Team Katrina Honored for Quick Action

The Saturday morning before Labor Day, Elaine Madison was at home waiting for some e-mails. As the director of Duke's Community Service Center, Madison was listed as the contact for people needing assistance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Early in the morning, a bell rang on her computer, indicating she had an e-mail. Then the computer sounded again. And again. Each message, it seemed, contained gut-wrenching stories.

The same day, Paula Gilbert needed to be in two places at one time. Two days earlier, Gilbert, the director of Duke's Office of Continuing Studies, had received a call from Trinity College Dean Robert Thompson saying that she was in charge of admitting GulfCoast students wanting to transfer to Duke for the semester.

The applications started coming in on Friday morning. On Saturday, as more applications were rushing in, Gilbert raced between the office, to ensure that the phones and computers were staffed the entire day, and an afternoon wedding at which she was serving as an assisting minister.

There are dozens of similar stories regarding Duke employees' quick efforts following Katrina. Their efforts were honored Thursday with the university's Teamwork Award, which recognizes employees who design broad-based solutions to important issues or problems and require departments to work together in creative ways.

A second Teamwork Award went to Duke Health Raleigh Hospital's Inpatient Satisfaction Team for its work in improving patient service and increasing patient satisfaction at the hospital.

The university Thursday also honored three people with Diversity Awards for showing leadership in promoting inclusion of people who are members of traditionally under-represented groups. The awards went to Kenneth Kreuzer, professor of biochemistry; Jacqueline Looney, associate dean of the Graduate School and associate vice provost for academic diversity; and Marsha Newby, administrative manager for the Department of Medicine.

The Katrina Undergraduate Students team was responsible for admitting 47 undergraduates from New Orleans-area universities and easing their transition to Duke. It was a wide-ranging effort, involving everything from finding housing and parking for the students to getting them registered for classes and set up with computer accounts. The 46 team members work in the bursar's office; the Center for Instructional Technology; Continuing Education; Duke Stores; DukeCard; the registrar's office; the Office of Information Technology; parking; postal services; the Pratt School of Engineering; Trinity College; residence life; Student Information Services and Systems; Student Affairs and Undergraduate Admissions.

Three days after the Aug. 29 hurricane, Duke officials decided to offer admission to up to 75 Gulf Coast-based undergraduates. "It was now the responsibility of staff in a number of offices around campus to ensure that the process worked smoothly," according to a nominating statement signed by Thompson and others. "The decision would only be as sound as the commitment of the people charged with implementing it."

The nominators noted that the usual processes for admitting students and getting them settled on campus had to be sped up tremendously or thrown out entirely.

"Everything had to be expedited, and procedures had to be worked around in order to accept visiting students something we do not normally do. What was required was an extraordinary effort of teamwork. The nominated group rose to the occasion."

Gilbert recalls the night she heard from Thompson about Duke's decision to admit visiting students.

"I had supper and went to bed on time, but I got up at 3 a.m. and started writing down all kinds of questions about what Duke was trying to do. I was also thinking about how to organize the office and come up with an information sheet that could be used by folks answering the phone to help determine whether someone fit Duke's criteria for acceptance.

"The announcement stated we would start accepting phone calls at 9 a.m. the next morning. We had an office meeting at 8 a.m., and by the time we concluded at 9, our office already had received phone calls, and there was a live parent in the office who had driven in to see about getting her child into Duke."

The applications continued through the weekend. Gilbert's small office didn't have enough staff to work the phones and computers, but volunteers from across the campus offered to come in that Saturday and Sunday.

"A few of us will get recognition with this award, but the fact is many more people than those mentioned on the award made great contributions. My entire staff was involved. Even if they weren't directly involved in Katrina work, they took on additional duties to let myself and others do Katrina work.

"And then others from across campus helped. There was a great camaraderie. When we needed people to come in and answer phones on Saturday, Bill Burig of the registrar's office and Christoph Guttentag of undergraduate admissions drove over to help out."

Madison's job involved Duke's outreach efforts. She was a point person for coordinating the many groups at Duke that wanted to help with volunteer services, fund raising or in assisting displaced Katrina students once they arrived at Duke. The requests for help were sometimes overwhelming. The offers of help that she received from Duke community members, however, were inspiring.

"The one upside to this was I got to meet so many smart and dedicated people across the university. So many people dropped everything to take action," Madison said.

The efforts were appreciated by the students' families. Gilbert said one parent brought in cookies one afternoon. Other parents wrote to express their appreciation.

"The warmth of the reception from the housing staff, the ID office through academic counselors was remarkable," wrote Allan Singer of Charlotte, whose son moved from Tulane to Duke for the semester. "Ten days ago, Alex left home for his senior year at Tulane with all of his plans in places. He arrived back home with a laptop and two changes of clothes and uncertain of his future as the enormity of the tragedy unfolded.

"In less than a week, due to your university's thoughtfulness, he is a student at Duke continuing toward his Tulane degree. I know that Alex is grateful for the opportunity you have given him and his fellow students."

Other Award Winners (including comments from the statements of nomination)

Teamwork

Duke Health Raleigh Hospital's Inpatient Satisfaction Team

"The team's mission was to support the hospital and health system goals of improving overall inpatient satisfaction and of monitoring performance. The Duke Health Raleigh approach was to partner front line employees and managers together to work collaboratively to improve patient satisfaction."

Diversity

Kenneth Kreuzer, Department of Biochemistry

"For more than 10 years, Professor Kreuzer has made it his mission to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the biomedical sciences at Duke and, more generally, to increase the diversity in science as a whole. To this end, he created and secured funding for two major programs aimed at increasing diversity in science."

Jacqueline Looney, Graduate School

"Through Dean Looney's exceptional leadership, the GraduateSchool has witnessed dramatic measurable changes in the diversity of the graduate student population and inclusion of graduate students in all aspects of university life. As dean she has developed and implemented a comprehensive set of programs that are designed to address the academic, professional, social and cultural needs of students from the start to the completion of their graduate work."

Marsha Newby, Department of Medicine

"Marsha is the ‘go-to' person for most minorities in the Department of Medicine and School of Medicine (including faculty). People are frequently directed to her for answers. If she doesn't have them, she will find them. She serves in these capacities in addition to her full-time position. Marsha does all of these things, not because she is charged to do them, but because she wants to."