Three Transportation Department Staff Members Nominated at the OFA Awards for Excellence
On April 29, the Office of Finance and Administration held its annual Awards for Excellence ceremony. This year, there were 37 nominees, with six winners advancing to being recognized at the University Level. The nominees were recognized for going above and beyond in one of the following categories: Customer Service, Efficiency and Innovation, Human Relations, Oustanding State Government Service, Public Service, Safety and Heroism, and Spirit of North Carolina.
The Transportation Department had three nominees out of the 37: Shilena Armstrong, Kathy Froehlich, and Dave Hammermann. Shilena was selected as one of the six to represent the Office of Finance and Administration at the University Level. You can read more about their efforts below.
For more information about the University’s Awards for Excellence, visit https://hr.ncsu.edu/extraordinary-pack/awards-for-excellence/.
Shilena Armstrong
Shilena Armstrong is a Parking Operations Supervisor and was nominated by Than Austin in the Public Service category.
This award recognizes her initiative to develop and implement a program to benefit low-income students. The bicycle donation program, a partnership with Pack Essentials, provides bicycles at no charge to students who need a viable form of transportation to get around campus.
Every year, Transportation collects abandoned bicycles on campus to make room on bike racks for students with new bicycles. As the Parking Operations Supervisor, Shilena oversees the department’s program to monitor the campus bicycle inventory, maintain order and space at campus bike racks, and, when needed, follow protocols to collect abandoned bicycles. Typically, these abandoned bicycles are turned over to Surplus, but Shilena saw an opportunity in this process to help those in need in the campus community.
In 2023, Shilena contacted staff with the Pack Essentials program with the idea for the program, proposing a partnership between Transportation and Pack Essentials with the goal of assisting campus community members in need of viable transportation on campus. Working in the new partnership, Transportation would donate abandoned bicycles to Pack Essentials for them to distribute for free to qualified students. Shilena oversees the process of selecting appropriate bicycles, making sure they are cleaned, and checking each bicycle to ensure they are road-ready prior to turning over to Pack Essentials. Transportation also pre-registers the donated bicycles for future recipients before delivery, streamlining the ownership process and resulting in a hassle-free experience.
The goal for the current pilot year is to donate 12 bikes, with the plan to grow the program to benefit more students in the future. The first donation, named the “Holiday Donation,” happened on December 5, with four bikes donated to Pack Essentials. Transportation is excited about the positive change this partnership will bring to the campus community and is eager to witness its growth and impact in the future.
Kathy Froehlich
Kathy Froehlich is the Appeals Officer and was nominated by Chris Dobek in the Public Service category.
Each day, Kathy reviews and adjudicates 100 – 150 parking citation appeals. Outside of her role with Transportation, Kathy is a true ambassador of NCSU, volunteering her time across campus at various events throughout the year. In the fall she assists wayward families during move-in, during the spring she greets new students attending spring orientation and throughout the entire calendar year she volunteers her time at the Pack Essential Hub.
This past year, Kathy volunteered 150 hours at the Pack Essentials Hub. Early in 2023, Kathy committed to working 24 hours over the course of the year. However, due to volunteering staffing shortages, Kathy quickly claimed her 24 hours within the first few months of the spring term. In order to meet the staffing needs of the Hub, Kathy began flexing her lunch hour to volunteer additional time at the Hub. By mid-summer, Kathy was commuting to campus during her scheduled work-from-home days to volunteer additional hours to keep the Hub open. While at the Pack Essential Hub, Kathy unloads the Food Bank delivery truck, stocks dry goods and produce on shelves, travels to the Food Bank to procure additional food supplies when a Food Truck delivery isn’t available, and repackages bulk produce, rice, beans, and spices into smaller portions. Additional tasks include general cleaning of the Hub, refrigerators, and freezers; assisting patrons with admission; gathering food for patrons; and mentoring new volunteers.
Leveraging her role as the Parking Appeals Officer, Kathy promotes the Pack Essentials Hub whenever a patron cites a financial hardship in a parking appeal.
Assistant Vice Chancellor Mike Giancola shared the following about Kathy’s involvement at the Pack Essential Hub: “Kathy has been a trusted and valuable volunteer for the Feed the Pack food pantry at the Pack Essential Hub. She has provided valuable volunteer support consistently over the past few years especially during break periods and other times we need additional support. Kathy approaches her volunteer duties with dedication and diligence. Her contributions help us maintain this critical resource for the campus community.”
Dave Hammermann
Dave Hammermann is the Geographic Information System Coordinator and was nominated by Andrea Neri in the Public Service category.
In the last year, Dave has demonstrated unmatched dedication to the Transportation vision of delivering top-level bike infrastructure and services to the campus community. As a GIS expert, he devised a flawless, easy-to-navigate, and full-of-granular information Campus Bicycle Facilities app for the planners to work with. As a gifted and passionate handyman and self-taught technician, he independently took over the task of fixing and recalibrating every Transportation-installed bike pump on campus.
Dave’s day-to-day tasks only relate to mapping parking facilities and transit routes whenever the Wolfline bus service goes through major service changes. Mapping bike parking and infrastructure was little more than aspirational before Dave helped the transportation planners devise an interactive state-of-the-art GIS-based app that integrates information on geolocation, current photos, and detailed features all in one place that enhances the planning capabilities of the Transportation team. Dave’s app effectively was the digital workspace used to plan installation of
over 70 new bike racks in 2023.
Dave demonstrates sincere, genuine, and lasting care for his co-workers and for the campus community through routine acts of care and kindness that often fly under the radar. Some of his most remarkable contributions to the pack are unrelated to his job description. One of these consisted of bringing into his office the faulty bike air pumps integrated with the three fixit stations installed on campus after several private companies had offered their paid services to make long-awaited repairs, only to come back months later reporting that they could not fix the problems.
With skill, dedication, and outstanding technical capabilities, Dave took the challenge into his own hands, dismounted the air pump units, and fixed each issue long reported by the campus community within a few hours.
Dave exemplifies the remarkable resiliency and initiative that NC State University can display when facing a challenge. With his positive attitude, he has shown how tangible benefits for all result from professional and personal qualities and that the invaluable skillset many of us hide in our workplace is a solid asset that can be leveraged for the good of the community we proudly serve.
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