ICS News Archive

Jodi MacGregor receives first Jim McKenzie ICS Staff Leadership Award

ICS Dean Marios Papaefthymiou presents the Jim McKenzie ICS Staff Leadership Award to Jodi MacGregor.

Jodi MacGregor, accounts payable manager for the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, was honored with the first Jim McKenzie ICS Staff Leadership Award during a special reception on June 6, 2017. The new Dean’s Office award, in memory of the late ICS Assistant Dean Jim McKenzie’s lasting contributions to the school, will honor an outstanding ICS staff member annually who leads and inspires others, influences without authority and serves as a “champion for staff.”

“Jim was such a respected leader and mentor that I knew whoever received this award was going to be ‘over the moon’ excited,” said MacGregor. “When the announcement was made, I was so focused on seeing the reaction of the person receiving the award that I didn’t hear my name. Then when I finally realized that everyone was looking at me, and it was my name they announced, I was overwhelmed.”

McKenzie, who passed away last year, was a highly valuable and respected colleague who believed, first and foremost, that in order to build a better workplace, you must always invest in your people. Thanks to MacGregor’s bold and creative leadership, the same values that McKenzie strove to instill will continue to empower others to achieve results with excellence, professionalism and integrity.

“I am profoundly grateful to those who nominated me,” said MacGregor. “It is such an honor to be the first recipient of such a special and meaningful award; I am still on cloud nine!”

According to the award committee, who received five nominations, MacGregor rose to the top because she:

• Is a poster child for being a team player, and is interested in making processes smoother for everyone;
• Identifies solutions to make what might be a “No” into “Let’s try and figure out how we can get this to work”;
• Fosters an atmosphere of collaboration and creativity;
• Takes the time to personally help anyone in need of clarification; and
• Embodies the UCI mission about building a better workplace by investing in people and creating an atmosphere of joy.