Kawerak recently shifted Employee of the Month recognition to Employees of the Quarter. Employees are nominated by fellow employees or Kawerak board members for recognition for outstanding work performance. An Employee of the Month is someone who takes the initiative to do something beyond his/her job or who has completed a task so well that it greatly surpassed everyone’s expectations. An Employee of the Month is an employee who willingly helps out with things outside their normal duties and still completes their normal work duties and takes pride in their work and ownership of their job. Three employees are selected for this honor each quarter. Kawerak is proud to recognize the 2020 Employees of the Quarter.
Quarter 2 (March – May 2020)
Charlene Saclamana
Emergency Preparedness Specialist
(note: Ms. Saclamana is no longer with Kawerak)
“As soon as Kawerak shut down operations Charlene started organizing meetings to help leaders in our communities deal with all of the decisions they needed to make pertaining to COVID-19. She assisted communities in developing ordinances to divined who could travel into their communities and when, as well as adapting their SCERP to COVID (and much more!)…She has been called upon as a representative for our region from many agencies across the state… and advocated for small communities across Alaska.”
-Anahma Shannon, nominator
“Charlene has been working non-stop for our region and communities since the COVID-19 pandemic began, putting in full-time hours while many were at home unable to work…she stepped up to make sure our communities and employees have all the information they need to prepare emergency response protocol and protect their residents”
-Amanda Toerdal, nominator
Lena Brizuela
Job Development Specialist
“Lena takes great pride and initiative in helping out wherever she can. Much was asked of her during this quarter. She provides critical services working in the Welfare Assistance Department here at Kawerak. Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting operations, Lena was asked to take on new General Assistance and Burial Assistance cases. Then our buildings were closed to staff in March. Lena had to quickly learn an entirely new way of working at home to continue providing essential services. This was challenging, but Lena persevered and learned all of her new essential job duties at a very rapid pace.When Kawerak received funding for the AK Can Do and COVID-19 Income Loss Support Programs, Lena was asked to receive and process applications. She is always willing to help wherever she is needed and that is a great relief to her supervisor. During this quarter, Lena assisted many individuals and families who were suffering from income loss due to COVID-19. Lena has done an outstanding job this quarter and should be recognized for all of her efforts. We are so fortunate to have her here at Kawerak helping people on a daily basis. She is a service provider that makes a huge difference in the lives of our regional residents. Thank you for all you do Lena.”
-Sara Lizak, nominator
Darlene Trigg
VP of Human Resources
“Darlene has had to figure out the correct shut down procedures for all of our buildings, come up with reopening place, determine eligibility for working status…and more. All this in addition to her normal work as the head of HR. She does (her duties) with grace and dignity and without batting an eye.”
-Anahma Shannon, nominator
Quarter 3 (June – August 2020)
Lena Danner
Wellness Development Specialist
“Lena began making masks as a part of her workday and beyond…making and distributing over 1,000 masks for the Bering Strait Region. During this time she also created a pattern for ‘kuspuk masks’ and created a YouTube video for the region. Thank you to Lena for your dedication, drive and for using your talents to help keep the region safe!”
–Panganga Pungowiyi, nominator
Amanda Toerdal
Energy Specialist/Pilgrim Hot Springs General Manager
“At the beginning of June Amanda started a new position within Kawerak as the Pilgrim Hot Springs General Manager, however, she also continued assisting in her previous role as Energy Specialist to make sure the ball was never dropped…this may not seem like a huge deal but starting up the Pilgrim Hot Springs project was an incredible feat in and of itself with the level of effort that had to go into kicking that program off. The level of integrity she has would not allow her to simply quit the work she had been doing without another person to tk over, so she continued to submit funding proposals, meet with villages about important energy projects, and made sure the transition to the new person would be seamless. In addition to all the heavy lifting she did (with multiple projects completed and MANY hurdles overcome) over 900 people were able to enjoy Pilgrim Hot Springs this summer.”
-Anahma Shannon, nominator
Tanya Wongittilin and Rebecca Sherman-Luce
Project Assistant and Curator of Educational Programming (respectively)
(note: both individuals were nominated as a team)
“Both Tanya and Rebecca took initiative to create three opportunities for the public to engage with the Katirvik Cultural Center (KCC) online. Over 140 people participated in the Virtual Traditional Clothing fashion show. They worked closely with a team to create curriculum to send home in the (library) reading packets through the entire summer. (For these activities and more) they made the transition to working with public virtually fun and engaging! “
-Lisa Ellanna, nominator
Quarter 4 (September – November 2020)
Cheryl Konahok
Head Start Cook, Gambell
“Cheryl goes above and beyond to make sure our students food & sanitation needs are met. When visitor come to the Gambell HS they always compliment her meals. She orders supplies and checks inventory often. In preparation for graduation Cheryl makes beautiful decorations for the students on her own time. She is wonderful to have as a coworker.”
-Courtland Pannebaker, nominator
Brian James
LMS Specialist I
“I would like to recognize Brian for his commitment to get his regular job done and going out of his way to assist his fellow coworkers to develop databases to track the Vietnam Veterans in our region and take calls from Veterans to provide them with information to apply for the Veterans Native Allotments and update their addresses in our database. Also during this process, he has helped with training our Probate Specialist assistant to help move physical files onto our electronic files. Without him doing this extra work we would definitely not be running as smoothly as we currently are in LMS.”
-Tony Weiyouanna, nominator
Celeste Menadelook and Stephanie Sampson
Tribal Family Coordinator, Diomede/Golovin
“Both Celeste and Stephanie ensured every household in Golovin received their turkeys from the voting contest in this past year’s election. They were not asked prior to the contest whether they would do this, but they stepped up and volunteered to help right away. Although Golovin was going through a community lockdown at the time, they stood by and let me know when the correct time was to send the turkeys. They hand delivered a turkey to every household using social distancing measures, and even took photos of community members getting their turkeys for the Kawerak e-newsletter and social media. All of these tasks are outside of their normal job duties. I must nominate them as a team because they worked together to accomplish this task.“
-Danielle Slingsby, nominator
