Griz Gratitude Archive
Fall 2025
Laramy Angell, Banner AR Systems Analyst, Business Services
Many thanks to Laramy Angell in Business Services for taking care while setting up program and course fees, always being available to answer questions about fee charges and helping us navigate a fee change. I appreciate you! - Jen Geist-Quigley
Dara Tome, Accounting Associate, Maintenance Worker, School Physical Therapy/Rehab Sci.
Dara supports the DeWit RiteCare Clinicians by making credentialling tasks easy and fast! Thank you for your great support! - Jennifer Closson
Christophe Feichtinger, Maintenance Worker, Facilities Services
Sending our gratitude to Christophe Feichtinger! Christophe, the custodian for West Campus, takes great pride in his work, is highly responsive to requests, and always carries a positive attitude. Through his effort and attention to detail, he continually works to create a clean, welcoming environment for all students, faculty and staff. - John Freer and Tom Gallagher
Maryann Dunbar, Dakota Lajeunesse, Will Thompson, Jordan Patterson and Ben Nelson, Missoula College Student Success Team
Sending a Griz Gratitude to the Missoula College Student Success Team for the incredible work they do supporting students as they begin a new semester. Your guidance, encouragement, and care help ease the transition and set the foundation for student success. This amazing team, led by Director Jimmy Kendall, is making a difference. Jimmy, we are so grateful for the faculty workshops. Thank you, Maryann Dunbar, Dakota Lajeunesse, Will Thompson, Jordan Patterson, and Ben Nelson, for your work with students. - Tom Gallagher
Danny Gundlach, Grant Contract Officer, Office of Sponsored Programs
I'd like to recognize Danny Gundlach with the Office of Sponsored Programs for all of his support in managing our grants and ensuring that TRIO Upward Bound's new annual indexes are ready for use right away. Our six-week Summer Academy requires a tremendous number of procard purchases and this year I was able to redistribute all of these expenses directly to our grant! This wouldn't have been possible without Danny's vigilance and consistent work to improve our processes. Thank you for saving me many hours in U-Approve, which I can now spend helping my high school students. - Jonathan Carter
Jack Broadway, Compensation Management, HRS
I just wanted to take a moment to offer a heartfelt thank you to Jack Broadway. Jack works tirelessly to support everyone on campus with their compensation needs—and he does it all with incredible kindness, patience, and a truly helpful attitude. UM is lucky to have someone like Jack on our team! - Hannah Gimpel
Kristin Person, Director of Finance & Personnel, College of Education
Kristin is the key liaison between OSP and the College of Education and has been critical to getting student scholarships & stipends paid, submitting grant proposals, submitting and revising budgets, and the many other tasks that need done in the world of grant management. She has also been fundamental to strengthening ties between our departments. The crazy part is that this is only a sliver of what she actually does over the course of a work day! I have appreciated her commitment to seeing tasks through and to keeping a good humor along the way! - Daniel Gundlach
Scott Christensen, Brandyn Crist, Nate Adams, Tucker Webb, Travis Petty, David Opitz and Josh Truitt, IT Department
We would like to recognize and thank the IT Department and specifically Scott Christensen, Brandyn Crist, Nate Adams, Tucker Webb and Travis Petty and also David Opitz and Josh Truitt. They came and updated our audio/video in Curry #008 where we teach the majority of our graduate courses for Speech, Language Pathology. It was a very outdated system and the distance students were often struggling to hear. They went above and beyond in helping us transform that old system into something we are all excited to use. It will make a big difference in our program and the IT folks were amazing to work with. Thank you all so much! - Patrice Halverson
Summer 2025
Claire Phinney, Post Award Manager, Office of Sponsored Programs
Phinney responds with professionalism and thorough problem-solving suggestions to any issues that may arise. We appreciate her advice in helping make our grants department run more efficiently, while building a positive collaboration with OSP. Thank you, Claire. We are grateful for you. We know we can count on you in this constantly changing, crazy world of grants! - Tina Anderson, Associate Director of Finance and Grants
The entire team in Educational Initiatives and Innovation would like to extended our deepest thanks to the wonderful facilities crew that helped UMSummer, Specialty & Extended Programming, and the Instructional Design team move offices on Tuesday, May 27. Skip Conroy and his team showed up bright and early, ready to work. They were fast and efficient despite how hot it was in the building that morning. Because of their expertise, we were able to complete the move and get back to work by 10 a.m. We couldn't have done it without this amazing crew of laborers! - Coco Ponce, Office of Educational Initiatives and Innovation
The Office of Admissions would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone across campus who helped with the three Admitted Student Day events we hosted this spring. From Conference Services, Catering & Dining, Housing, the Office for Student Success, Student Financial Services, Parking, New Student Success, the DHC, GLI and each academic college that presented breakout sessions to every department and organization who tabled at one or all three of the events (and probably others we’re neglecting to mention.) We are so grateful to everyone for your help and support in making these events successful and helping us welcome over 600 guests to campus!
Spring 2025
Thank you to Norman in IT! There have been many technology changes on campus, and Norman is calm, reassuring, and can easily guide people to solution in just a few minutes. Thank you so much! - Jennifer Schoffer Closson, Professor, Speech Language, Hearing, and Occupational Science
On National Dispatchers Week, I would like to extend deep gratitude to our UMPD dispatchers. These colleagues work year-round, and around the clock, to support our campus community and keep us safe. - Paula Short, Associate Vice President of Campus Preparedness and Response
I would like to share a moment of gratitude to Lisa O'Neal and Caitlin Malinak in FCFC. I recently went through a challenging time, and they were so thoughtful and considerate. It's people like that who go above and beyond that make UM such a special place to work! - Megan Schultz, Project Manager & Research Associate, ITRR
I want to thank Pharmacy Practice professor Ian McGrane for doing an awesome job coordinating PHAR 572. I am a new faculty member in that course so he is doing the prep & organizing of it, with not much help from me. It is going smoothly. The students are learning a lot and seem to enjoy it. Strong work, Ian. -Jeannie Swain, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice
I would love to share my deepest gratitude to Mary Opitz, Financial Aid Specialist, for her love and kindness towards our students, employees, and families. The Financial Aid front desk would be amiss without her. - Nicole Krause, Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
We would like to recognize Julie Cahill, Associate Vice Provost for Educational Initiatives and Innovation, for her strong leadership and dedication to the VPEII office, UM Summer and UMOnline over the past few weeks. Thank you for stepping up and providing exceptional support and guidance to our teams while Vice Provost Shara Tscheulin is out on maternity leave! - Eric Vorkoeper, Tricia Hatfield and Becka Simons, Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Initiatives and Innovation
Thank you to Joseph Grady of Montana 10 and Bonnie Kurien of the Office for Disability Equity for supporting me and the students they serve during difficult times. Things may not be easy right now, but people like you sure make a difference. - Jennifer Schoffer Closson, Professor, Speech Language, Hearing, and Occupational Science
I would like to thank Lucy Logan, Director of Student Financial Services, for her help with candidates in the MT Teacher Residency program. Lucy has gone above and beyond to help these students and we are so grateful! - Anna Kiley, Operations Manager, Montana Public Health Training Center
I want to express my gratitude to Enrique Flores Groomer for all of the excellent work he is doing for the Faculty Senate. Your efficiency, attention to detail, insights into our processes, not to mention your kindness and sense of humor are so appreciated. You are such a tremendous addition to the UM community. - Lauren Fern, Outgoing Faculty Senate Chair and Assistant Professor and Math Discipline Lead, Missoula College
Fall 2024
The Registrar’s Office would like to extend our gratitude and a massive kudos to instructors and academic departments for an incredibly successful grade roll this fall. We had a historic record low number of missing grades: TWO out of 45,539! (To put this in perspective, five years ago, we had 135 missing grades.)
Thank you all for your continued collaboration! Let’s see if we can hit zero MG’s next semester!! - Cassie Williams, Grading and Records Manager, Registrar's Office
Thank you to Nick Tarter at the Registrar's Office for always having the answers or know where to find them. - Linda
I want to take a moment to recognize and express my heartfelt gratitude to Joshua Flores Groomer, Assistant Vice Provost, for his unwavering dedication and exceptional leadership at the 91次元. What truly sets Joshua apart is his rare ability to make people feel seen and valued. Josh takes the time to reach out and let staff members know they’re doing a good job and that their efforts are recognized. His support reminds us all that what we do matters and that we’re making an impact.
Thank you, Joshua, for your endless efforts in creating a culture of excellence, inclusivity, and progress at UM. Your passion and dedication have not gone unnoticed, and we are all better for it! - Ashley Smith, College of Business
A round of applause for UM’s professional (and student!) visual media team for capping their football season, too. The photography and videography staff lug heavy equipment just about every weekend from August through December, in every temperature and wind speed—to shoot full games and then run back to the office to edit, late into the night. Their talent meets passion with high standards. Thank you for so beautifully telling the UM story. Great work to the Grizzly’s (visual content) 12th man: Tommy Martino, Ryan Brennecke, Austin Valley, Ian Frank and students Ella Palulis, Victor Perez-Carillo and Taylor Decker. - Jenny Lavey, Director of Content and Creative Strategy
Thank you ODE Testing Center, particularly Dahn Ebert, who makes it so seamless for my students to take tests (including this week's finals) in their center. That team is so organized and so communicative, and they make it easy. I appreciate their support ! - Heather L. Voorhees, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies
UM Athletics Staff Senators Gabi Toulon, Eric Elliot, and Grace Salmon have organized what’s shaping up to be an EPIC "Staff Appreciation" Day at the January 11, 2025 Griz Basketball Game. From the energy they bring to their roles to the creativity and dedication they’ve poured into this event; they’re showing us what it means to build a campus where inclusive prosperity truly thrives.
Gabi, Eric, Grace — you’ve set the bar high, and I couldn’t be prouder to work alongside you! Thank you for making this happen and for reminding us all how awesome teamwork really is. - Ashley Smith, Staff Senate Chair-Elect
A huge thank you to Jessica Robbins, Assistant Director for Student Care Case Management, for dropping everything to support our students in need! Because of a virus going around, there were no academic advisors available at the Undergraduate Advising Center. The student I was working with was in crisis. I contacted Jessica for assistance and without hesitation, she stopped what she was doing, walked from Turner Hall to Aber Hall, and offered the student assistance. She sat with the student, listened to their concerns, and together, they developed solutions for both the immediate issue and the future.
Jessica, your dedication, quick action, and unwavering support truly make a difference in our students' lives. We are incredibly grateful for your selflessness and commitment to helping others. You are an inspiration to us all—thank you for being such an amazing advocate for our students! - Rachel DeVore, Undergraduate Advising Center
Thank you Seth Hansen, Sam Stroebel and Ruby Zitzer, Master's of Counseling students and UM Employee Group facilitators, for leading a wonderful series of meetings where we truly got to know our colleagues and ourselves. Your dedication to positive wellbeing will hopefully spread across campus and we wish you luck in finishing up your masters program. Thank you to OOLD for offering this program and continually investing in our professional and personal development. - Happiness Project UM Employee Group
I want to thank Jean Gee for representing the UM in our Brawl of the Wild event with Bozeman's OLLI, Today’s Collegiate Sports: How NILs are Changing the Game. Jean rocked it!!! - Teri Zanto, Program Manager, UM MOLLI
Huge thanks to our wonderful College of Business staff, Lyndsay Holcomb, Paige Ferro, and Ashley Smith for not just coordinating the recent campus visits of faculty candidates, but making them feel welcome! All three candidates expressed their sincere appreciation for the wonderful experience.
- Theresa Floyd, Associate Professor of Management
The 91次元 recently completed a Veterans Affairs audit with exceptional marks. The Military and Veteran Services Office in partnership with Student Accounts, Financial Aid, the Registrar, and Admissions consolidated and organized over 500 records to successfully complete the audit. This herculean task ensures UM is compliant with VA policies and safeguards the ethical education of our military affiliated students. - Patrick Beckwith, Director, Military and Veteran Services Office
Extending our gratitude to Jeff Meese for working after hours and over the Nov. 23-24 weekend to ensure classroom technology was ready following Friday's power outage. Your dedication ensures our mission to educate stays on track, and we are so grateful for your hard work! - Suzanne Tilleman, Dean, College of Business
The College of Business Faculty Evaluation Committee (FEC) Chairs have been truly outstanding this year. It has been a remarkable experience working with professors who acknowledge and show appreciation for the staff who coordinate high priority projects like the faculty evaluation process. I'd like to thank FEC Chairs Dr. Lisa Eiler, Professor of Accounting, Dr. Tim Manuel, Professor of Finance, Dr. David Firth, Professor of Management Information Systems and Dr. Justin Angle, Professor of Marketing, for their positivity and kindness. - Ashley Smith, Department Administrative Coordinator, College of Business
Editor's note: Griz Gratitude to all FEC Chairs and members who spend every October-November reviewing, assessing and discussing their colleagues' teaching, research and service as part of UM's faculty evaluation process. Your review is an indispensable part of UM's efforts to enhance academic quality and support our professors. And thanks to the administrative staff in the academic units, colleges, and Office of the Provost who coordinate and support hundreds of professors in the process each year.
We'd like to give a shout out to Paige Ferro in the College of Business. The Office of Admissions hosted two Griz Preview Days, with close to 200 guests each, in the Gallagher Building this fall. Paige was our contact for this space, and she was awesome! She was so easy to work with, helpful, detail-oriented, and really went above and beyond. We appreciate all of your help, Paige! Thank you! - Office of Admissions
Thank you to Andrew Williams from Facilities Services for helping the University Center with our little leak. You went out of the way to support our team and saved the day! - The UC Team