Surafel Zenebe was awarded the SPIRIT of Excellence Award for the third quarter of 2019 during a presentation at MedStar University Town Center. Surafel is the Sponsored Award Manager, Office of Contracts and Grants Management at MedStar Health Research Institute. Nominated by Grant Gonzalez, Director, Financial Operations (Office of Financial Management), the award was presented by Neil Weissman, President, MedStar Health Research Institute.
Often nominated by the manager, this was by a peer. Tina Stanger, Assistant Vice President, Research Administration said “Teamwork is such a small word for what he does. He can work with anyone, PI's, SCAs, and treat them all with respect.” Surafel was recognized for his commitment and his ability to maintain relationships between the Central Business Office (COB), Office of Financial Management (OFM), Office of Contracts and Grants Management (OCGM) and Scientific Awards Administration (SAA). During the presentation, everyone had wonderful remarks to say about Surafel:
- “He is extremely helpful with other teams. Helping us understand transactions and what is happening. He balances the work and makes each request feel important.”
- “Surafel is constantly thinking of ways to improve processes within his respective team and MHRI. He tries to apply processes that create efficiencies within his own department. Similar, he is always looking at the overall MHRI financial health for was to improve it.”
- “He forms relationships with those he works with, from admin to managers to coordnators to colleagues at different institutions and even patients calling about reimbursements, aiding in his successes. These relationships have allowed Surafel to successfully provide the support required from his job.”
The SPIRIT Award is given to recognize and reward one associate (management or non-management) each quarter, who excels in Service, Patient First, Integrity, Respect, Innovation, and Teamwork. Based on valuable feedback, the nomination process for the MHRI Spirit Award has been revamped to best serve our managers and associates to ensure that we are recognizing an associate of the quarter.
The new process will leverage the KUDOS that are submitted by all associates. Each quarter, the MHRI Executive Team will review the KUDOS submissions and select an associate or manager who best exemplifies all our SPIRIT values.This method is similar to programs at different entities at MedStar Health. We hope this new process will allow us to recognize associates for their continued commitment to the MedStar SPIRIT values.
Please contact MHRI-HR@medstar.net if you have any questions.
