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Trey Short is the 2020 recipient of the Max L. Starkey Service Award at Illinois Wesleyan University, President S. Georgia Nugent announced Friday, Aug. 14. Short, who joined the information technology services (ITS) staff at Illinois Wesleyan in 1989, served as chief technology officer for more than a decade until retiring in 2019. With only a brief hiatus in service, Short rejoined the University as the senior instructional technologist, an important role which became critical amid the COVID-19 pandemic as faculty, staff and students rapidly transitioned to teaching, learning and working in an online environment.
And now, this year’s clues…
This year's winner is known all over campus for a spirit of willingness.As one nominator said, "To us in the rank and file, it's obvious that this person has gone above and way beyond in their assigned duties to help keep this campus going."As another nominator wrote, "Many people on campus are stepping up in extraordinary ways this year, but I would argue that (this year's winner) has been at the center of one of the most important efforts the university has had to make."You might call them the unsung hero of our COVID-19 campus response.His leadership has been one of the key factors allowing a very small staff to quickly “pivot" to a higher level of support. He brought decades of experience with the campus and its people to the task of bringing teams together in new ways – to create, from scratch, a new model for assistance with online learning.After a 30-year career at Illinois Wesleyan, the value of his loyalty to the university became especially apparent. You might say we're a habit he just couldn't break – very lucky for us.
We can think of no better staff member to recognize this year. Please join me in congratulating Trey Short, Senior Instructional Technologist in Information Technology Services.
