Hoeven Recognizes State Employees For Excellence In Public Service

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven yesterday presented the Governor's Award for Excellence in Public Service to six state employees who were recognized for their dedication and contributions to the people of North Dakota. The awards were presented during a luncheon at the Capitol Building in Bismarck, kicking off State Employee Recognition Week. Among the winners were:

• Gerald Newborg is the state archivist for the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Throughout the past year, he has been involved in planning and overseeing the archives addition to the North Dakota Heritage Center, supervised the development of the North Dakota Veterans Oral History project, coordinated the Governor's Oral History Project, and helped secure a $1 million grant to plan and organize the digitization of records for North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
• Heather Raschke is a senior programmer and analyst with Job Service North Dakota in Bismarck. Two of her most high-profile achievements this past year include the management of the agency's conversion from a mainframe employment and training system to a Web-based system, and the procurement and planning of the agency's Unemployment Insurance modernization project.
• Pam Zimbelman is a communication specialist supervisor in the Facilities Department at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks. She oversees a department that is operational 24 hours a day and seven days a week, receiving and processing service requests from all UND maintenance personnel, as well as the general university community.
• Mary Jaster has been an administrative assistant with the North Dakota Developmental Center in Grafton for almost 30 years. She has been providing information processing support to the center since the appearance of Apple computers, and was promoted to direct the center's centralized services, developing processes and procedures such as the agency's on-line support plan processes, reducing service delivery from six weeks to less than 10 working days.
• Karen Roesch is a custodian with Facility Management at North Dakota State University in Fargo. She is responsible for the campus' new Research and Technology Park and was instrumental in preparing the Park's newest building, Research 2, for its new occupants prior to its opening, including the finishing of floors in this 75,000-square-foot facility.
• Matthew Walker is a plumber with Facilities Maintenance at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo. He is the main maintenance person for NDSU, and this past year, completed important work at the university's downtown Fargo campus.