Champions of Diversity - Award Recipients - 1st Quarter 2008

CAMPUS SERVICES
Patty Stargensky, Resident Director, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Patty is involved in many areas of community relations. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Joseph's House Homeless Shelter in Troy, NY and is actively involved with Stop Hunger efforts in association with the food services at RPI. She is the company's coordinator for the annual Crop Walk (stop hunger effort) locally and always is the top contributor of donations/sponsorship. She is actively involved with Troy High School on School-to-Work programs and teaches a course at the school. Many employees have been introduced to Sodexho through this program. Patty works with ARC, NE Career Planning (help people with barrier to employment), Wild Wood program, Make a Wish Foundation, Partners in Education, Unity House where Patty donates to their food pantry often and Caring Cans where she helped to collect over 660 lbs of food. She also is actively involved in hiring, training and integrating employees who are disabled into our food service program. She makes it a point to be aware of special holidays so that menus reflect these special events. Patty remains open to student feedback through Comment Cards and seeks continuous improvement at her account. If employees need housing or are challenged with difficulties in their lives, they reach out to Patty who provides them with a list of shelters or available apartments. Many of her peers, employees, customers, and clients have praised Patty for her work with the community and her inclusion of all people.

CORPORATE SERVICES
Amgen Team, Greenwic, RI
Ben Miller, General Manager; Stacey Daudelin, Catering Manager; Scott True, Retail Manager; Chris Jessop, Executive Chef; and Thurston Capwell, Chef
This team achievement underscores the tremendous impact that a collaborative effort among individuals can have in creating meaningful opportunities to advance diversity in our organization. The Amgen Team is being recognized for having implemented a program at their unit that provides employment & development opportunities to people with disabilities. The unit currently employs two dishwashers that were referred by Kent County Arc. The mission of this organization is to promote and enhance quality of life for people with developmental disabilities. Through this pro-active partnership, the team at Amgen is supporting these two individuals in developing valuable employment skills. They are also providing two individuals with the pride and joy of having a sense of belonging. The team has been recognized by both our client and the community through various awards for their work in this area.

CORPORATE STAFF
Occupational Health and Safety Team
This team demonstrates how diversity and inclusion is a part of the “DNA” of our organizational culture by integrating diversity into everything that they do. As a part of their Management Conference exhibit, they showcased a “Diversity in Safety History” poster, thereby recognizing minority and women leaders in their field. For every pair of safety shoes that are sold, a dollar is donated to the Stop Hunger Foundation. Since the inception of their fund raising efforts, they have raised over $80,000! The team created an Employee Safety Supply Catalog that identifies innovative safety equipment that will help our employees to comply to safety standards. They bring managers and hourly safety committee members together, cross-divisionally for District Safety Coordinator workshops at which time they generate current best practices. In addition, they place strong emphasis on breaking down language barriers, recognizing that this is imperative in order to make the workplace safer for all. They partnered with Safety Summit, a Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) to implement a cost effective, US Dept of Labor OSHA approved certification in both English and Spanish. They supported our Sed de Saber pilot and provide language translation as needed. This team was the first in the company to develop trilingual posters for all Sodexho employees, and have shared their information globally through Sodexho Alliance and Universal Sodexho.

EDUCATION FACILITIES
Troy University Team, Troy, AL
Jimmy Reynolds, Custodial Manager; Chad Mixon, Grounds Manager; Scott Thacker, Maintenance Manager; Cathy Sport, Office/HR Manager; Jade Anderson, Project Manager; Tess Rountree, Admin.; and Beverly Duncan, Admin.
This team at Troy University conducts outstanding “good faith outreach” efforts for attracting their workforce. They welcome International students to work on the team, who have shown a strong work ethic which has helped this account grow and prosper. They implemented a flexible work schedule for Robert Dansby, an employee who is hearing impaired, after which time he referred two other employees who together have created one of the hardest working teams in the area. They are exploring the possibility of implementing voice recognition software that will serve to ensure their workforce who is hearing impaired is able to be most productive. The community recognizes the value in what the Troy University team is doing; thus they were honored on October 16 by the Alabama Governor's Committee on Employment of Peoples with Disabilities for the City of Troy and the surrounding Pike County as the “Large Employer of the Year”, the “Employee of the Year” - Robert Dansby, and “Recognition for Outstanding Service” - Jimmy Reynolds, Custodial Manager. This is an outstanding accomplishment and recognition for the facilities team at Troy University and for our company.

GOVERNMENT SERVICES
Memorie Baker, Area General Manager, Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, CAM
Memorie Baker has been exemplary in her efforts to promote a culture of development and advancement in her organization. She has successfully established an open, inclusive environment that values and leverages the differences among her team at all levels. Memorie has developed several frontline employees into management roles including a store room clerk who was developed into a General Manager role and others are experiencing or have been offered similar development opportunities through Memorie's leadership and coaching skills. The mess halls that Memorie manages are highly diverse and she ensures that all frontline employees are afforded the opportunity to contribute to and impact their business.

HEALTH CARE MARKET
Sue Delez, District Manager, Sr. Services, West Region
Sue has been a very strong supporter for all of Sodexho's diversity initiatives. She is a part of the Northern California WiNG regional chapter and actively drives participation for their networking events. As a District Manager, she has made Diversity and Inclusion a regular topic on her monthly conference calls and keeps her managers abreast of new Diversity initiatives. Sue leverages opportunities to leverage cross Network Group activities and recently participated in the Hispanic Heritage celebration in Northern California. She is a strong promoter for the Sed de Saber program, and encourages her units to utilize this tool. Most importantly, Sue leads by example by creating an open and inclusive work environment with her leadership style. She embraces the diverse backgrounds of her employees and clients, and leverages the unique strengths that each individual has to offer.

SCHOOL SERVICES
David Tylavsky, District Manager, Bensenville, IL
David is a strong role model who believes in people development, whether an employee or a student. He volunteers as a guest reader for elementary school students in the North Chicago Community Unit District #187. He encourages each of his team members to develop professionally, become involved in Sodexho's network groups, and participate in GM training. David helped to create a mentoring program to develop hourly workers helping them to learn management skills and he established a cross training initiative so people of all backgrounds can move forward, learn, and develop their skills. He is able to see potential in women and men from all ethnic backgrounds as evidenced by his recent “hourly to management” promotions. He also implemented Sed de Saber at 2 units with a predominant Hispanic community. On a monthly basis, David incorporates Federal Heritage Month information at meetings where literature is distributed to all the managers and he shares highlights of diversity and inclusion. David personally and faithfully supports varieties of contributions to the AIDS foundation and has been recognized by his clients for his efforts and commitments.

View our previous Champions of Diversity award recipients:
1st Quarter 2009 | 2nd Quarter 2009 | 3rd Quarter 2009
1st Quarter 2008 | 2nd Quarter 2008 | 3rd Quarter 2008 | 4th Quarter 2008