Susan Porto, senior administrative assistant (pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine) and Roberta Biceglia, senior administrative assistant (administration) were honored with the Department of Internal Medicine’s 2019 Service Excellence Awards as part of a recent Town Hall meeting. These awards honor the outstanding attributes of a member of the department whose work and behaviors support and promote its goals, values, and mission.
Porto serves as fellowship coordinator for the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and provides additional administrative support to several faculty members within the section. The nominator noted that fellowship program applicants often remark on how well the interview day is run and how Porto made them feel so welcome at Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Porto joined the Yale-PCCSM team in 2016.
Porto was shocked and honored to receive the award. “I was completely surprised and honored to be one of this year’s recipients of the Service of Excellence Award! Dr. Margaret Pisani (former Program Director-PCCM Fellow) and Dr. Shyoko Honiden (current Program Director-PCCM Fellow) have guided me in overseeing a successful Fellowship program,” said Porto. “I have grown extensively in the last three+ years and am grateful for their knowledge, patience and friendship. It is a pleasure to come to work each day and be surrounded by such a great team! I love my “children” (the fellows) and trying to make their fellowship as smooth as possible. I also love to bake and cook for my PCCSM family.”
Biceglia was also surprised to receive the honor. “This department is extraordinary,” she said. “We are a diversely talented group with common goals. We are like a very large family, we treat each other with respect, compassion, integrity and I love being part of this team. Dr. [Stephen] Huot approached me to take over the coordination of Medical Grand Rounds and I was grateful for the opportunity. Since Dr. [Vincent] Quagliarello stepped in, there have been significant changes, which both inspire me and push me to grow professionally. This award is truly an honor, to be recognized for doing work that I enjoy, but there is still more to do.”
Gary V. Desir, MD, Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine, chair of Internal Medicine and chief, Internal Medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital presented the awards to Porto and Biceglia and noted the excellence of the staff across the department.
The Service Excellence Awards were created in 2016 as a way to honor department staff on their excellence in the following pillars: understands the organization, demonstrates personal motivation, customer service and communication, university citizen/leadership, and teamwork. Previous winners include Laura Whitley, Laura Crawford, Lynn Gambardella, and Tracy Crosby.
The following employees celebrating service milestones were also honored at the meeting:
- 5 Years
- Shelly Bruneau
- Meredith Campbell Britton
- Juan Carmona
- Shelly Chastain
- Karin Gatison
- Cindy Godfrey
- Ann Greene
- Qing Liu
- Sinead McKernan
- Donna McMahon
- Shelly Ren
- Roman Ryabtsev
- Edwin Siu
- Kimberly Thomas
- Tequetta Valeriano
- Peili Wang
- 10 Years
- Roberta Biceglia
- Teressane Bohan
- Alisa Gordan
- Tatianna Hilton
- Karissa McLaurin
- Lisa Nichols
- Nicole Potter
- Lindsay Powell
- Andrea Rink
- Pamela Soulos
- Ann Souza
- Hong Vu
- 15 Years
- Hong Chau
- Gina Clark
- Kendall Getek
- Suzanna Mutic
- Ali Nasiri
- Angel P. Ojeda
- Luis Rosa
- Sonia Vilar
- 20 Years
- Teretha Brooks
- Jennifer Ciarleglio
- Donna Fazzino-Pera
- Daron Gardner
- Jialing Mao
- Christina Rios
- Melody Sacatos
- Maria White
- Jing Zhang
- 25 Years
- Laurie Andrews
- Robbin Bonnano
- Donna Carrano
- Pamela Dann
- Cynthia Frank
- Lynne Iannone
- Linda Lianos
- Yelena Mann
- 30 Years
- Thomas Kolodecik
- Christine Shugrue
- Sonya Valentine
- 35 Years
- Thecla Abbiati
- 40 Years
- Lisa DeLizio
- Diane Dynia
- 45 Years
- Astrid Swanson
To learn more about the department, visit Department of Internal Medicine.