Lucy Millman, assistant director of the Harvey Kapnick business institution program, received the Northwestern University Staff Employee of the Year Award on May 10. This award is given annually to a staff employee who has worked at NU for a minimum of three years and has made a positive contribution to the community. This year’s winner was announced at the 34th Annual Staff Service Recognition Luncheon at Mid-America Club in Chicago.
Millman, who has worked at NU for almost 20 years, started out working at the Human Resources Payroll Division.
“When you go upstairs (in the Human Resources building), you walk by the pictures of all the people that have won the employee of the year,” Millman said. “When I started, the woman that trained me, Mary Schroeder, she had gotten it two years before, and I was always in awe. It was always a secret wish of mine, too.”
Now, as a part of the Harvey Kapnick business institution program, she advises students who are interested in the program, organizes visits from business leaders and alumni and works with numerous other faculty members. After years of contribution to the NU community, she has been named one of the seven finalists of the award twice. Maudell Gaines, program assistant at the office of human resources, shared some of the anonymous comments about Millman she heard from Millman’s colleagues.
“They were saying that she puts candies on people’s desk and lightens up the department,” Gaines said.
After receiving the award, Millman also noted its significance and the role of staff employees at NU.
“It’s one of the only chances we have to be recognized,” Millman said. “Any of the advisor people, we can help you with so many things that you don’t even know that we know from classes to where is a good place to take your parents out for dinner. We all are here because we like students. We really do.”
