OUR VALUES

Hershel Holland, Facilities Administration

All the members of our evening Facilities team work very hard, often unnoticed, cleaning and maintaining the work spaces of team members across the university. Custodian Hershel Holland is among those who go the extra mile.

“She is an extremely hard worker, willing to go above and beyond for others,” says her nominator.

She embodies our Value of serving others first. Holland goes out of her way to make sure things get done, and she does so cheerfully. Even if things are not going well with other people on her team, or if other team members are out, she jumps in and does what needs to be done.

Holland has not had a consistently full team in quite a while, yet she makes sure all the areas assigned to the team look good, routinely going above and beyond.

“Recently we had a cookout for our evening crew,” her nominator says. “After everyone left, she stayed and made sure the mess we left behind was all cleaned up.” She washed dishes, wiped tables, swept the floor and took out trash. “As I tried to help her, she kept telling me, ‘Mr. Jerry, go on home, I got this,’ her nominator says. “She is a true inspiration to our entire team and a great example of one who lives our values on a daily basis.”

Nominator: Jerry Emerson

Shlesma Chhetri, Health Behavior and Health Systems, School of Public Health

Assistant Professor Shlesma Chhetri is committed to doing good work that makes a difference in the world. She oversees operations of several key projects, including our  Texas Center for Health Disparities Community Engagement Core and the SHE Tribe study promoting women’s wellness. Her high-quality work has led to a national CDC-funded qualitative study on how health clinics address latent tuberculosis infection.

What makes Chhetri unique is her engagement with community members, her nominator says. She travels all over Tarrant County to enroll SHE Tribe participants in locations that are convenient to them and at times that fit their schedules, including evenings and weekends. She regularly extends her work hours to ensure projects are completed with high quality.

Chhetri lives the Value of integrity. On several occasions, her nominator says, she has called the Institutional Review Board’s office to discuss potential problems and identify solutions. She carefully reviews data to ensure it is accurate and speaks up when something doesn’t seem quite right. She prioritizes integrity over convenience or expediency.

Living the value of collaboration, Chhetri often draws praise from community members for her inclusivity.

Her nominator praises her for giving team members credit for their contributions and for using her “respectful and engaging communication skills to keep teams moving forward.”

Nominator: Emily Spence-Almaguer

Subhada Kambhampaty, Family Medicine and OMM

At a time of challenging transitions, Clinical Operations Manager Subhada Kambhampaty has led her team with respect, collaboration and integrity, making a notable improvement in morale and engagement, her nominators say.

Dealing with myriad issues that include conflicts involving patients and scheduling changes, Kambhampaty maintains a kind, respectful demeanor. After becoming office manager, Kambhampaty saw a need for improvement in operations “in order to provide safe care for our complex patient population,” a nominator says. She has united the team, including call center staff, medical students, medical assistants, front desk staff, advanced practitioners and physicians, by listening to everyone’s concerns and then crafting solutions.

Her innovations include processes to expedite the check-in process, improve the patient experience, and manage the clinic’s multiple daily tasks.

Kambhampaty is never too busy to advocate for patients. Recently, a patient’s anxiety made her unable to advocate for herself with a psychiatrist’s office where she was referred. Kambhampaty went the extra mile to help the patient get a timely appointment.

An important element of her leadership is that she listens to team members. Her listening skills also help patients tell their stories. “This is profound for some of our patients, whose walks of life may be far different from our own,” says a nominator. “She does not disrupt their thoughts or dismiss their ideas.”

A nominator says, “Her dedication to team-based process improvement makes me excited to work alongside her every day.”

Nominators: Ryan Seals, Katrina Roop, Megan Wesling, Didi Ebert and Vicki Cannon

Yein Lee, Family Medicine and OMM

“I can’t imagine any workplace being Best Place for All and not having a slew of folks like Dr. Yein Lee,” says her nominator. “She encourages the potential within me.”

Lee, an Assistant Professor, lives the Value of serving others first. An example is that when a co-worker was suffering acute pain, Lee took time during her busy day to talk with her and use techniques to help ease her pain.

Lee lives the Value of integrity by never shying away from owning something that doesn’t go quite the way she planned.

She models the Value of respect and builds trust. Says her nominator, “I know she’ll always respond to texts and emails very quickly because she knows I need answers — and success in our [educational] course, in part depends on something as simple as this.”

Lee squeezes appointments with staff and students into short “lunch breaks” between mornings full of patients and long afternoons of teaching, yet maintains a positive outlook.

Her collaborative manner is such that her nominator says, “She would share with me anything that she felt I could improve on, and she would communicate it in the most kind, gentle and professional manner.”

Nominated by Toni Allen (Family Medicine and OMM)