well as the consistent high level of care she demonstrates for the students and staff she interacts with on a daily basis, the UNK Staff Senate is honored to recognize Julie Klahn as the April 2008 UNK Employee of the Month.
The Employee of the Month is sponsored by: UNK Athletics, UNK Theater, Campus Cuts, Chartwells and the Antelope Bookstore.