The Staff Mentorship Award recognizes up to two staff members per year who serve as role models by inspiring colleagues and/or promoting professional development. These staff members, informally or formally, provide mentorship by being available to colleagues for support and sharing tips/resources for navigating higher education field/job functions. They’re known as go-to resources on campus.
Criteria:
- Be a regular staff member at least 51% time or a full-time temporary staff member
- Demonstrate recognition on campus by colleagues as a mentor and resource for other colleagues
- Provide mentorship through informal pathways and/or formal meetings to colleagues at NIU
- Continue to demonstrate willingness to elevate and support colleagues at NIU
Yvonne Johnson has been named a recipient of the 2024 Staff Mentorship Award.
Yvonne Johnson knows that mentoring matters. In fact, her role as a multimodal teaching coordinator in the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) provides her with ample opportunities to mentor, guide and motivate both new and seasoned faculty and staff members.
“The faculty she has worked with as a teaching mentor have reported her to be kind and insightful,” said Stephanie Richter, Yvonne’s supervisor and director of Teaching Excellence and Support.
“Within CITL, she serves as a mentor for other staff. New members of CITL usually have extensive backgrounds in teaching but not in serving as an educational developer. Yvonne supports new colleagues by helping them understand what their new role really means and how to have an impact in their work,” said Richter. “She serves as a role model through her daily work and generously provides extensive resources and examples to new colleagues to help them be successful.”
As a new staff member in 2023, Linh Nguyen benefitted directly from Johnson’s mentorship and credits NIU as one of the best places to work because of employees like Yvonne.
“As a woman of color and a first-generation immigrant with no money, connections or institutional knowledge, I learned the hard way that having an effective mentor is the difference between success and failure,” Nguyen said. “Yvonne’s early mentoring relationship helped me develop skills, knowledge and a successful career trajectory as an Inclusive Teaching Coordinator at the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL).”
In addition to mentoring faculty and staff members through her role in CITL, Yvonne has also served as vice-chair for the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, where she organized events to advocate for women and improve their personal and professional lives.
“Yvonne organized events that addressed salary negotiation skills, work-life balance, career advancement, graduate student research, mindfulness, the Violence Against Women Act and well-being during Covid-19,” said Laura Vasquez, professor in the Department of Communication and former chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. “The NIU community has benefitted greatly from her contributions. Yvonne Johnson is a consummate mentor—always willing to share her knowledge, time and energy for the betterment of the campus community.”
Originally posted in NIU Today, April 17, 2024
