Lorie Mick named the UIS Employee of the Month for April 2020

Lorie Mick has been named the University of Illinois Springfield Employee of the Month for April 2020. Mick is a staff nurse II and associate director of Health Services.

Mick’s nominator describes her as a “huge asset” to the department, noting that she has many roles in the department, besides being a nurse.

“She also is the manager of the clinic, she orders supplies, she runs lab tests and cleans areas that need to be tended to,” her nominator said. “Lorie goes the extra mile to make sure the clinic is run perfectly. She often arrives early for work and stays late to make sure the day’s duties are complete.”

Her supervisor says, over the past year, Mick has put significant effort into making UIS Health Services work better for students.

“She has coordinated efforts to allow the clinic to provide common prescriptions on-site, so that students can get a diagnosis and treatment for many common health issues immediately without having to leave campus,” said Mark Dochterman, her supervisor. “She has worked to improve the quality and types of testing that the clinic can do in order to reduce the time a student has to wait in order to get their results.”

She has also worked with staff to be open late on Wednesdays, worked with an outside vendor to set up online appointment scheduling and has streamlined communication about immunization requirements for incoming students. She also serves on several committees on campus.

“There are case after case of situations where Lorie (or one of her staff members under Lorie’s direction) go the extra mile for students,” Dochterman said. “Perhaps it’s tracking down a local provider that will accept a student’s insurance. Perhaps it’s working to find the cheapest price on an otherwise expensive prescription for students. Perhaps it’s working a student without an appointment into the day’s schedule because they need to be seen. These are commonplace efforts on the part of the office, and this is part of the culture of the place in large part because Lorie doesn’t see this as going the extra mile. She sees it as doing the work.”

Mick regularly mentors new employees, students and graduate assistants to the department and is widely respected by her supervisor, co-workers and people on campus.

“I never have to worry about Lorie’s dependability,” Dochterman said. “She is generally the first person in the clinic and the last person to leave. Lorie keeps the needs to students first and continues to chip away at the administrative work until it gets complete. Her ability to manage these two divergent pulls on her time is commendable.”