Titan of the Year
Michael August
Performing Arts Technician III/ Production Coordinator, School of Music (Academic Affairs)
Michael August exemplifies Titan excellence. Mike is the Production Coordinator for the College of the Arts, overseeing all the performing arts productions: theatre, dance, and music. He also took over a great deal of technology management following a staff retirement a few years ago. I follow the six listed criteria for the Titan Excellence Award in this nomination. (1) Mike demonstrates how greatly he values student success every day. He works with over 100 students who staff all the shows every semester: stage managers, ushers, and crew members for lighting and sound and everything else. He is always teaching and coaching and mentoring them, and always with a smile and words of encouragement. (2) Mike promotes inclusivity in all he does. The College of the Arts is blessed with a very diverse student population. In music and in theatre/dance, Mike works with and mentors these students every day, including them equally in all learning opportunities regarding performance production and management. He makes every opportunity to match students with their interests, whether that be crewing back stage or working equipment in the control room. (3) Mike builds community. This is evident when I see students gather in his office and outside his door. The students know they can come to him for assistance with their performances or to receive a kind word of advice, and this builds a community of students around him. (4) Mike demonstrates exemplary service to the campus and community by being the “go to guy” for all things related to facilities, technology, and performance in the Clayes Performing Arts Center. Mike sees to it that every stage production and individual recital and ensemble – large, medium, or small – gets up and running on schedule, and he often works the control booth himself with his students. (5) Mike provides outstanding educational support not only by coordinating all the productions in the College of the Arts but also by managing the database for the School of Music along with other technologies. He regularly assists faculty, staff, and students – and me – in accessing and entering data into our school data platform (FileMaker Pro), allowing us to track all kinds of necessary information. And, he also fixes computer problems from time to time. (6) Mike exemplifies the CSUF mission and values. In addition to the examples above, I add one more. Shh… don’t tell anyone, but Mike even plays Santa Claus at the annual “Deck the Hall Concert.” I add this last humorous example to show that he really does love this place. Every day, he embodies excellence in helping Cal State Fullerton achieve its four strategic plan goals of student success, innovative technologies, inclusive excellence, and the cyber infrastructure – the latter demonstrated by his being part of the team that purchased and installed all new video and audio equipment for streaming musical, theatrical, and dance productions, using CARES funds. Mike truly demonstrates Titan excellence in every aspect of his work.
2022 Titan Excellence Award Winner
Dr. Katherine Powers
Professor of Music, School of Music (Academic Affairs)
Dr. Katherine Powers has worked tirelessly to support underrepresented graduate students at CSUF. Most significantly, since 2010 she has been the principal investigator on three Title V Department of Education grants totaling $8.3 million in funding for CSUF. These grants support the academic achievement of Hispanic and other disadvantaged graduate students. Through her diligence, Dr. Powers has helped disadvantaged students enroll in our graduate programs, as well as persist and complete graduate degrees in a timely manner. A significant part of her work has been to help shift the culture at CSUF so that is more welcoming to and inclusive of all of our students. Dr. Powers has overseen the implementation of the Title V grants – known as EPOCHS, SOAR, and upGRADS – which involves supervising the program staff and the many different programs supported by the grants. These programs have included the creation of the Graduate Student Success Center, adding writing and academic support services specifically for graduate students, helping students navigate the graduate school application process, providing workshops to develop students’ skill sets, developing a faculty/graduate student mentoring program, training faculty on inclusive teaching practices, and creating a summer bridge program for incoming graduate students. This work has been extensive, and from this list alone, it is apparent that it has taken significant dedication from Dr. Powers to carry out these programs. But even more importantly, these programs have been successful. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Powers, the number of Hispanic graduate students at CSUF increased by 37% from 2014 to 2020, and a higher percentage of these students are graduating. Her work has truly transformed Cal State Fullerton’s graduate programs. Notably, Dr. Powers’s work aligns with ALL of CSUF’s strategic goals: 1. These grants have provided a transformational educational experience and environment for many graduate students. She has increased cultural competencies of faculty and staff on campus, and has provided student support services that are a model of best practices. 2. She has improved student success and completion. She has helped to close equity gaps for underrepresented graduate students as more of them are attending graduate school, persisting, and graduating in a timely manner. 3. As more underrepresented students attend graduate school, Dr. Powers is helping to build the diverse pipeline of faculty needed at CSUF. These graduates go on to PhD programs and become tenure-track faculty, many of whom return to the CSU. In addition, as the grant programs have improved the cultural competence of staff and faculty, it has made CSUF a more inclusive environment for everyone on campus. 4. In her work on the grants, Dr. Powers has made certain to include alumni who can return to campus to encourage the next generation of Titans. In this way she has continued to build alumni affinity for the institution and kept them connected to CSUF. While this is the achievement we are highlighting for Dr. Powers, her service to the campus goes far beyond these Title V grants. Dr. Powers served as the Director of Graduate Studies for nine years, as well as the Chair of the School of Music. She has long been an active part of the campus community, serving on multiple campus committees and in the Academic Senate. It is amazing that she has achieved all that she has through the Title V grants while continuing to serve in so many other capacities as well. For all of these reasons, Dr. Powers is most deserving of the Titan Excellence Award, as she has a legacy of diligent work to transform CSUF and the educational experience we provide for our graduate students.
2022 Titan Excellence Award Winner
Catherine Ward
Director of Learning and Engagement, Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Programs (Human Resources, Diversity and Inclusion); former Executive Director of Retention Initiatives (Student Affairs)
I nominate Dr. Catherine Ward for the Titan Excellence Award. As the Executive Director of Retention Initiatives and the Department of Assistant Deans for Student Affairs, she has exemplified outstanding leadership, grace, empathy, compassion, dedication, and commitment in her role, with her team, and with whom she serves. Her work is focuses on intentionality, mindfulness, empathy, and equity. Dr. Ward leads and mentors 8 Assistant Deans for Student Affairs and is also responsible for their training and professional development. Majority of them are based in academic colleges and the Tuffy’s Graduation Scholars (TGS). Dr. Ward is an integral part of student success on campus where her responsibilities weave into and integrate the various academic and student affairs support services. The intricacies of her responsibilities allow the divisions of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs to intimately collaborate. She works with and supports the Assistant Deans’ recommendations on university and college-wide policy, enrollment management initiatives, student services and co-curricular programming. She contributes to a wide variety of initiatives that support the local, division- wide, and university strategic plans. Ongoing collaborations with partners on campus to design and implement student service assessment plans and college climate assessment efforts have informed the decisions and the work of the team. The impact of her work supports the success of all 40,000 Titans from admission, orientation, to graduation. In response to the CSU Graduation Initiative 2025, CSUF established the Tuffy’s Graduation Scholars (TGS) in AY 2019-2020 under the leadership of Dr. Ward. The primary goal of TGS is to understand the intersections of underrepresented (UR), first- generation (FG), Pell students (UR/FG, UR/Pell, Pell/FG, UR/Pell/FG) to students’ educational experience and their persistence, retention, and graduation rates. It explores interventions that can support their identity development as a Titan and as a scholar and to improve retention and graduation rates. The initial cohort of 759 first-time, first-year students joined CSUF in 2019. In fall 2020, 706 scholars continued in the program. There were 671 students who persisted in spring 2021. During AY 2020-2021, her leadership on TGS with its second year of strategic interventions resulted to 51.9% (394/759) of scholars who are estimated to be on track to graduate within 4 years and 81.1% (616/759) of scholars are estimated to be on track to graduate within 6 years. CSUF’s goal for the Fall 2019 cohort is to graduate 39.1% of all students in four years and 75.0% in 6 years. Her leadership and work center around equity and inclusion. She recently led the inaugural First Generation College Student Celebration at CSUF in 2021 and coordinated with various on campus partners including the academic colleges, Career Center, Student Academic Services, and Alumni Office for a week-long event. The highlight of the celebration was the kick-off event that was a community gathering of resources and activities to meet first-gen staff and faculty, with special giveaways, first-gen shirts, graduation stoles and lunch provided by The Habit food truck. The kick-off event was successfully attended by 1,400 first generation college students. Dr. Catherine Ward values student success, promotes inclusion, builds community, and demonstrates exemplary service to the campus and community. She is an excellent role model for the underrepresented and first-generation students. For the professional staff in her team, she lives up to the saying “lift as you climb.” She provides many doors of opportunities for her team where they can shine and flourish professionally. Her genuine care and advocacy through the Assistant Deans and Tuffy’s Graduation Scholars programs and services provide exceptional educational support that embodies the CSUF mission and values. I fully endorse Dr. Catherine Ward for the 2022 Titan Excellence Award.
2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award Nomination
McNair Scholars Program
Team members from the Student Affairs team:
Monique Posadas, Patricia Literte, and Rosie Guillen.
The McNair Scholars Program staff has promoted a welcoming, inclusive, and equitable environment at CSUF through the promotion and fulfillment of the Program’s mission. The McNair Scholars Program provides graduate school preparation, and in particular, Ph.D. program preparation services, to students from low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented backgrounds. Preparing for Ph.D. programs is a rigorous and stressful experience, even for the most privileged of students. It is thus, even more difficult for McNair Scholars, who are frequently faced with “imposter syndrome,” economic instability, familial demands and stressors, and mental health challenges, as they attempt to develop the research skills and knowledge of the politics of academia needed to succeed in doctoral programs. Yet the McNair Scholars Program staff has consistently and successfully helped its Scholars navigate and overcome these challenges by drawing on Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset, which recognizes that students come to us with existing neurocognitive skill sets that can be nurtured and grown. Through McNair services, students are encouraged to “lean into learning” and continually build on their existing knowledge and skill sets. McNair services also encourage self-reflexive learning that empowers students by centering self-efficacy in the learning process. Throughout this process, the McNair staff celebrates and recognizes the value of Scholars' diverse perspectives and experiences
Since 2010, 15% of CSUF McNair Scholars, all of whom are first-generation, low-income, and/or underrepresented, have obtained their doctorate degrees. This rate is significantly higher than the doctoral degree attainment for the general population, which is approximately 4.5% (U.S. Census, 2018). The rate of Americans from first-generation, low-income, and/or underrepresented backgrounds who obtain doctorates is even lower. For example, according to the National Science Foundation (2021), only 8.2% of doctorate recipients are Latinx, and the proportion of doctorate recipients who are first-generation students has steadily declined over the last 20 years. The CSUF McNair Scholars Program staff’s leadership in preparing CSUF students to be successful at the doctoral level has a long-term impact on CSUF, as these McNair alumni go on to positions in the professoriate, research, and public policy, and in turn, burnish CSUF’s reputation as an institution that provides high-impact opportunities to students from first-generation, low- income, and underrepresented backgrounds. These alumni continue to build on and expand the CSUF McNair Scholars Program legacy. For example, Dr. Erica Lizano from the CSUF Department of Social Work continues to be an advocate for underserved students and conducts research on diversity and inclusion practices in organizations.
The CSUF McNair Scholars staff has raised consciousness about diversity and inclusion by creating a transformational Titan Experience for McNair Scholars, which promotes Student Success at both CSUF and the post-baccalaureate level. All CSUF McNair Scholars receive holistic wrap around services from the McNair Scholars Program staff, including 1:1 bi-weekly mentoring, writing tutoring, and seminars which focus on academic skill development, professional development, and graduate school preparation. All of these services are implemented in a culturally sensitive manner, with special attention paid to the challenges and valuable perspectives of first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students. Scholars also participate in multiple high-impact practices, including the completion of a McNair Thesis underneath a faculty mentor, conference presentations, and participation in fully-funded summer research programs around the country. In 2020-21, 100% of Scholars participated in such research and scholarly activities. The CSUF McNair Scholars Program also promotes student success, as exhibited through high graduation and graduate school attendance rates. In 2020-21, 92% of graduating CSUF McNair Scholars were accepted into and began graduate programs in fall 2021, and 82% of CSUF McNair Scholars who were first year graduate students persisted to their second years.
Comments from McNair Scholars: Deanna Perez: Rosie helped me with healthy eating. She told me about Pinterest, which is now my go-to tool for finding recipes to cook fast and cheap. This has been incredibly important because I'll skip a meal if I'm too busy. Dr. Literte has nothing but my well earned respect. She's not only the director of the entire operation but I know she's handling all the bureaucratic things, that I can only imagine is just taxing on all 3-levels, emotional, physical, and mental. Maddy Hernandez: When applying to scholarships and summer research programs, Monique went line by line through my applications to ensure that they properly represented the strengths I possessed as a candidate. She also would outline the need for diverse students in such programs and stressed the importance of feeling capable even when facing imposter syndrome. Noora Ghadiri: Monique really pulled me through last semester while I was dealing with mental problems but needed to apply for grad school. She was a perfect balance of pushing me and being considerate and caring (she connected me to CAPS, which led me to seek professional help). And Rosie has always gone above and beyond to make sure all the paperwork gets done while she was dealing with her own health issues. I wouldn't be able to get it done without them.
2022 Teamwork & Collaboration Award Nomination
Facilities Operations Managers
Members of the Administration & Finance Team:
Pam Newton, Hans Mickelson, Albina Guzman, Anthony Chadwick, Anthony Sinopoli
The campus is a safe place to work and to attend in-person courses. Some say, this is the safest place in Orange County. This is a statement and has held true throughout the pandemic and has never been more spot-on. Of course, it is due to the outstanding leadership of President Virjee and Cabinet, VP Coley and AVP Izadian, and countless others campus-wide, however, without these dedicated managers who oversee the physical operation of teams who actual provide the cleaning, sanitization, utilities and environment that makes the campus the safe place that it is, this would not be possible. The Facilities Operations Managers have continued to work on-campus throughout the pandemic. It is and was because of their dedication to lead by example, which allowed for our staff to feel that the University did care about the work conditions, so much, that even the Facilities managers and director were on campus to support, encourage, and contribute. The effort of these leaders displays the essence of providing a transformative educational experience and environment for all students, possible due to the planning, leadership, and evidence of these managers who, during the worst times led, and continue to lead by example.
In our strategic goals, Titan students are immeasurably enriched by immersive experiences and a robust array of services that support their well-being, provide a sense of belonging, and promote academic success. The past few years has been full of uncertainty, panic, tragedy, and yet, we were able to overcome and provide a safe and clean environment for in-person work and courses. This was due to the trust of leadership from the top of the organization. Managers knew that the campus leadership was going to provide them with all of the tools needed to keep them and their team members safe and that trust and cooperation would be evident to their staff. Properly and respectfully conveying these messages to their staff would be critical, and Capital Programs and Facilities Management have overcome the obstacles and have provided a clean, safe, welcoming, learning environment.
The University has determined that perhaps nothing is more central to our educational mission than providing equitable access to the opportunities and resources necessary for student success. The in-person classes were deemed as essential and necessary for student success. Likewise, many staff on this campus have been asked to work on-campus to help meet the educational needs of those students. This was mainly possible due to the examples, planning, and leadership exhibited by those nominated.
Early on in the pandemic, discussions with the Facilities Operations Managers centered on the health and safety of their staff. The managers were very concerned with how employees would continue to get paid if they were not authorized to work on campus, and if they were permitted on campus, would they be safe and what could be done to increase safety. At that time, the world did not have many answers and questions continued to pile up.
Meanwhile, the campus continued to need the team to provide a safe environment, where learning and work could continue. In working with campus partners, HRDI, IT, Environmental Health and Safety and others, we were able to give reassurances to our teams and a return to work plan was created and perfected. These managers were concerned for their team member’s safety first and then to ensure that they could continue to feed their families. This is a caring group that I am very proud of.
Nothing shows responsibility and accountability more than leading by example. How could a Facilities Operations force of nearly 150 employees expect to come to work and feel that they were in a safe working environment, if their managers, giving operational direction, were at home? In many cases, this could work, but in the operational needs of the campus, such as plumbing or electrical work, cleaning, sanitizing and custodial, grounds and landscape, shipping or mail services, operational managers are in the trenches, working alongside staff in many occasions. These operational managers needed to be on campus- and they are here- every day.
Prior to the pandemic, managers had set responsibilities that did not change much, over time. Preventive maintenance is how we ensure the campus assets are properly maintained and it usually follows a routine. However, as all are aware, the pandemic changed our business overnight. Managers were needed in different areas of Facilities Operations, and were asked to change course and help in oversight of different teams in unfamiliar roles. After two years, changes are still necessary based on the information or guidance we receive. These managers have been asked to perform duties that they never thought would be part of their tasks, yet did not once complain. Not one of these folks asked for anything in return, yet performed to the best of their abilities. I am forever grateful for these team members and would love to see them win an award based on their dedication to this campus.
We all know, things change. And quickly. It has already been two years and we have done so much to get back to normalcy. I have nominated these team members because while most of the campus, and many in the country were able to “stay safe” at home, these folks were on campus leading the charge to keep the campus community safe. We all should be very thankful for this effort, and for their efforts and expectations set forth, that our staff meets those levels of cleanliness and care that the campus deserves. I am honored to nominate these managers.
