The UNC Core Facilities Staff Recognition Award program recognized three recipients for the Spring 2025 award cycle. Each award recipient will receive $1,000 and a feature on the Office of Research Technologies website. The program review committee congratulates all winners and thanks those who nominated core employees for these awards during this award cycle.
We are excited to present our category winners—keep an eye out for special features on each category winner to follow at: https://www.med.unc.edu/corefacilities. The next Core Facility Staff Recognition Award will be open for nominations in November 2025, and nominations are welcome from anyone at UNC Chapel Hill.
Justin Cromwell, Lab Manager for the Animal Clinical Chemistry Core, was awarded the Performance Excellence award. He was nominated by multiple individuals who highlighted the difficulties he faced in stepping into managing operations within a small core having never worked in a core before. He jumped in with both feet to learn all the core’s workflows and standard operating procedures, developed mastery of specific technical challenges with core equipment, learned how to manage the core’s billing system, and navigated the unique role of core directors and managers to balance customer service with business management and scientific excellence. Justin’s nominators also spoke to several initiatives he has undertaken to improve rigor and reproducibility for the customers of his core, including standardizing sample preparation and drop off guidelines, and quickly learning to identify and correct potential equipment errors that might affect data collection. Justin went from not working in this core or with overlapping technologies to becoming a subject matter expert, trusted resource, and successful core manager in less than 9 months and was a clearly deserving recipient of this award.
Rachel Coble, a Research Technician in the Metabolomics and Exposome Laboratory at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) in Kannapolis, NC, was awarded the Technical Achievement award. Rachel was nominated by multiple team members and core customers who highlighted how her leadership and organizational skills have supported several large-scale, impactful studies including the NIEHS Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR) program, the NIDDK Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CURE) consortium, and the NIH Common Fund Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH) study. Many other aspects of her nomination also spoke to the technical aspects of her work. The award committee found her contributions to lab safety exceptionally strong- particularly in ensuring a culture of safety and safety awareness while training new lab members, and thanks Rachel for her service in this vital space.
Finally, Robert “Stew” Little, an Operations Manager at the Biomedical Research Imaging Center, received the Customer Service award this cycle. Stew’s nominations spoke to his willingness to jump in and accomplish any task to ensure the mission of the service center is met—from exceptional bedside manner with human study participants, to impactful and positive interactions with clinical coordinators to ensure studies run smoothly, to his willingness to accommodate schedule changes to meet customer needs. And, despite being relatively new to his position, Stew continues to take on more and more tasks in administering a complex core, including asset management, EHS and lab safety trainings and management, and developing communications tools for a complex team to utilize. Not only did Stew develop these tools, he also patiently trained all who would need to utilize it so that it would be fully integrated into their SOPs to improve internal tracking and coordination as well as customer experience. Further, Stew does all of this with a contagious positive attitude and willingness to jump into any task that needs to be accomplished- no matter how complex or how mundane.
There were many exceptional nominations to the 2025 Spring award cycle, and we also want to acknowledge the other nominees who are all doing outstanding work in their respective core facilities:
- Ryan Hansen (CFAR HIV/STD Laboratory)
- Wendy Salmon (Hooker Imaging Core)
- Elle Howle (Abacus Evaluation)
- Quinn Fong (Abacus Evaluation)
- Daniel Stutts (Zebrafish Aquaculture Core)
- Shelly Maras (Abacus Evaluation)
- Ayrianna Hedgecock (Flow Cytometry Core)
- DaVetta Pulley (Gnotobiotic Core)