OneIT Excellence Awards Winners - 2023

Leadership Excellence Award - Steve Flanagan

Recognition of a OneIT team member who has demonstrated exemplary leadership among OneIT and across the Stevens community driving OneIT initiatives for technological change and IT modernization across the university. This team member promotes a work environment that is respectful, inclusive and supportive. They go “above and beyond” the conventional parameters of an established role for the sake of inspiring others. 

“Steve has displayed extremely strong leadership skills both within OneIT and across campus. He has successfully built up the Workday Solutions team which plays a pivotal role in supporting Workday for the entire campus. The effects of his leadership are present in the team – its members are committed, work well with each other and with their campus colleagues, and are trusted partners. He has developed this team into a cohesive unit, managing both the turnover of a key member and the addition of new members. Outside of IT, Steve leads the Workday Operations Committee, which is made up of dozens of functional area partners across the entire university, both in administrative and academic areas. This committee has been instrumental in managing seamless operations and advancing Workday initiatives, and credit goes to Steve for the effective leadership of the group. Steve’s solid reputation and relationships with our campus partners are responsible for the positive image of OneIT that he promotes.”

Employee Excellence Award​ - Rafat Azad

Recognition of a OneIT team member who has consistently demonstrated a superior level of performance during the year. This OneIT member has displayed a high level of initiative, self-motivation and leadership when faced with challenging projects and initiatives. 

“Rafat has consistently demonstrated the highest level of professionalism and excellence in everything he does. His attention to detail as he rapidly shifts tasks from Okta, Cyber, Vulnerability management, and alert monitoring is remarkable. He also works closely with so many other team members to amplify the impact of his efforts.”​

“In my opinion, Rafat has consistently demonstrated a superior level of performance, initiative, self-motivation, and leadership during the year. His contributions have been invaluable to maintaining and promoting a more secure environment for students, faculty and staff here at Stevens. He has been an outstanding team member who is always willing to lend a hand.”

Rising Star Excellence Award - Phillip Paluga

Recognition of a OneIT team member who has exhibited ongoing exceptional growth and commitment in contributing to OneIT’s goals and values. This is someone who has taken on an increased level of leadership and responsibility. 

“In just slightly over a year of employment, Phillip has quickly established himself as the “go-to” when it comes to all equipment purchases and hardware related support and service. Phillip has established that he is a constant on the Client Support team and has proved his work ethic and reliability by completing work by the deadline regardless of the hurdles presented..”​

“I believe Phillip has exhibited ongoing exceptional growth and commitment in contributing to OneIT's goals and values. Although I don't work directly within his unit, I've seeing his contributions and the impact he makes to OneIT's overall success. Phillip has always exhibited professionalism, and a positive attitude, and is always willing to take on new challenges and to collaborate with others.”​

“Phillip consistently demonstrates a strong work ethic. He is approachable and always willing to lend a helping hand to team members. During the process of migrating files for SharePoint, Phillip's support and assistance have been exceptionally valuable.”

Project Team Excellence Award - Cloud Smart Project

Josh Poinsett, Kurt Hockenbury, Joe Formoso, Mike Parente, Chen Cheung, Hammad Ali, Ted Vallejos, Jayson Viray, Luis Quispe, Mauricio Castano 

Recognition of OneIT project team members that have been highly successful in implementing a significant project in support of enhancing the university’s mission and priorities. The Team delivered exceptional client experience. They demonstrated by example a willingness to encourage teamwork in the workplace. 

“The project team members did a fantastic job in the successful implementation and migration of services into the cloud. The Cloud Smart project had a significant impact on the university's mission and priorities and sets the standard for future improvement of operations, resiliency and efficiency as well as will allow for improved productivity among our students, faculty and staff. The project team completed the project with minimal impact and delivered exceptional client experience.”​

“The systems team worked day and night including working weekends just to complete the project as scheduled.”