Two members of the CAS community will receive 2013-14 President’s Employee Excellence Awards at the Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet, part of the WSU Showcase annual celebration of faculty, staff, and student achievement on March 28.

The awards recognize civil service and administrative professional staff for outstanding contributions in work quality, efficiency, productivity, problem solving, work relations, and community service.

Kris Boreen, budget and finance manager for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, served in a number of WSU administrative and finance manager positions before landing in physics and astronomy two years ago. Since then, she has helped the department find optimal ways to invest resources, reduce expenses, identify resource needs and manage a complex budget. She asks questions, suggests options, provides answers and hammers out solutions, sometimes working late into the night and on weekends.

Boreen brought “an infusion of positive can-do energy” that helped improve staff morale. She cares about the success of the university, department, faculty, staff and “most definitely the students,” said a nominator.

Sisouvanh Keopanapay, academic coordinator in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, supervises about 40 interns working in Pullman-area courts and police departments and creates other innovative ways for students and faculty to connect with each other and with the justice community. After she revamped her department’s internship program, it added 25 students in two semesters, said one nominator.

Keopanapay coordinates a variety of tasks efficiently and creatively, including institutional research. She initiated a study abroad program and mentors other advisers. She also advises about half of the department’s undergraduates and “her evaluations are always at the top of the charts,” said a nominator.

Read about all of this year’s winners of the WSU President’s Employee Excellence Awards