Christina Graham chosen for Staff Association Award

Tonya Ackley, coordinator of community engagement, and Lindsay Hilton Retchless, director of alumni relations, nominated Graham.

“Christina uses every single opportunity she can to help her students learn important skills,” Ackley wrote in her nomination. “She incorporates learning opportunities such as leadership, responsibility, decision making, conflict resolution and problem solving. She challenges her students to better themselves and take advantage of all the opportunities they have available to them.”

Ackley also wrote of the respect students have for Graham.

“The students will bend over backward for Christina because they know and appreciate everything that she does for them. They recognize the commitment she has to the students, her job and the university.”

Retchless, who is also president of the staff association, has worked with Graham on many projects.

“I nominated Christina for this award because of her abilities to mentor her colleagues and her commitment to Pitt-Bradford, and we all recognize her dedication to our students,” she said.

Graham is the advisor for the Student Government Association, Student Activities Council and the National Society of Leadership and Success. She organizes the annual Movin’ On New Student Orientation, oversees spending for more than 40 student clubs and organizations on campus, sits on the Cultural Festival Committee, teaches a freshman seminar class focused on leadership development and is president-elect of the Staff Association.

In 2008, she was named Outstanding Professional at the National Association for Campus Activities Mid America Awards.

Graham joined Pitt-Bradford in 2002.

The annual staff recognition award honors an employee whose performance consistently exceeds the standards and expectations set for his or her position at the university or whose work in the community surpasses the expectations of the organizations they serve.

--30--