May 13, 2026-Academic Staff Awards Committee Meeting-Minutes

Date: May 13, 2026

Location: Microsoft Teams

1. Call to Order – 2:02 pm
   1. Present: Lisa Brennan, Georgia Brown, Ahmed Kaffle, Sara Luelloff, Renato Umali
2. Automatic Consent
   1. Approval of the Agenda
   2. Approval of Minutes – February 20, 2026 (see attached)
      Approved 2:03 pm
      
      
3. Chair’s Report – Sara Luelloff
   1. Strong pool of nominees to review for UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Teaching Awards & UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Performance and Service Awards
   2. 36 Panther Praise Nominations
4. New Business
   1. Review UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Teaching Awards and recommend awardees
      1. Motion to recognize awardees (three names with Chair Sara Luelloff and Secretary Georgia Brown) for UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Teaching Awards by Georgia Brown
      2. Seconded by Renato Umali
      3. Unanimously approved
   2. Review UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Performance and Service Awards and recommend awardees
      1. Motion to recognize awardees (three names with Chair Sara Luelloff and Secretary Georgia Brown) for UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Performance and Service Awards by Lisa Brennan
      2. Seconded by Georgia Brown
      3. Unanimously approved
   3. Panter Praise Nominations – Process & Next Steps
      1. Brief update on nomination volume and timeline
         1. Meet monthly to cover the Panther Praise certificate
            • Potentially the secretary could edit the spreadsheets to be monthly submissions (ex. March 2026) to make the work easier to track
         2. What would we do over the summer?
            • Handle the summer nominees all in the September meeting
              
         3. Determine committee roles for reviewing and responding to submissions
            • Divvy up the nominations via spreadsheet for committee members to email awardees
         4. Discuss communication plan (notifying nominees and nominators)
            • Email copy: would be nice to include some of the language for the nomination. [Panther Praise Email & Template].
         5. Clarify ongoing process for recognition and tracking.
            • Use the MS Forms Excel spreadsheet to track each date of last certificate and email.
5. Old Business
   None
6. Adjournment at 3:42