UPGAP Pathway Director, Lynell Spencer, Receives Mary H. Cumpston Award for Service to Students

Our very own UPGAP Pathway Director, Lynell Spencer, has been recognized for her demonstrated excellence in the area of service to students, and more specifically her role in the Early Alerts initiative. The announcement below from Michele Toppe, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, discusses the award's namesake and Lynell's contributions to PSU.

Earlier this spring, the Mary H. Cumpston Award selection committee, which all former recipients are invited to be part of each year, identified Lynell Spencer as this year's award recipient. I wanted to offer a bit of background on this award. Leadership in the division of Student Affairs created this institutional award for non-teaching faculty and staff in 2004, adding to the list of already existing end-of-year awards designed to recognize faculty with academic rank. We decided that the award should be named in Mary's honor, as we all agreed that Mary and her long career at PSU represented the very best of us. Mary was the Director of the Career Center at PSU when I arrived in 1995. As the website for the award details, Mary graduated from PSU in 1957 and then returned to work at PSU after teaching in the Portland Public Schools system. Mary's career at PSU spanned 35 years from 1964 until her retirement in 1999. She was known across campus to be a quick witted, consummate professional, and someone who simply exuded warmth, grace and authenticity. Mary also was known as someone who demanded of herself and of others that we never forget that service to student success should always be at the center of our work.

Lynell, like each of the former recipients, was selected by the committee who found in the nomination materials submitted by her colleagues, that Lynell possesses these same characteristics for which Mary was so well known. Please join us in welcoming Lynell to this august company and take time to thank her for her many years of exemplary service to students at PSU. Especially during these last pandemic years, going above and beyond for our students has required deep commitment and perseverance. Thank you, Lynell, for rising above these challenges to continue to serve our students with such care!

Please also take some time to consider others who you work with who exemplify the kind of selfless, compassionate service that this award was designed to recognize. We know there are many worthy candidates in our midst and look forward to next year's process when we receive nominations from all of you, detailing the many ways your amazing colleagues are living up to Mary's legacy of commitment to our students and ensuring their success is at the center of our work.

-Michele