Commitment to Students
The Andy Award for Commitment to Students honors staff members who are dedicated to guiding and assisting university students. They surpass the duties of their job description to meet students' needs, serving as role models who display a positive and professional image at all times.
Criteria include investing extra effort in satisfying student needs and expectations, identifying opportunities that support student needs and involving students in campus life beyond the classroom to emphasize their value as members of the university community.
2026 Nominees
Jennifer Britton
School of Computer Science
Jennifer has revitalized our master's student experience. She improved the Software Engineering program, then brought that same magic to the Privacy Engineering and AI Governance program. These programs are complex, with different pathways depending on what the students want to achieve. Jennifer handles it all beautifully, making sure every student is supported, guided and valued from admission through graduation.
Ivan Cao-Berg
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
When organizational shifts threatened to disrupt summer internships, Ivan built new pathways for student recruitment, ensuring that high-performance computing resources reached diverse, non-traditional students who might have otherwise been overlooked. Ivan always goes to bat for these students by securing funding for travel to professional conferences, providing assistance with publishing research papers and building flexible training tools to fit different learning styles.
Quinn Hagerty
College of Engineering
Quinn displays a perfect mix of technical know-how and a focus on helping others. He is the engine behind ECE's teaching labs, making a hands-on engineering experience possible for our students at a time when practical skills matter more than ever. Quinn takes care of everyone, whether it's an undecided first-year student stepping into a lab for the first time, a senior finishing up a grueling capstone project or a graduate student deep in research. He tackles the heavy lifting behind the scenes with a smile, always keeping student success at the center of everything he does.
Shannon Lown
Colllege of Fine Arts
Supporting MFA students across 10 distinct degree programs, Shannon has systematically redesigned onboarding and orientation, modernized academic policies, strengthened accessibility and inclusion efforts, and built robust systems that help students thrive from admission to graduation. She masterfully pairs strategic institutional execution with heartfelt advocacy, ensuring students receive seamless support from admission through graduation.
Diffy Paljevic
Tepper School of Business
Working off-site from the main campus, Diffy has built a second home for students, helping them navigate rigorous math and finance studies and competitive recruiting cycles. Diffy acts as a mentor, counselor and advocate who helps international students find their footing and works with faculty to adjust course loads when things get overwhelming. She displayed superb, hands-on crisis management during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, contacting students and securing temporary campus housing. As the creative force behind the Quant-in-Residence program and the Women in Quant Finance Club, Diffy flawlessly connects classroom learning with real-world success.
Jessica Rea
Student Affairs
Jessica has elevated both Dining Services and Athletics through her exceptional commitment to student nutrition and programming. By replacing an outsourced consultant framework with a dedicated, in-house performance nutrition model, Jessica revolutionized support for all 19 varsity sports. She has counseled hundreds of student-athletes, providing customized dietary strategies and programming necessary for peak athletic performance.
Nora Siewiorek
College of Engineering
Nora consistently exceeds role expectations by providing compassionate, proactive advising that prioritizes students' academic success, personal well-being and professional growth. She has elevated the undergraduate experience by spearheading enhancements to key departmental programming, including the sophomore professional development seminar.
Tiia Lager
College of Fine Arts
Tiia expertly runs a professional costume shop within the beautiful chaos of a theatrical production environment, and deftly connects with students from every discipline. Whether she’s working with actors, designers or directors — many of whom are stepping into a costume shop for the first time — she always leads with patience and care. By teaching them precise, real-world workflows, Tiia gives our students the tools they need to not only land their first jobs, but to build long, successful careers in the costume industry.