UNO Names Kelly Hughes Employee of the Month

Kelly Hughes, proposal development manager for the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) College of Information Science & Technology (IS&T), has been named UNO's Employee of the Month for March 2026. She was praised for her innovative approach, collaborative spirit, and dedication to advancing research initiatives.

Hughes' nominators said that:

"As someone whose role is to assist faculty and staff with identifying and writing funding proposals, Kelly Hughes demonstrates excellence in every aspect of her work. She has been an exceptional team player and an innovative problem solver in building new services and tools for the college. She has collaborated closely with unit leads to design new approaches for pre-award support, while also independently identifying gaps and proposing solutions."

"She has actively pursued professional development opportunities and has translated that learning directly into practice, improving processes related to funding discovery, proposal consultation, research initiative planning, and collaboration development. She was an early adopter of AI related tools through the AI Learning Lab, and took a leadership role in developing guidelines for responsible and transparent AI use in proposal development in the college. She also designed AI enabled routines to support editing and opportunity identification and shared this work at UNO’s first AI Summit, serving as a role model for thoughtful and ethical innovation with new technologies."

"Kelly has provided extraordinary service to faculty, staff, and students in the college and beyond through sustained contributions to the research mission and culture of the college. Her work reflects a high level of initiative, creativity, and dedication, and exemplifies the qualities recognized by the Employee of the Month award."

For being named Employee of the Month, Hughes received a certificate, a hot/cold tumbler provided by The Maverick Store, a monetary award, two tickets to a UNO sporting event, and use of a designated parking space.