Hall’s supervisor, Heather Hutchings, spoke kindly of her coworker, “DonnaLynn is incredibly dedicated to her work and supportive of her teammates and campus partners. She eagerly takes on new challenges while continuing to provide excellent support for her ongoing projects.”

When asked what makes Hall such a valuable team member, Hutchings answered, “DonnaLynn is self-motivated to deliver solutions that make others more efficient. She looks for opportunities to help campus partners streamline their work through automation and focuses on developing solutions to reduce manual tasks.”

Hall earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in March, which provides a great foundation for successful projects across Information Technology (IT). In addition to Admissions and Financial Planning, Hall is also an essential team member in Application Technologies within IT where she frequently contributes to projects.

When reflecting on the ways Hall has helped the the IT department, Hutchings explains, “DonnaLynn represents Administrative Computing on the Change Advisory Board and leads change management for our team.” Hutchings continues, “DonnaLynn volunteers her talents to help others on campus.  She mentors students through the First-Year Engagement Program and co-leads the Caregiver ERG providing resources and fellowship for faculty and staff in caregiving roles.”

Her impact reaches beyond Elon, too. She is actively involved in the Ellucian community as the co-chair of the Financial Aid Regulatory Client Advisory Team. This service allows her to network with other Colleague schools and share the good work happening at Elon.

The Acorn Accolade is awarded each month to an exceptional member of Elon’s Instructional and Campus Technologies team. The individual must be nominated by his or her department head to the Assistant Vice President of Technology.

51±¬ÁĎÍř was highlighted for their work to provide transgender and gender-nonconforming students the ability to choose a campus name and pronoun. Rodney Parks, university registrar and assistant to the provost, accepted the award on behalf of the team at the annual Blackboard World conference in New Orleans. 

“Blackboard is proud to recognize this year’s Catalyst Award winners for their commitment to leveraging technology to improve the education experience,” said Bill Ballhaus, chairman, CEO and president of Blackboard. “We look forward to continuing to work with these educators and institutions to support learner success, and to share best practices widely for the benefit of the education community.”

McDaniel worked closely with his colleagues in Technology and Advancement to share participation information and progress online throughout the day.  The real-time view of how the day was developing appeared through a participant count, category charts, and data reports.

Christopher Waters, Assistant Vice President for Technology and CIO, says McDaniel was selected as the first award recipient because of his tenacious drive and commitment to excellence. “Gregory uses his collaborative mindset to make connections across many departments within the university.”

McDaniel, who works on many internal systems, says, “I don’t usually see the direct impact of the work I do when walking around on campus, so it is nice to have this recognition.”

Waters says, “We have an extensive amount of projects in technology, so it’s challenging to single one person out. Everyone is doing excellent work, and this award allows us to regularly tap those who provide leadership.”  McDaniel concurs, “This project couldn’t have happened without my colleagues; it was entirely a team effort.”

McDaniel’s other accomplishments include increasing accessibility for Class Climate (online course assessment), improving Moodle (learning management system), and smoothly migrating the student judicial software to a new platform.  

The Acorn Accolade will reside in the recipient’s workspace for one month and then move on when the next awardee is named. A small, 3D-printed replica will remain with each recipient in their workspace.