David Brandt
UNK Employee of the Month
November 2008
The UNK Staff Senate is pleased to recognize David Brandt, Assistant Director for Academic Success, as the November 2008 Employee of the Month. David deserves the award because he’s dedicated to helping students, parents, faculty, staff, and administrators succeed. He always goes the extra mile to support students, making sure staff is trained to provide the best of services and automatically put students first. At the same time he works with both students and staff to establish policies and procedures that protect everyone.
David designed and implemented assessment for tutoring, lab services, and services for students who qualify for academic accommodations that identify needs for improvement as well as reporting that promotes Academic Success and additional funding. He maintains national certification for the tutors at UNK. Additionally, David serves on the UNK ADA committee, the EOT subcommittee for emergency evacuation and pandemics, and he is a secondary responder for EOT.
David does a super job of working with Students with Disabilities due to the fact that he gets those students to focus on their abilities, not their disabilities. In addition he coaches the students to be proactive, plus be self advocates. Along with working with students with disabilities, David devotes many hours to serve the ELI Summer Conversation Table Program. He volunteers his time in order to help those students practice and develop their English Language skills. David created an efficient tracking system (a small card with the date stamped on it) for better communication between his Conversation Table team and the ELI Conversation teacher giving them class credit. This tracking system is a necessary assessment tool so that we all can better serve our International students. David also strives to foster high student, faculty and staff participation each week, so he sends weekly email reminders with the current topic of discussion.
David is committed to the AHEAD and WinAhead programs. As a representative of UNK and a member of WinAhead, David travels across the state of Nebraska giving presentations to high school students, parents, and educators regarding the differences between the legal requirements for services for students with disabilities at the high school level and those at the university level. His presentations help students and parents know what to expect in order to be prepared for the transition from high school to the university setting.
David has a way of teaching others by modeling positive actions and mentoring others. His philosophy, that encouragement is as important as praise has helped many students and staff, excel and advance. David is highly professional, easy-to-work with and beloved by all students, both International and domestic. The outstanding work he is doing is greatly appreciated and for that the UNK Staff Senate would like to recognize him as employee of the month for November 2008.
The Employee of the Month is sponsored by: UNK