2013 Outstanding Staff Award winner Nancy Curran, events coordinator for Hospitality Concordia
Yet laureates — united in their modesty — wonder if back-office personnel sometimes get overlooked.
“Some of our technical staff don’t have a high profile,” says Martin Pugh, chair of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. “Yet they’re the ones who keep things running in the background.”
Pugh, who scooped the 2013 Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching, adds: “I’m sure there are people in the department who deserve awards and people keen to nominate them.”
AAR development officer Sarah Kenny, who nominated Space Concordia president Nick Sweet, an engineering student, says: “There are loads of deserving people who’ve never been nominated.”
Curran, whose brothers drove from Ottawa to hear her acceptance speech, may have a solution. “You should always have something you want to improve.”