KU announces May 2015 employees of the month


LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has announced the May 2015 employees of the month. They are as follows:


 

Ann Ermey
Ann Ermey

Name: Ann Ermey

Title: Special projects manager, KU Edwards

Start date: 1984

What that means: Ann Ermey supports academic programs and Professional and Continuing Education. Throughout her more than 30 years with KU, she has taken increasingly challenging positions with more responsibility. Ermey began with the Edwards Campus in October 2013.

Notable: KU Professional and Continuing Education experienced significant changes in 2014 as the organization prepared for new leadership and a new location. During this time, Ermey served as the organizational liaison with administration to orchestrate the move. The move was a task that Ermey volunteered to do after direction was given to leadership to hire an outside planner. She responded promptly to all pleas for assistance and maintained a friendly and easygoing manner while professionally and efficiently getting the job done. Ermey worked with staff on both the Edwards and Lawrence campuses to develop a comprehensive plan for packing and moving 10 semi-tractor trailer trucks from the St. Andrews building in Lawrence to the Edwards Campus in Overland Park, navigating through the Lawrence and Kansas Highway 10 road construction. By the end of the move, her new nickname was “Saint Ann.”

Ermey participated in interviews with all of the employees who were involved in the transition. During these interviews, staffers were asked their thoughts about their careers going forward and their fears about the process. Ermey’s most significant contribution was that she used the information from the interviews to reassure staff individually every step of the way. She was able to document staff concerns and then translate those concerns to the leadership team, allowing for communications about the changes to be targeted to staff concerns and questions.

Ermey also coordinated with the JO bus company to arrange for all Professional and Continuing Education employees to have a free ride from the Park and Ride lot in Lawrence to the Edwards Campus. She personally escorted groups so that they could experience the JO as an option for commuting. Ermey arranged for a seminar on how to organize, pack and arrange for the move, allowing for staff to be confident they were packing correctly. Ermey worked after hours with the departments who were moving into the St. Andrews Building. She did this so the new departments could see the space after employees in Continuing Education had gone home for the day, minimizing the effect on staff. She simply thought of every detail and made herself available 24/7 to anyone within KU as well as outside vendors to make sure the move went well.


 

Bruce A. Johanning
Bruce A. Johanning

Name: Bruce A. Johanning

Title: Operations manager, Kansas Biological Survey

Start date: 1989

What that means: Bruce Johanning is responsible for all facilities of the KU Field Station, a world-class site for research, teaching and outreach consisting of 3,400 acres of diverse habitats in several locations in the state. That includes supervising residences, laboratories, experimental ponds, gardens, greenhouses, monitoring stations, miles of nature trails, natural resource management, and maintaining research and teaching projects. His diverse duties range from providing technical assistance and consultation to helping more than 50 faculty and students conduct research projects as well as facilitating class use and events.

Notable: Johanning is continually thinking ahead and has a remarkable ability to balance what researchers need in the short term with what makes best sense for the long term. He often serves as an “interpreter” among scientists, practitioners and contractors. For example, he worked recently with several groups to move some rare plants from a highway right-of-way and relocate them to a nearby restoration site. His ability to communicate across groups ensured that the heavy-equipment operators and the researchers worked together. Johanning has provided advice to students when they have designed and built several projects at the Field Station. He has assisted by finding ways to minimize costs such as helping obtain recycled lumber, making equipment available and helping negotiate integration with various road, telephone and water lines.

In 2013, the KU Field Station hosted 44 events for 900 visitors. Johanning is instrumental in making sure each event reflects well on the KU Field Station and KU. He often makes evening or weekend trips to check conditions. Hundreds of people use the five miles of nature trails each year, and Johanning monitors the trails to help ensure a positive experience for all. He is helping facilitate a new grant to provide high-speed Internet to the Field Station; the project will be finished in 2015.

Johanning is a welder, carpenter, farmer and mechanic, but he also has an artistic flair demonstrated in his landscaping and his designing of structures and signage. He often identifies tasks to be done and completes them before anyone else even thinks of them. For example, some new picnic tables appeared at the Field Station that had been built by Johanning and his colleagues for outdoor classes and visitors, as well as for faculty and students to better enjoy and more effectively use the site.

Johanning takes a personal interest in presenting the Field Station and the Kansas Biological Survey in the most positive way possible, and he does this consistently through his work and communications. He is clearly passionate about KU and does all in his power to promote the university.