Each year, the Department of Medicine honors employee accomplishments through its Academic and University Staff Outstanding Performance Awards program.

In September, department faculty and staff were invited to nominate candidates for the 2019 awards. The four winners received a certificate of appreciation and attended a breakfast celebration on January 27, 2020, with central administration leadership and Elizabeth (Betsy) Trowbridge, MD, interim chair, Department of Medicine. 

Meet the 2019 winners below.

University staff

Nominee: Vonnie Schoenleber, residency project manager (pictured)

Division: Administration/Education

Nominated by: Bennett Vogelman, MD, professor (CHS), Infectious Disease, and vice chair for education, Department of Medicine

Statement from nominator: "Ms. Schoenleber has become an individual upon whom faculty, academic staff and learners rely as she goes out of her way to help each to achieve their goals and objectives with excellence and timeliness. Her knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors exemplify high standards of excellence, a sense of professionalism, moral character, equanimity under pressure and the ability to innovate in a highly complex system. She leads by example by finding no job too large or too small for her skill set, making all of us wanting to acquire her skills, attitudes and behaviors. Her eye is always on the goal and objective; our education faculty rely on her to organize us toward our common goals."

Nominee: Patrick Hanson, HR business partner (pictured)

Division: Administration/HR

Nominated by: Toni Hofhine, division administrator, and Carol Hermann, MA, MLS, administrative program specialist, both Geriatrics and Gerontology

Statement from nominators: "Patrick is very knowledgeable about UW processes and aims to do what is fair and just, while listening to understand requests and questions so he thoughtfully provides answers that give perspective, options, and direction. His personality is superbly collaborative, providing guidance and not just an answer. When a simple answer may not truly address the situation at hand, Patrick takes an additional moment or two to provide his knowledge and perspective, along with references to assist with decisions. He is fair, thoughtful, strategic, responsive, collaborative, and innovative. Patrick is also always cheerful and positive, which is amazing to say, considering the long list of urgencies our division constantly asks him to assist with on a daily basis."

Academic staff

Nominee: Kelly Camp, administrative program specialist (pictured)

Division: Cardiovascular Medicine

Nominated by: Denise Zang, MBA, division administrator, Cardiovascular Medicine

Statement from nominator: "Kelly is the face of the Chief's office. She goes above and beyond in acting as the key resource in the division for both external and internal customers. She transformed both the recruiting efforts by utilizing a standardized process and was instrumental in the recent switch to entirely electronic faculty files. Kelly maintains the highest level of professionalism through her actions and communications every day. She understands the challenges of the Chief's office and ensures that needs are met."

Nominee: Adam De Fouw, senior information processing consultant (pictured)

Division: Administration/Information Systems/Software Development & Informatics

Nominated by: Adam Halstead, MSC, director, Software Development & Informatics

Statement from nominator: "Adam has been managing the department’s RedCap service for over four years, which is a critical research data management service utilized by multiple research teams both within the department and affiliated research centers. Adam played a vital role in the recent successful conversion of a key departmental research application (for the Atherosclerosis Imaging Research Program) to a new software platform, where he developed an innovative technique to migrate and test the existing data model, ensuring that data integrity was maintained during the transition and providing a testable method to do so. Without this key component, the project would likely not have been completed successfully and required a significant effort to deliver on schedule. Adam is demonstrating how UW-Madison is a leader by is spearheading a vital initiative to develop a robust testing framework for RedCap that will have significant benefit to the RedCap community that to date comprises 3693 institutions from 131 countries and totals over a million users."

Banner photo: Winners of the 2019 Department of Medicine Academic/University Staff Outstanding Performance Award with Elizabeth (Betsy) Trowbridge, MD, interim chair. From left: Kelly Camp, Vonnie Schoenleber, Dr. Trowbridge, Patrick Hanson, Adam De Fouw. Photo credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine.