Dr. Chris Marino Receives Tri-County’s Staff Excellence Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8/21/2008
(By Lisa Garrett)
PENDLETON --- Dr. Chris Marino, director of Research and Evaluation at Tri-County Technical College, was honored Thursday (August 21) with the highest award given for staff excellence at the College.
 Dr. Marino, a Sunset resident, received the Presidential Medallion for Staff Excellence at the annual faculty/staff convocation. The medallion, along with a cash award made possible by the Tri-County Technical College Foundation, goes to a person who has demonstrated over and over a strong belief in the purpose and mission of the College.
Dr. Marino joined the Institutional Development Office in 2002 as a Statistical and Research Analyst. Over the years his responsibilities have expanded to include leading the development and implementation of two tremendous college-wide initiatives, Banner, the College’s administrative information software system for students, finance and human resources, and eTC, the College’s web portal.
“Chris provides consistent, quality services to the campus community,” said Sarah Shumpert, director of Instructional Support at the College. “He not only provides accurate and relevant institutional data, to inform college-wide decision-making, but he also endeavors to provide those data in accessible and easy-to-use formats. He is an excellent communicator. The entire eTC Implementation Team applauds the extraordinary leadership of Dr. Chris Marino,” said Shumpert.
“As a member of the eTC implementation team, I experienced Chris’s approach to leadership first hand and was impressed by how his style evolved, becoming ever more aligned with the Learning College philosophy,” said Shumpert. “Using a participatory style, Chris shifted from the center of the initiative to working on the sidelines as a facilitator. This approach yielded a highly effective team whereby the synergy of the group led to a much better product than any single member of the team could have created on his or her own,” said Shumpert.
“Despite daunting technical challenges with the software and myriad details that had to be attended to, we were able to launch the portal in a timely fashion, just six months after starting the project,” added Rebecca Eidson, director of Public Relations and Communications, who also served as a member of the eTC portal implementation team. “Chris handled this on the heels of Banner, another massive software implementation project that spanned more than two years. Chris is the brains behind many projects, several of which don’t pertain to his formal job description. You will never hear him say ‘that’s not my job.’ Chris believes that making Tri-County a better College, regardless of the task, is everyone’s job.”
Dr. Marino and his wife, Dr. Patsy Marie Nix, moved to Sunset from San Francisco, California, where he worked as a usability engineer for the Oracle Corporation. He also has experience in microcomputer support at the University of Georgia’s Department of Psychology. He holds master’s and doctorate degrees in Cognitive Experimental Psychology from the University of Georgia and a bachelor of science in Psychology from Louisiana State. While at UGA, he received the A. S. Edwards Award for outstanding service and achievement. He is a member of the Human Factors Ergonomic Society and the American Psychological Association. He is a graduate of Tri-County’s Master Teacher program. He currently serves as the chair of the Institutional Effectiveness Coordinators Peer Group for the SC Technical College System. |
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