Jean Meyer is Nakama award recipient for 2010

Jean Meyer, manager of student financial aid systems at Western Washington University, is the 2010 winner of the Nakama award, presented by Student Affairs and Academic Support Services at WWU.

The award, created in 1995, is to acknowledge staff members and their contributions. Winners demonstrate outstanding commitment to the development or support of students, create or significantly contribute to initiatives which promote student success, strengthen the division’s work within the university and larger community and provide dedicated and consistently excellent service to students and/or the division.

In the nomination process, Meyer's colleagues noted that while she is deserving of this award in any year, this was a particularly challenging one and Jean's contributions illustrated her extraordinary commitment to Western, its students and the staff. She is appreciated for her composure and professional demeanor during times when there is high demand for her time and attention, for her foresight and ability to anticipate and troubleshoot problems before they occur, as well as her strong work ethic, patience and sense of humor. Jean has dedicated her ideas, her expertise, and her time, including nights and weekends, for 24 years to Western.

Here are some of the accomplishments of the past year which her colleagues noted deserve recognition:

• She successfully led her department's transition to document imaging, setting up approximately 14,000 electronic student records. This initiative distinguished Western's Financial Aid office as the first in the state to convert to a paperless filing system. Within the office, it enables counselors to respond more quickly to student needs and for students to review their records on-line.
• She worked to initiate work-flow for three financial aid processes, saving time and making operations more efficient.
• She supported the Student Employment Center to establish compliance with new State Work Study regulations.
• She is constantly adapting Banner to meet changing federal regulations, ensuring that the department is in compliance and has the data needed for reporting.
• She continues to manage annual programmatic changes among her regular duties.