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The Dean’s Performance Awards honor UNC School of Medicine staff members whose exemplary work has contributed to UNC achieving its vision of becoming the nation’s leading public school of medicine.


The Dean’s Performance Awards honor UNC School of Medicine staff members whose exemplary work has contributed to UNC achieving its vision of becoming the nation’s leading public school of medicine.

The Dean’s Performance Awards honor UNC School of Medicine staff members whose exemplary work has contributed to UNC achieving its vision of becoming the nation’s leading public school of medicine.

The awardees were nominated by their peers and selected by the Administration Advisory Council. Each winner will receive $1,000 to support their work.

Read more about the winners in each categories:

Diversity Category: Claudis Polk, Lisa Long, Kim Richardson, Ricky Phillips – Office of Special Programs

The Office of Special Programs works to provide pipeline opportunities for students from backgrounds typically underrepresented in medicine. Along with recruitment and retention of minority and underrepresented students at the UNC School of Medicine, the office provides academic and social support, leadership opportunities, professional development, and additional resources to potential and current students.

Claudis Polk serves as Director of the Office of Special Programs, Lisa Long is Associate Director, Ricky Phillips is a Support Specialist, and Kim Richardson provides administrative support.

Community Service Category: Patricia Suits

While Patricia Suits’ primary role is as an Administrative Assistant in the Department of Radiation Oncology, her colleagues nominated her for this award in recognition of the way she goes above and beyond to improve the experience of patients undergoing daily radiation treatments.

In addition to her dedication to patients, Suits is also a champion for staff morale and wellness, organizing birthday celebrations, employee of the month recognition, and the department’s participation in the annual Stuff the Bus campaign.

Faculty Category: Ann Nochlin

As the Pre-Award Manager for the Department of Genetics, Ann Nochlin directly supports 60 faculty members. Last fiscal year, she prepared >110 grant applications for submission, always going above and beyond by preparing budgets and justifications, updating biosketches, interpreting federal guidelines, and serving as the subject matter expert for the pre-award process. The grant funding success of the department – top 5 Genetics departments nationally – can be partially attributed to Nochlin’s work ethic and commitment.

Research Category: Jennifer Brennan

Jennifer Brennan, PhD, serves as Director of the Office of Research where she works tirelessly to support the UNC School of Medicine’s research endeavors. In 2018, the UNC School of Medicine brought in over $480 million dollars in grant funding to the university and in order to maintain this amount of research activity, the Office of Research, which includes the research core facilities, needs to run smoothly. Brennan’s diligence and dedication helps ensure that happens.

Education Category: Nicole Arnold

Nicole Arnold serves as student services manager in the Department of Pharmacology. Nicole has helped transform the department’s Carolina Summer Fellows Program (CSFP), which provides research experience opportunities to highly qualified college students. Up until three years ago, the program drew almost entirely from UNC and program participants lacked diversity. Arnold developed a formal partnership with the Undergraduate Health Sciences Academy at Morehouse School of Medicine. Over the last several years the CSFP has hosted three or more students from this program each year. In addition, for the first time, every participant in CSFP is from outside UNC.

Administration Category: Sarah Shipp

As a member of the SOM Finance team, Sarah Shipp has led her colleagues in the implementation and support of several new systems over the last year including implementation of the Health Care System Strata financial reporting and budgeting tool, the new University budget template, as well as creating and supporting new funds flow reporting. Her work during the budget implementation phase, resolving multiple system issues and data validation challenges, required an extraordinary amount of work in a condense time frame. Sarah is a team player and provides exceptional support in the financial administration of the SOM.

Do you have a colleague deserving of recognition? Nominations for next year’s Dean’s Performance Awards will open in April.