KU announces March employees of the month

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

Name: Ralph McKinzie
Title: General repair worker, KU Edwards campus

What that means: Ralph McKinzie started with the university in 2004, and in his current position he performs a variety of tasks and duties across the Edwards Campus to include maintaining the appearance of the buildings and the grounds, general cleaning, trash removal, and minor repairs.
  
Notable: McKinzie is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the needs of the campus are met.  Recently the campus hosted a 5k run to raise support and awareness for cancer research, and McKinzie came in on his day off to assist with ensuring that all logistics were addressed. Afterward, McKinzie cleaned up and put away all of the supplies and materials.  When the facilities director role was being filled, McKinzie stepped up and took care of managing those tasks. He led the team through a remodel of an existing space, ordered supplies, trained new employees on their tasks, and sat in on weekly meetings for events.

McKinzie personifies excellence in all aspects of his work and has a contagious positive attitude.  He does so many little things that go unnoticed by the majority.  He sees something needs to be done, so he does it.  As one Edwards Campus employee said, “It reminds me, as crazy as my week was, my week could have been a lot crazier if Ralph wasn’t there to take care of all the things I didn’t know needed to be done.”

Name: Marcie Thompson
Title: Manager, business operations for Watkins Health Services

What that means: Thompson started at Watkins Health Services, she stationed herself at the front line, working the cashier’s desk at the business office. She wanted to learn the complete work flow of the office, her staff and the types of issues patients bring to the department.

Notable: Thompson always takes the lead on helping customers when they have significant concerns on costs of services, billing issues, etc., all with a calming attitude. What she discovered was that patients and parents of patients frequently do not have a grasp of their health coverage.  She took the initiative to create a Guide to Calling Health Insurance Regarding Medical Benefits to help customers have productive conversations with their health insurance carriers.  This resource has greatly benefited customers in receiving their entitled benefits.

Thompson has served a key leadership role in helping to manage the flu shot clinics and international student TB screening clinics at the KU Edwards Campus. Thompson also assisted with the Watkins Health Services’ goal of providing a faculty and staff immediate care clinic. She was a key part of the team that made the project a success. Thompson also found a way to make the online payment process simpler for business office staff with the vendor and a new payment system that will automate what was a manual process, saving employees time.