Governor's Award nominee Mary Hunter recognized for significantly improving efficiency, effectiveness
During her 33 year career at Virginia Tech, Mary Hunter, has served the university in several different roles, but regardless of the position she has held, her commitment to the students and employees with whom she works has always stayed the same.
Hunter, who now is the fiscal director for the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, has been involved in countless projects across campus and is frequently called upon for advice because of her expertise and experience.
“To say that Mary's contributions, work ethic, and leadership with the department have been exceptional for many years would be an enormous understatement,” said W. Samuel Easterling, the Montague-Betts Professor of Structural Steel Design and department head. “What sets her apart is the breadth of support across multiple units within Virginia Tech over many years, and the other characteristic that stands out is the level of leadership and guidance she regularly provides.”
Some of the projects Hunter has been involved in include grant and contract administration, purchasing, and the management of funding faculty salaries from various sources during the academic year and summer.
She has also invested a great deal of time developing a departmental financial system called DEPART that allows units to manage and reconcile their funds.
This system has been adopted by many departments across the university.
“Hunter separates herself from other fiscal administrators at the university by the senior administration’s reliance on her expertise as it develops and implements new financial systems,” said Rodd Hall, senior associate director at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. “She is almost always among the first to be called upon to test ideas for new systems, and then usually pilots systems once implementation begins. Her work has been exemplary and vital to the university’s success.”
She's been recognized in the 2014 state-wide Governor's Award program in the career achievement category for significantly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of operations at Virginia Tech.
Hunter received the 2014 President’s Award for Excellence at Virginia Tech. She plans to retire in June 2015.
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.
