Margaret Zelinski receives 2012 Staff Career Achievement Award
Margaret Zelinski, retired business manager for the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering the College of Engineering, has received the 2012 Staff Career Achievement Award. Zelinski retired in 2011 after 15 years of service to the university.
Created in 2011 to recognize retiring staff members, the Staff Career Achievement Award is presented annually to up to five individuals who have distinguished themselves through exemplary performance and service during their university career. Nominees must have served a minimum of 10 years at Virginia Tech. Each recipient is awarded a $1,000 cash prize.
As business manager, Zelinski managed the department’s budget and developed monthly forecasts of income and expenditures. She put systems in place to provide high-quality information in flexible formats and managed all personnel, payroll, and visa activities with impeccable accuracy and legal compliance.
Additionally, Zelinski handled all general accounting functions for the department and was often lauded for her prompt billing and payments. She managed all departmental scholarships, fellowships, and foundation accounts, as well as all budget development and project expenditures for funded grants in the department.
“In all these roles, her performance was exemplary,” one nominator said. “As a business manager, a highly professional staff member, and a person, there is nobody better than Margie Zelinski.”
Prior to joining the department, Zelinski worked in University Development, where she served as the director of gift accounting and assistant to the vice president.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
