Mariette Quinn, administrative assistant for graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, is the 2019 recipient of the Graduate Administrative Staff Member Award. This award, given by the Graduate School, is presented yearly to a staff member who has had a significant positive impact on his or her department’s graduate program.
Mariette was selected for “her spirit of service and encouragement to students, her extraordinary organizational capabilities, her commitment to continuous process improvement, and her generosity in fostering best practices among graduate programs.” One particular accomplishment of note is a database she designed to better manage graduate student recruiting. This tool tracks and simplifies student campus visit details including airline travel, faculty interview schedules, hotel reservations, local transportation logistics, student volunteer schedules, and menu restrictions. After successfully implementing this database for the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Mariette demonstrated its utility to other graduate administrative assistants and helped to customize it for use in other programs, enabling more effective operations across campus.