November EOM is Rowena Vail

When Rowena Vail walked into the Public Affairs Center restaurant on Monday afternoon, November 17, she thought she was coming to a meeting about budgets. Instead, Rowena was surprised by numerous coworkers and friends who gathered to celebrate her being named November Employee of the Month.

Rowena held a position in the cataloging department of the library at UIS in her earlier years, before leaving to pursue other job opportunities. She then came back to UIS to work for the Capital Scholars honors program a year and a half after it began.

Rowena now serves as the assistant to the director of the honors program.

"She jumped right in, she became indispensable immediately, the students loved her immediately, and we came to depend on her absolutely because she is extremely dependable," said Karen Moranski, associate vice chancellor for Undergraduate Education and associate professor of English. "And over the years, she has continued that service to the Capital Scholars honors program."

"So many of you know her through the honors program and others in other ways, but she is a tremendous asset to UIS," Karen added.

Frank Moscardelli is EOM for October

Frank Moscardelli's wife, parents and son joined a group of his coworkers on Monday morning, October 20, to surprise him with a celebration in the Public Affairs Center restaurant.

Frank, grounds worker, was named Employee of the Month for October.

Frank began his career at UIS part-time in 2002 and was hired full-time in 2004, said his supervisor Joan Buckles.

"He was pretty much handed rough conditions ever since he started because he had to finish establishing the LRH landscape, and then he got handed the Quad landscape to establish and now Founders Hall is coming on," Joan said. "But he's done everything very well. He's always open to and willing to do a lot of the little projects going on."

Frank has been involved with planning and implementing the UIS rock garden, Japanese garden and Lee Frost-Kumpf memorial on campus, in addition to taking care of the grounds at the residence halls.

"I'm very fortunate he's willing to do all of this because his area involves the green roof, so he's willing to watch over that too," Joan said with a laugh.

Frank was in disbelief when he walked into his party and very modest about his work.

"Everybody helps out - I can't do it without them, and Joan's a good boss," he said.