STAFF NEWS

LAS Staff Members Sharon Casillas and Kimberly Clark Among Winners of UIC Awards

In recognition of their dedication to the students they assist, two of LAS’s fine staff members have earned UIC Staff Awards this year. Kimberly Clark, associate director for secondary education, has won a 2008 Chancellor’s Academic Professional Excellence Award. For her work as graduate program coordinator for the department of criminology, law and justice, Sharon Casillas has earned a 2008 Janice Watkins Award for Distinguished Civil Service.

Sharon Casillas
Department of Criminology, Law and Justice

Sharon Casillas is dedicated to the students she supports in her work in the Department of Criminology, Law and Justice. "I enjoy the interaction with students and watching them grow within the program." As she puts it, "I’m extremely curious about knowing what the end of each ‘story’ is."

Sharon Casillas

As graduate program coordinator, Sharon Casillas manages everything from program promotion and admissions through graduation. The program’s graduate students rely on her professional help to not only navigate UIC’s bureaucracy, but cope with housing, financial and health concerns.

Casillas beams with pride in noting that former students have become department heads at other universities, published books and gained tenured positions. After 30 years as a licensed practical nurse and a research assistant in the School of Public Health, Casillas joined the department in December 1995. She is considered by its faculty as a "stabilizing force," credited with creating a supportive environment for students.

Casillas is also a long-standing leader in Chicago’s Native American community. A member of the Ho Chunk Nation, she serves on its election board. "I feel that it is important that the nation has urban representation on its boards," said Casillas, former board member of several Native American organizations.

With other Native American parents, she helps develop educational camps in the summer and after school for elementary and high school students. "The Native American community in Chicago is very active and very rich."

Thirty-four years ago, Janice Watkins, a supervisor in the insurance office, died in a car crash on her way home from work. But her spirit lives on through an award given each year to people like her: support staff who show great dedication to their work and the people they help, on and off campus.

The Janice Watkins Award for Distinguished Civil Service, which includes a $1,000 one-time prize, goes to three employees chosen by the Support Staff Advisory Committee.

Kimberly Clark
LAS Student Academic Affairs

Kimberly Clark is an academic adviser who goes "above and beyond." Clark says that watching the students she advises progress from freshman year to graduation keeps her motivated: "The students are definitely the reason I come to work every day."

Kimberly Clark

Clark learned the skills to guide students to success while she was a student herself. While in graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Clark was assistant director of the African American Cultural Program. She saw how her boss, Bruce Nesbitt, interacted each day with the students who came to their office. "He always went above and beyond, and that’s the way he trained me to work," said Clark.

Since 2004, she’s been in charge of advising for all secondary education students and helps elementary education students prepare for coursework in the College of Education. She also coordinates the UIC Chicago Public Schools Bridge Program, which lets qualified CPS juniors and seniors enroll in college courses. Clark reviews applications and advises the students.

Most important, Clark said, is that each student—whether in college or high school—finds an academic path where he or she can succeed. "I try to be pretty honest and open with them," she said. "I will tell them if I think something’s a good idea or not, but I can’t tell them what to do."

In her free time, she’s an academic coach for football students at Christian Fenger High School, helping them prepare for the ACT and teaching them about financial aid and college sport eligibility requirements.

"It’s kind of funny to see these 6-foot-tall people calling me ‘Coach,’" she says.

Selected by a campus-wide committee of fellow academic professionals, CAPE winners receive a $1,000 salary increase and a $2,000 cash award.

Adapted from two UIC News articles, by Brian Flood on November 5, 2008 and by Christy Levy on December 3, 2008.