Sammi Kaiser Earns Board of Regents KUDOS Award

The Nebraska Board of Regents recently presented a KUDOS Award to Sammi Kaiser, director of the UNO Academic & Career Development Center and senior director of academic advising, at its Friday, Oct. 8, meeting.

Through her tireless work and efforts towards inclusivity, Kaiser has gone above and beyond the responsibilities of her role; she has encouraged better communication and taken on additional responsibilities with enthusiasm.

In her nomination, Kaiser was described as someone who has worked to engage everyone she works with when creating UNO’s advising ladder, which allows professional advisors to continue their advising career across different colleges. She led and organized a small committee focusing on identifying the best practices for a promotion ladder and facilitated the adoption of a promotion ladder. With her continued dedication, she has made UNO a leader among higher education institutions in this respect.

During the pandemic Kaiser has also worked to bring continuity to student advising across UNO, which even without a pandemic is a huge responsibility. However, with her ability to bring trust throughout the advising community, she has been able to create a more unified experience across campus.

With her creation of the Advising Lead Council, Kaiser has also brought people together. The council, which connects advising leaders from different departments together to share information and solve problems, bridges initiatives from Academic Affairs and Student Success to student-facing advisors.

Her skills as a leader show in her inclusiveness. She has worked tirelessly to include everyone when it comes to decision-making. In every role she works in, she ensures that barriers to achieving a desired outcome for everybody, even reaching out to people after meetings if she’s unsure that a certain issue was mishandled. She constantly supports others and offers an ear to those who may need it and works to foster spaces where leaders can feel safe in having difficult conversations to solve a variety of issues.

“Sammi is a true Maverick. She is strong, resilient, and leads with an aura of optimism. Sammi envisions a better future for everyone she encounters,” her nominator states. “She leads with optimistic leadership and lights the Maverick Spirit in all of us.”

KUDOS Award Nominations

The University of Nebraska KUDOS award recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding employees and is presented six times a year during NU Board of Regents meetings.