Thank You to These Community Members

The following MIT community members have been recognized for going the extra mile. Thank someone today.
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Emergency Management Staff and International Safety and Security Program Manager

The Emergency Management Staff (Suzanne, Dave and Steve) have been on the front line of this situation since it started back in Jan 2020. They have worked tirelessly to ensure the framework for response was in place - even as the situation change daily.


International Safety and Security Program Manager - Todd Holmes is a one man show. Managing the travels of students and staff while abroad is hard enough in normal times - but becomes 10x more difficult when dealing w/ a pandemic. Like the emergency management folks - Todd has been engaged on this issue since it started in China back in January. Assisting folks that were traveling during IAP and providing guidance continues to this day. While international travel has slowed down - Todd has been called on to sit on a # of committee's managing the issue - even for domestic travels.

I have thanked each of these people directly. They are shining examples of forging ahead in uncertain times.
Sandy Mitchell , Insurance

Division of Student Life

To our colleagues who mobilized massive move out of students in a matter of days. We appreciate you and all of the blood, sweat and tears you put into their safe departure.
Laurie Ward, IMES/HST

Ian Waitz, Cindy Barnhart, Suzie Nelson, Cecilia Stoupis

The daily calls at 8AM have been vital, a source of calm and reason amidst a quickly unfolding situation. I am immensely grateful for all of your leadership and compassion.
Stefan Helmreich, Anthropology

DCM Staff

I would like to acknowledge my co-workers as well as my managers for their support, dedication and working together as a team. As a whole, DCM has an exceptional group of people and am honored to be a part of the team!
Suzette Morales, Division of Comparative Medicine

Todd Holmes

As International Safety and Security Program Manager, Todd has worked tirelessly to field countless questions, concerns, and inquiries and sit on numerous calls and committees to help advise the community and keep us all informed.
L.D., Provost

Brent Oberlin

In the midst of all the "normal" transitions and disruptions taking place at the Press, Brent assumed the role of Emergency Response coordinator as well. His communication was direct, but not at all panicked, providing the right amount of detail needed for all to feel informed and comfortable with the remote work arrangements. It was the supportive, measured response needed for those of us dealing with public school closings and the news our children would be home.
Bill Smith, The MIT Press

DCM animal caretakers

This group is still coming in, even at this difficult time. Most of them are here on campus taking care of all research animals, making sure they stay healthy, fed, and cared for. They are leaving kids and family under the care of others to make sure all works well here too.
Gladys Valeriano, Division of Comparative Medicine

David Randall

He is the voice of reason and humanity throughout all of this chaos. He has an ability to garner the respect needed to influence others in the right decisions. He had to be everywhere at the same time, and take quick and decisive action, and he did this all the right intentions.
Kimberly Benard, OVC

Care Team

They worked tireless night after night to make sure students were taken care of, could get off campus, had the resources they needed. They are heroes every day, but especially last week. They have one of the hardest jobs on campus, and yet do it with grace and empathy.
Kimberly Benard, OVC

Krishna Rajagopal

Krishna has been on the forefront, along with Sheryl Barnes, in helping faculty transition to online courses. In the meantime he has had made it clear to the MITx team that our work is still important, even more important than it was before this crisis. Our team values this.
Dana L Doyle, Open Learning

Division of Student Life, Cindy Barnhart, Ian Waitz

Deep gratitude for the tireless dedication to the students and to the well being of our community, and for the example and leadership set for the MIT community and for the rest of the world. Your work is truly inspiring!
Daniela Rus, CSAIL and SCC

Dan Hastings, Hamsa Balakrishnan and the entire AeroAstro COVID-help team

The AeroAstro department leadership and communications has been superb. All have been working 24/7 to keep everyone up to date. With much gratitude to the entire AeroAstro COVID-help team!
Dava Newman, AeroAstro

Mary Beth Gallagher, B Harris Crist, Peter Pflanz, Adam Eisenstein, Sarah Collins, Katey Stewart, Tony Pulsone

IT, communications and website support. These staff have worked with remarkable dedication, energy and commitment to ensure all MechE staff are equipped to work from home, that we have resources available on-line and that we are effectively communicating the rapid changes to our community. I am incredibly grateful to have them as part of our team.
Joanne Mathias, Mechanical Engineering

Adam Eisenstein

Adam has been working 12-14 hour days since the announcements started. We answered record volumes of request for assistance for our department’s IT needs. We couldn’t make it thru this without him. He has helped me get everyone connected to work remotely while being bombarded with many other requests for service. He is a truly awesome superstar. I am going to work hard to promote him as soon as we can.

Thank you
Peter Pflanz, MechE

Office of Records Team (Helena Sebastian, Alisa Covert, Jasmine Ortiz, Sarah Hendrick)

In the midst of the Institute taking unprecedented steps to reduce the number of students and staff on campus amid the Covid-19 situation, the Alumni Association proceeded with MIT's giving day, known as the MIT 24-Hour Challenge, held on Thursday March 12th this year. The Office of Records team is responsible for recording the majority of the donations that come to MIT on that day and every day. In the hours following the announcement from MIT's central HR, the Office of Records team took proactive steps to ensure continuity of operations, servicing both internal MIT departments and the Institute's alumni and donors. The team is among the unsung heroes of the Institute, doing work day in and day out to ensure that the philanthropic resources that so many students, labs, centers, and departments so largely depend on, are accepted and recorded appropriately. In the days to come, we were made aware that the team has plans to continue to provide services. On 3/12 during the 24 hour challenge, over 6,000 donations were made and the team has dedicated all their efforts to ensure that these donations are processed in a timely manner. They plan to ensure continuity of operations by alternating their staffing for both in office and remote work. Their commitment to the work of the Alumni Association and the Institute at-large is commendable and I hope can be recognize in some small or significant way.
Thank you for your consideration.
Anonymous , Alumni Association

Jane Acheson

Jane partnered with a number of subject matter experts to write, edit, and publish a 21 page 'magazine design style' everything and anything an employee needs to know about working remotely. She wrote in a very user friendly style, inserting humor as appropriate. Jane thought ahead by writing the document within our PolicyTech application so that everyone can access it regardless of location or medium being used (computer, tablet, or phone). She also took the extra step of saving the file as a PDF for those who prefer to print and work off of hard copy. All of her efforts lead us to expect that rather than employees dreading that this is a 21 page document, it will be a tool that employees will quickly reference. This took tremendous effort and creativity, all done in an incredible short period of time.
Cathi Tetreault, MIT Medical

Tech and Comms staff

Our dept has done a fast and amazing job getting everyone up to speed so we can work remotely. The combination of proactive Tech training and support, along with clear and timely information from our Comms staff have kept concerns at bay and helped us all feel much more prepared. So grateful!
Cori Champagne, HR

Lisa Breede

Lisa Breede has been working tirelessly all week to ensure employees feel safe and secure about their changing work plans. She's made accommodations to create the best possible work from home scenarios. Thank you, Lisa!
Andrea Porras, Media Lab

IST

Thank you to IST for getting Zoom and Slack for all of MIT. It will make a huge difference to keep up collaboration and communication while most of us are working remote/virtual.
Rebecca Fowler

MIT Emergency Management

Thank you for your behind the scenes work over the past month to anticipate, grapple, plan, inform and manage so many decisions and considerations that are creating a safe and prepared community for us and our families.
Brian Goldberg

Learning Services Team

Thank you for helping us to postpone/cancel/virtualize our workshops as we adjust to this new reality! Your flexibility and speediness are greatly appreciated!
Elizabeth Hawley

HR Tech & HRIS

Thank you for all the work you've done to get HR ready to work from home. Especially given that Mike is still new to MIT, it's incredible how quickly you moved to get every one set up to work safely and securely from home.
Elizabeth Hawley
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