Employee Excellence
in Service Award

Locating funding for Health Science Center research can be difficult. But with the help of Liz Buel, grants specialist, the task is getting much simpler, say faculty and staff at the Health Science Center.

"In the four years that Liz has worked in the grants management office, she has improved our service of disseminating funding information to the campus by 500 percent," said Jane Youngers, director of grants management and reports. "She works very hard to establish frequent communication with faculty and others seeking external project support." Youngers said Buel redesigned the grants management Web site to make it more user friendly and up to date. She recently developed several downloadable funding request forms for the Web site to give faculty easy and immediate access to them. She also developed an e-mail list serve as a means of sending funding information to the campus community. Buel's work reduces the grants management office's expenses on paper and copying as well as information distribution time.

Buel says she was thrilled to learn she had been chosen to receive an Employee Excellence in Service Award.

"I simply feel like I'm doing what I love to do the most," Buel said. "I find it very rewarding to be able to work with the faculty and to help them find funding for all of the wonderful and interesting projects they have. It's very satisfying to know that I may have a part in finding the funding for research that could someday help cure a disease."

Youngers said Buel often visits faculty members in their offices to provide them with funding assistance. She also takes the time to train them one on one in the use of the latest proposal preparation software.

"Liz is always willing to go the extra mile to help with funding university projects," Youngers said. "She is a self-starter who initiates improvements rather than simply responding to directives."

You won't get any arguments from warehouse manager Tom Buel, Liz's proud papa who has been with the Health Science Center for 34 years. "Liz has a great deal of patience and has great people skills," he said. "I know she is appreciated here because I hear wonderful comments about her from those who come in contact with her. And she in turn appreciates her job here at the UTHSC. I know she feels rewarded."

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