ANTHC celebrates 2016 Employee of the Year and Team of the Year award winners
December 16, 2016Categories: ANTHC
Each year, ANTHC honors staff members who stand out for exceptional dedication and innovation, for embodying our Consortium’s mission and vision, and for contributing significant achievements during the past year. We recognize these individuals and teams with ANTHC Employee of the Year awards and present the awards to winners in the company of their fellow staff, family and friends at the annual ANTHC Holiday Party. This year, ANTHC presented awards to 13 individuals and one team at our holiday celebration on Dec. 10. This year’s President’s Service Award goes to Moses Tcheripanoff, with the Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network in Community Health Services. Tcheripanoff has worked as a data analyst and environmental geographer with Community Health Services since 2010. While at ANTHC he has focused on innovative applications of software, social media and maps. He was a co-founder of the LEO Network. With his help, Tribal members across the state have been able to publish and share hundreds of observations about the impacts of climate change. ANTHC’s Revenue Cycle team was named ANTHC Team of the Year. A hospital revenue cycle starts the moment a patient calls to schedule an appointment and ends when there is no longer a balance on the patient’s account. A successful revenue cycle requires a smooth workflow and a well-trained team, who can effectively manage and constantly make improvement. Through concerted efforts, the Revenue Cycle team helped ANTHC exceed our revenue cycle goals for the year. The Revenue Cycle team includes Outreach and Enrollment, Admitting, Business Office and Health Information Management staff. Seven ANMC hospital staff members were recognized with Employee of the Year awards. Four-year ANTHC employee, Lucinda “Cindy” Crow was recognized for her extraordinary leadership as Manager of Clinical Quality. Fourteen-year employee Benita Dunegan, Medical Supply Manager, was recognized for helping ANTHC’s Sterile Processing department staff excel and promoting safe and quality work. Juliana Fuqua, Clinical Engineering Project Coordinator, has helped make the Biomedical Engineering team a valuable partner in outfitting new clinical areas with the medical equipment they need. Julie Overbaugh, Registered Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit/Critical Care Unit, has been with ANTHC for 21 years. She has traveled across Alaska to share her wealth of experience and developed relationships throughout the Alaska Native Health Campus and with our rural Tribal partners to ensure their education needs are met. As a Central Supply Technician, Peter Panruk ensures our medical staff have the supplies they need to provide the highest quality of health services possible; he has been with the Consortium for two years. Renee Stephens, Registered Nurse in Inpatient Surgery, compassionately works with patients to help them heal and is an advocate for high-quality care, working together with staff to improve the overall hospital experience for patients and their families. As a Clinical Quality Analyst, Monica Wolfe tirelessly works to advance our data quality and help improve patient care; she has worked with ANTHC for 14 years. Two Business Support staff members earned Employee of the Year awards. Richard Jeske, Compliance Specialist, has worked with the Consortium for 15 years and has promoted a positive change in our workforce by developing trainings and job aids to ensure employees have the tools they need to make ethical decisions. Coleen Sutton, Grants Program Administrator, provides crucial support for her programs and has contributed greatly to the success of ANTHC’s grant management and applications; she has worked for ANTHC for six years. One Community Health employee was recognized with an Employee of the Year award. Carolyn Craig, Community Health Aide Training Program Coordinator, has been instrumental in increasing the productivity of the CHAP Training Center. In three years, the Center has gone from an average of 60 students to training 118 this year. Two Environmental Health and Engineering staff members earned Employee of the Year awards. As a Civil Engineer, Agnieszka “Agnes” Marszalik has worked on many successfully completed projects, which have enhanced our Alaska Native communities, including Klawock’s water distribution system and sanitation project, preliminary reports and project design for sanitation project in Shishmaref and construction administration services for a project in Kake. Elmer Rookok, Utility Operations Specialist, helps provide safe drinking water and working sewer systems that enhance public health, in addition to helping the community of Savoonga build a recovered heat system that reduced the water system’s fuel use by 99 percent, saving the community over $35,000 per year. Congratulations to the recipients of the 2016 ANTHC Employee of the Year awards. Thank you for your dedication, innovation and efforts that inspire our fellow ANTHC staff and partners, and make a positive difference in the health of our Alaska Native and American Indian people.