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Medical Center Chaplain Who Aided Victims of Hurricane Katrina
Among Those Recognized for 'Exemplary' Efforts on Behalf of Campus
Ioana Patringenaru | June 9, 2008
Some rushed to New Orleans to help victims in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One helps make college a reality for students in Imperial County. Another promotes healthy eating and exercise in San Diego’s Latino community. Another promotes healthy eating and exercise in San Diego’s Latino community.
Chaplain Mark Reeves poses in front of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, in New Orleans. He was recognized Thursday as this year's Principal Exemplary Staff Employee.
All were recognized as this year’s Exemplary Staff Employees of the Year Thursday at the Faculty Club. A total of 10 staff members received awards, including Pastor Mark Reeves, the chaplain at UCSD Medical Center, who was named principal exemplary staff employee for the 2007-08 academic year.
“Thank you for being part of the UCSD family,” Chancellor Marye Anne Fox told the recipients at the awards ceremony Thursday. “Thank you for letting us recognize you.”
Fox added that the 10 award winners were selected among 104 nominations for their superlative contributions on and off campus. “They’ve given and given and given,” she said. “The campus, the region and the community at large have benefited from it.”
When you consider that UCSD on average receives 100,000 job applications for 1,800 vacancies and had 11,000 career employees eligible for the award, Thursday’s recipients are true superstars, said Tom Leet, assistant vice chancellor for Human Resources. Chancellor Fox pointed out she was wearing a white shirt with red stars for the occasion.
She handed each employee a bag full of goodies, including U.S. Open tickets, courtesy of Vice Chancellor Steven Relyea, passes to RIMAC and the Birch Aquarium, season tickets to theatre and dance department shows and a $1,500 check. Reeves, the principal staff employee of the year, received $2,500.
A quick glance at his life in the past two decades explains why he was singled out this year. During the October wildfires, Reeves provided comfort not only to more than 50 victims treated at the medical center in Hilcrest, but also to the emergency responders who were trying to care for them. Reeves and his colleagues also worked with the families of migrant workers treated in the burn unit. He brought in bilingual chaplains to talk to their relatives.
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox welcomed staff members and their families to the Exemplary Staff Employee Award ceremony at the UCSD Faculty Club.
In addition, Reeves volunteers for the federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team sponsored by UCSD Medical Center. During Hurricane Katrina, he served at the Louis Armstrong International Airport, where emergency responders saw 23,000 people in three days, including 5,000 with medical conditions. Reeves helped unload patients from helicopters, triaged them and gave them shots.
After Sept. 11, he worked at an on-site morgue in New York. Then, he was assigned to Staten Island, where he performed the final inspection of debris from the attack. In addition, over the past 17 years, he has served as a chaplain for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, the San Diego County Medical Examiner and the City of Poway.
“It’s really a privilege and an honor to be here,” Reeves said Thursday.
He went on to thank a long list of people, especially singling out the law enforcement officers that worked with the UCSD Medical Center during the October wildfires, including Mark Sanchez, the City of Poway fire chief, and William Gore, San Diego County’s under-sheriff, who attended Thursday’s ceremony, as well as Dr. Glenn Wagner, the county’s chief medical examiner.
Reeves also thanked everyone in the audience for allowing him and the 50-odd volunteers who work for the UCSD Medical Center Chaplain to serve. “Someone asked me today: ‘What is your greatest joy?’ ” he said. “It’s to serve you and to be able to help you when you call us.”
Reeves wasn’t the only 2008 exemplary employee that could be found in New Orleans after Katrina. Christine Brown, a social worker in the department of psychiatry, had rushed there too. She remained in the devastated city for several weeks to work with uprooted victims. In her job at UCSD, she works with mentally ill and substance-abusing offenders. “She has a natural ability to take a diamond in the rough and polish it,” Vice Chancellor David Brenner said of Brown.
Award winners attended the ceremony with their family.
Meanwhile, Thomas Gilkison, who works in UCSD’s Early Academic Outreach Program, has become the program’s lone representative in Imperial County. Every day, he works hard to encourage students to take college-prep courses that will make them eligible for the University of California and to take SAT prep classes, Vice Chancellor Penny Rue said. He helps students file college and financial aid applications, she added. Gilkison also often acts as a UCSD and University of California representative at college-prep events and activities.
“He inspires his colleagues throughout the state and of course he inspires students,” Rue said. “He is a very valuable presence for UCSD in the Imperial Valley.”
Back in San Diego County, Blanca Melendrez, a community health program manager, advocates for healthy eating. She has become the regional director of the Network for a Healthy California’s Latino Campaign. She also took part in many initiatives, including a vending-machine toolkit promoting healthy options; the Healthy Kids' Choice Initiative, that creates healthy restaurant menu options for kids; and the opening of a food-stamp accessible and culturally relevant Open Air Farmers' Market in City Heights.
“She’s touched many people,” Vice Chancellor Brenner said. “And we’re all the better for it.”
The Exemplary Staff Employee of the Year Review Committee, which includes representatives from the Chancellor's Office, each vice-chancellor area and the UCSD Medical Center, evaluated the nominations submitted by members of the campus community and designated this year’s winners.
Other Exemplary Staff Employee of the Year recipients are: Diana Bergen, Kathryn Caro, Lisa Dacey, Mary Darling, Heather Herman and Christi Middlesworth.
This year's Exemplary Staff Employees pose with Chancellor Marye Anne Fox (center) and Tom Leet, assistant vice chancellor of Human Resources (far right).
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