Recently five members of Vincennes University’s faculty and staff were presented with peer recognition awards. They were nominated by fellow staff members and selected for award by the President’s Advisory Committee.
Vincennes University faculty and staff were recently honored for the extraordinary part they play in VU’s vision, goals, and mission. Five members of the staff and faculty were given Peer Recognition Awards. These awards were presented to them because of their service, leadership achievements, and dedication to the school.
The 2025 Peer Recognition Awardees are Office Coordinator, Generations: Linda Yochum, Director, Center for Applied Robotics and Automation: Kimberly Wright, Instructor, Industrial Maintenance Training: Hubie Holland, Director of Library Services: Charla Gilbert, and Deputy Director of Workforce Development Services, Region 8: Sandra Friedman.
A special reception was held for this year’s recipients on October 1 in Vincennes University’s Governor’s Hall.
In an article posted on Vincennes’ website, the president of the university, Dr. Chuck Johnson, was quoted about the recipients, saying, “We congratulate the dedicated Vincennes University staff and faculty who have received Peer Recognition Awards. Their passion and commitment to excellence significantly enrich our University, and their outstanding contributions elevate VU every day. We take pride in all staff and faculty who were nominated by their peers."
Peers and members of the staff and faculty at Vincennes University nominate each other based on their yearly performance and service. The winners are selected from the pool of nominees by the President’s Advisory Committee.
Linda Yochum serves as the Generations Office Coordinator. According to her nomination submission, she has been important to the organization's success since she joined the team back in 2006. Her skill set includes a specialization in crisis management and problem solving, which she uses in her customer service work. She has assisted with the counseling services of well over 1,000 people in the past half decade. Her talents have allowed her to help people steer through the difficulties of insurance planning, retirement, and Medicare. She also is part of a tax counseling program, where her team has helped serve over 6,000 people local to the area. People throughout the community acknowledge her abilities. Linda was credited with being a team player not just in her work, but in every moment of her life, and having a consistently positive attitude. She has been able to provide a listening ear and helping hand, as well as advice and hope on stressful days, and through difficult times. Her peers appreciate her dedication to helping to improve the quality of life to people with disabilities and older adults. She has been called a great community member, peer, employee, and co-worker.
Kimberly Wright serves as the Director of the Center for Applied Robotics and Automation. According to her nomination submission, Kimberly is an outstanding leader, and has made a profound impact at Vincennes University broadly, but also within her team and the culture of the workplace. She is credited with often going above and beyond in her job, no matter what is asked of her. She often grabs the reins, happily being part of projects that are beyond her formal job description, and offers support to others in the College of Technology, Distance Education, Workforce Development, and Business and Industry. Kimberly is an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan in the early 2000s. She also graduated from Vincennes University. She has taken those experiences and molded them into the ability to lead with clarity and strength, as well as a commitment to service. At one point she was one of the few female instructors within the College of Technology, and used her position to make sure there was room for other underrepresented peoples. Kimberly also served as the manager for the Amazon Mechatronics and Robotics Apprenticeship for almost half a decade. While in that position she helped students by giving them career advice. In her current role, Kimberly works to create an environment where every person feels valued, seen, and supported. She sets a positive tone for excellence, and helps to bring out the best in every person with whom she works.
Hubie Holland serves as the Industrial Maintenance Training Instructor. According to his nomination submission, Hubie has been an important part of the creation and execution of a number of successful programs at Vincennes University. He is known for showing up for work 90 minutes early every day so that he is completely prepared for his classes. He is also known to stay late to help students, and to prepare for the next day. He is praised for his impressive attention to detail which allows for his students to enjoy a consistent learning experience. His co-workers acknowledge his ability to lead by example. He is appreciated for being a great mentor, co-worker, friend, and a man of faith.
Charla Gilbert serves as the Director of Library Services. Her nomination submission noted that she was being nominated for her exceptional dedication and leadership. She was able to attain a prestigious grant which brought recognition for Vincennes University. The library was chosen as one of 50 in the country to host the Americans and the Holocaust exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Library Association. Charla was the spearhead of a long and mindful planning process which involved collaborating with partners both within Vincennes University and the Vincennes community at large, as well as the state. Together the team created an educational experience full of insight and meaning, that included a wealth of events that brought many people to the university campus. She is also known as a passionate steward of the school’s history, and she is always collecting and digitizing photos, flyers, and programs to preserve the legacy of the university. She has also led innovative additions to the library such as calming spaces, stimulating sensory spaces, and virtual reality rooms. She is also behind events such as Paws and Popcorn, Murder Mystery, and Harry Potter Escape Rooms, which are beloved by many in the community, and highlight the role of the library as a student focused space. Charla’s commitment and vision work to improve the library and make it an essential part of the school.
Sandra Friedman serves as the Deputy Director of Workforce Development Services Region 8. Her nomination submission said that she was being recognized for being the regional subject-matter expert on WorkOne programs. In her position she has taken the lead on developing onboarding training for new staff in the information management systems and regional grant programs. She also performs ongoing staff training for every program. The nominator notes that Sandra writes policy and detailed training for both new and changing policies. She also works to identify potential issues by monitoring ongoing participant files. She also is behind a Tip of the Week email that goes out to VU staff. The email offers guidance on client processes and procedures that makes sure that programs are administered in an effective way. She also made a series of checklists for staff to make documenting record keeping runs more smoothly across all programs, as well as creating procedures, checklists, and policies that have made program documentation more efficient, which allows staff to be able to spend more time on more client focused operations. She has also become known as the person to go to for questions about getting rid of disallowed costs and lowering time expenditures for frontline staff doing program documentation. Her training checklists and guides have been so well received that the Department of Workforce Development has gone forward with her training and documentation tools and started to consider them a best practice for the whole state. Her nominator appreciates how her commitment to the university as a whole, and her position, reflects well on the entire VU team.
More information about Vincennes University can be found at the school’s website here.