Volume 63 | August 26, 2022 | |
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Business Affairs Bulletin
August 26, 2022
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The inside scoop on the people and projects that support UNLV
Please print and post for those who do not regularly access email.
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In this issue:
- Department Highlight: Senior Vice President’s Office Part 2
- How UNLV Parking Improvements Play a Major Role in Campus Growth
- June Employee Appreciation Recipients
- Spotlight on Service
- Human Resources Professional Development Opportunities
- September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
- Employee Assistance Program September Webinar
- Upgrading Your Digital Literacy
- Dates to Remember
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Department Highlight: Senior Vice President’s Office Part 2 | |
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The second part of our SVP Office Department Highlight includes our communication team, HR business partners, and administrative support staff. As we look ahead to the next academic year, these teams will play an instrumental role in helping the division provide top-tier service and support for the growing university.
Get to know the team members and learn more about the projects and initiatives they oversee:
Business Affairs Communication
The communication team has enhanced communications within the division and across campus. Examples of some of their efforts include:
- Writing and distributing the Business Affairs Bulletin and Headlines from Business Affairs (rebranding on August 31 to Campus Operations Update) publications.
- Working with units throughout the division and Human Resources to update website content and improve accessibility.
- Leading our division's customer service survey to gather information from more than 600 campus stakeholders annually.
- Writing articles for UNLV Today that feature our teams and projects.
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Heather Ortiz, director of communication
Heather’s love of the arts brought her on an exciting and unexpected career journey. A UNLV alumna, she earned her bachelor’s degree in dance and communication and her master’s degree in journalism and media studies. After graduation, she toured the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico as a performer in Vee Corporation's Sesame Street Live! She worked as a journalist for local Las Vegas publications covering art and entertainment offerings throughout the city. Before joining the Business Affairs team in 2019, she was a public relations manager at MGM Resorts International where she promoted restaurants, chefs, and food and beverage staff within their portfolio of local and national properties. Since coming to UNLV, she’s overseen the launch of several communication initiatives for the division and enjoys working with representatives from our diverse teams to shine a light on the great work they do to support the university mission. In her free time, she is a proud soccer and hockey mom and loves spending time with her family. She loves to travel and hopes to see the world!
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Rasheda Abdullah Hairston, communication specialist
Rasheda is the newest member of the Business Affairs communication team. Her knack for writing stems not only from her ability to expertly curate sentences on paper but also from an innate “way with words” talent she’s possessed her entire life. From writing her first essay in 1996 about how the Olympics inspired her and winning the opportunity to run with the Olympic Torch Flame when it passed through Los Angeles to creating informative content for organizations, universities, and small businesses, writing is one of her greatest passions. Rasheda has her bachelor’s degree in public relations with a concentration in technical writing and her master’s degree in corporate communication. Servicing various departments across Business Affairs, she is thrilled to bring her higher education and writing experiences to UNLV and to join the Rebel community.
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Shi-Lynn Campbell, communication assistant
Shi-Lynn is passionate about effective communication. He is a former communications manager with over 10 years of experience in creative writing. His first introduction to the copy desk was as a student worker here at UNLV assisting with a proofreading project. As a freelance blogger and nature photographer, Shi-Lynn’s photos have been featured with REI, TravelNevada, and OutdoorAfro. He also writes diversity, equity, and inclusion blogs highlighting the plight of various underrepresented communities. In his current role as a communications assistant, he hopes to bring a fresh perspective to the communications team and use his previous experience and photography knowledge to service the greater UNLV community.
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Chanelle Hayes, communication assistant
Chanelle received her bachelor's degree in journalism and media studies from UNLV in 2008 and has been enjoying a thriving career in journalism ever since. She has worked for publications such as Las Vegas Magazine, Las Vegas Business Press, Haute Living, and Thirsty Magazine. Chanelle brings her excellent communication, organizational, and writing skills to her communications assistant role. Her projects include updating departmental web pages, collaborating with web services to design and implement site revisions, drafting announcements for various departments, and assisting with distributing the Business Affairs newsletters. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family, going to Zumba classes, freelance writing, and creating content for her influencer brand that she created with her sister.
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Human Resources Business Partners
Our HR business partners are dedicated resources for the Business Affairs staff, providing guidance and assistance specifically in the areas of recruiting and employee relations. They gather and analyze data to assist with workforce planning and organizational design for the division and work closely with the central HR team.
The Team
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Heather Stinnett, junior human resource business partner
Heather is a native of Las Vegas and graduated from UNLV with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Prior to coming to work for UNLV, she created the first HR department for a local HVAC supply company and worked very closely with trades staff. Her career also includes many years of retail management at various levels. She works to utilize her past management experience and to be an effective partner with supervisors in Business Affairs. Heather believes that employees are the ‘customers’ of HR and their needs are always her priority. In her spare time, Heather enjoys spending time outdoors offroading, rockhounding, and camping with her husband and son.
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Karlie Passey, senior human resource business partner
Karlie’s HR experience spans both private industry (manufacturing, telecommunications, and healthcare) and higher education. She has spent much of her career recruiting positions that are particularly difficult to hire for and is practiced in helping organizations create and foster positive employee relationships. Maintaining trust, providing excellent customer service, and conducting open, transparent conversations with the goal of developing “win-win” strategies are just a few of Karlie’s values.
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Amy Carito, executive assistant
Amy will celebrate 20 years of working in higher education this December. Formerly an Ohio native, she spent 15 years working at Miami University (Miami of Ohio) where she also received her undergraduate degree in English. She started her career at Miami in auxiliaries. The last position she held was in academics working as the assistant to the dean of the business school where she had the “light-bulb” moment of how a university truly runs and works.
Amy made her dreams come true when she joined UNLV in January 2018 as the executive assistant to SVP/CFO Jean Vock. Amy also manages the central office, shared conference spaces, and reception area. She became the BA Administrative Faculty representative in September 2018 and was elected as the BA Faculty Senator in May 2020. She also serves as the CSB Facilities Liaison. Outside of work, Amy enjoys spending time with her cat Milton who will begin driving next month when he turns 16!
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Nohealani Benicarlo, administrative assistant
Nohealani comes to UNLV with prior experience in higher education as an administrative professional in counseling and behavioral health services at Hawaii Pacific University (HPU), where she also received her bachelors of science in business administration management and marketing. During her time at HPU, Nohealani oversaw the department’s marketing and service promotions, managed budgets and datasets, scheduled, and assisted with the workflow of the office, and interacted with students and parents. In her spare time, Nohealani enjoys learning how to cook, exploring new restaurants, spending time outdoors, and hiking.
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Darlene Jones, administrative assistant
As the Campus Services Building receptionist, Darlene is the friendly face that welcomes people to the building. She is the central point of contact for managing the CSB shared conference spaces and AV assistance, guest relations and visitors, special projects, and building access. She has a wealth of administrative experience as well as a background in property management. In her spare time, Darlene enjoys staying active, spending time outdoors, reading, attending church, and spending time with family and friends.
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How UNLV Parking Improvements Play a Major Role in Campus Growth | |
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Parking and Transportation Services has been hard at work to accomplish goals outlined in the Campus Master Plan and Parking and Transportation Master Plan. For a look at recently launched programs and construction projects in 2022, check out this UNLV Today article.
UNLV parking tips is also a great resource as the fall 2022 semester approaches.
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June Employee Appreciation Recipients | |
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Jeff LaGesse
Parking and Transportation Services
Jeff was nominated for his outstanding work on the campus-wide transition to a cashless short-term parking system. He oversaw the removal of more than 850 parking meters and scheduled staff to perform the work. He also worked with a vendor to design custom signage with information about using PayByPhone to replace the meters. With a tremendous amount of moving pieces, Jeff still completed the project on time and under budget. Thank you, Jeff, for your leadership.
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Andres DeLeon
Facilities Management
Andres was nominated for his outstanding work as an HVAC lead. Throughout his tenure, which started during the pandemic, he has provided excellent service to exceed customers' expectations and cultivated a family atmosphere within the HVAC shop. When interacting with customers, he provides detailed updates daily, either in person, over the phone, or via email. For customers with sensitive needs, such as technology buildings, he goes above and beyond to provide the level of support they need to accomplish their research. Thank you, Andres for exemplifying the C.A.R.E. standards in all that you do.
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A special thanks goes to the Rebel Recycling Team. In the spirit of the "C" in C.A.R.E. and the second "R" in recycle symbol, the UNLV Rebel Recycling Program collaborated with Student Life, Campus Housing and Conference Housing to divert 600+ blankets, ~75 chairs and 300+ pillows from the landfill. The items were donated to local nonprofit organizations where these items can be put to good use. Awesome job! | |
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Human Resources Professional Development Opportunities | |
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Human Resources is hosting a day full of free professional development opportunities on Tuesday, September 13. All UNLV employees are invited to come spend the day collaborating with colleagues from across the university through presentations, discussions, and active learning.
The department has also announced a series of fall 2022 professional development seminars:
- Ombuds: Working Better Together Series
- E-Leadership: The Agile Leader Series
- Upskill with UNLV Leaders
Visit REBELearn’s announcements section for full schedules and registration information.
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September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month | |
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UNLV’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) partner ComPsych provides online resources that focus on various wellness topics. Resources include digital toolkits with curated information, interactive training modules, and newsletters with relevant articles and helpful tips.
Check out ComPsych’s resources on suicide prevention awareness and mental health.
In addition to EAP and ComPysch, 988 is a direct three-digit line to trained National Suicide Prevention Lifeline counselors and is a useful resource for mental and behavioral health support.
EAP resources are available to all UNLV employees and eligible dependents.
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Employee Assistance Program September Webinar | | |
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The Employee Assistance Program September webinar on the “sandwich generation” will provide information to help participants navigate the challenges of balancing work, family, and caregiving responsibilities. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, September 14 at 12 p.m. Register via GoToWebinar. | |
Upgrading Your Digital Literacy | |
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Google Workspace is introducing a new feature that allows the user to create high-performance custom functions that support built-in Sheets formula constructs. To maintain reusability across files, users can also import named functions from existing Sheets files, allowing functions created in one Sheets file the ability to be used in a different Sheets file. For the complete tutorial, visit the Google Workspace Updates blog.
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Dates to Remember
- August 27: Rebels Football season opener vs. Idaho State
- August 29: Fall semester begins
- September 5: Labor Day (Enjoy your day off!)
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