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Office of Research Innovation Announces Winners of Annual Award for Excellence

Ginny Moser and Kim Dick pose with the plaques they received as winners of ORI's 2023 Award for Excellence.

The Office of Research and Innovation honored two longtime NC State University employees on May 3, presenting them with the Award for Excellence.

Kim Dick, a web content manager, won in the SHRA category and Ginny Moser, the regional director of research administration for the Integrated Support Services Center, won in the EHRA category. 

About the Winners

Between the two of them, Dick and Moser have dedicated a combined total of more than five decades of service to the university. And they’ve both spent much of that time with the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI); Moser joined ORI in 2001, and Dick joined in 2007. Both Moser and Dick first came to ORI as employees of the Office of Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance Services — and first became NC State University employees in the mid-’90s.

Kim Dick

Dick was nominated under the criteria of Customer Service, for her dedicated and enthusiastic work in the creation of websites and digital assets during her many years at NC State. Over the past year and a half, Dick has been a “key player or lead” on the conversion or launch of more than a dozen websites.

Kim Dick (right) with Vice Chancellor for Research Mladen Vouk.

“I consistently get positive feedback about her great work from our colleagues,” said Vicky Earp, ORI’s director of marketing and Dick’s supervisor, in her nomination letter. “She is extremely detail-oriented and organized and, above all else, tirelessly positive.”

Of recent note, from late 2021 through 2022, Dick put hundreds of hours into improving the Research Administration and Compliance website — which originally launched during the early months of the pandemic, after Dick led a months-long effort to combine two separate sites, for the Office of Contracts and Grants and the Office of Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance Services, into one — in the course of converting it to the new version of WordPress. The Research Administration and Compliance website has close to 200 pages, and Dick has touched every single one in some fashion.

Ginny Moser

Moser was nominated under the criteria of Outstanding State Government Service, for her commitment to demonstrating excellence both in and out of the workplace, as well as consistently placing others ahead of herself.

Ginny Moser (right) with Vice Chancellor for Research Mladen Vouk.

“She has touched so many people in her tenure at NC State,” said Chris Cunningham, one of Moser’s colleagues and the associate director for research at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education, in his nomination letter. “Ginny really needs no explanation for who she is or what she does — most staff falling under the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) know her well.”

Cunningham collected feedback from eight other colleagues of Moser, across several ORI units, who spoke to her “compassion” and exemplary qualities of a “servant-leader;” her willingness to go “above and beyond” to ensure any “research administration requirements are covered for her clients;” her “patience” and “calm reason in the midst of many unusual, sometimes eleventh-hour requests;” and to her breadth of knowledge — and willingness and ability to share that knowledge in a way that makes often-complex processes easy to understand.

All Nominees

Twelve ORI employees, across nine different centers, institutes, labs and offices, were nominated for this year’s Awards for Excellence. 

The nominees included:

  • Yael Allen, Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance
  • Andy Baltzegar, Genomic Sciences Laboratory
  • Carter Church, Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance
  • Mary Catherine Cole, National Security and Special Research Initiatives
  • Kim Dick, Research Operations and Communications
  • Ryan Hassett, Institute for Transportation Research and Education
  • Emily Keller, Laboratory for Analytic Sciences
  • Ginny Moser, Integrated Support Services Center
  • Barry Nash, North Carolina Sea Grant
  • Kihyun Pyo, Institute for Transportation Research and Education
  • Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, Genetic Engineering and Society Center
  • Matt Schmidt, Laboratory for Analytic Sciences
Front (from left to right): Ginny Moser, Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, Mary Catherine Cole, Emily Keller, Yael Allen, Kim Dick; Back (from left to right): Ryan Bassett, Kihyun Pyo, Andy Baltzegar, Matt Schmidt, Carter Church; Not pictured: Barry Nash.

NC State’s Awards for Excellence are the most prestigious honor bestowed upon nonfaculty employees. The awards, given annually, recognize both SHRA and nonfaculty EHRA employees for accomplishments and contributions that go above and beyond normal job responsibilities. Employees can be nominated under one of six criteria: Customer Service, Efficiency and Innovation, Human Relations, Outstanding State Government Service, Public Service, Safety and Heroism, and Spirit of North Carolina.

As winners of the Awards for Excellence at the college/unit level, Dick and Moser automatically become nominated for the university-level awards, which will be presented on June 14.