Dear FPM Colleagues,

As mentioned in the Chancellor’s email last night and in the news yesterday, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, visited UWM’s USRB facility yesterday.

I want to send a note of gratitude for everyone’s support of this visit. Your teamwork and dedication amazed me again. We received many positive comments about the incredible work and how fast everyone made things happen. Huge appreciation and special recognition to the following staff that invested extra time and their talents to make this event possible in a few short days.

• Jay Gilboy – Facility Lead; He organized and directed the facility needs of the event, getting the right people at the right place at the right time. It is impossible to list everything he did to make this event successful.
• Eric Kozak, Mike Tuck, Steve Wilke, Bryant Ellis – They worked all weekend and long days Monday and Tuesday to move pallets, equipment, supplies out of the way and now they will need to put everything back. They also supported a number of other requests before and during the event.
• Charlie Bootz – Making many sets of keys on short notice.
• Karen Nelson, Lauren Groh, Dawn Aguilera – They supported communications, work orders, keys, finding needed items on short notice, and keeping everyone calm.
• Guilio Leonardelli, Bill Ludwig, Chris Peret, Steve Verish – They were on site all day Monday and Tuesday to address last minute specialty needs. You name it, they quickly addressed the issue.
• Darren Crawford, Julia Hernandez, Charisma Perry, Stefvon Wilson, Joe Ashley, Cedric Humphrey – They made the facility shine and moved significant amounts of trash and cardboard.
• Randy Kenney, Prasanna Nanda, Glenn Morgan, Alex Spakman, Adonis Torrence, Josh Fleming, Ben Ruedinger – Facilitated the parking and transportation needs to move all work vehicles out of the USRB lot.
• Faith Sobszak – Driving people from USRB to campus to pick up trucks
• Ethan Pape – Helped take the many phone calls and walk-in questions
• Warren Krutzik, Tim Beyersdorf, Lizbeth Cruz, Josh Stratton, Chris Waddell – Adjusted mail operations for a day to clear the building for the event
• Andrew Avery-Johnson – On his last day, moved and cleared 2nd floor areas

Based on the list above, this was a huge team effort and I hope I captured everyone. If I may have missed anyone, please reply all to recognize the work. For those not directly involved, I appreciate how flexible you were to adjust your work day, as many staff and vehicles were displaced from USRB on short notice.

I don’t think many of us would have imagined USRB to be selected for a visit from the Vice President of the United States. Can you believe 252 and the welding shop were transformed to this:

It truly was an impressive team effort!

I am grateful to be part of the FPM team with all of you,

Melissa