“Elle has gone above and beyond the call of duty in her work. More than just managing grant technicalities, she has spent time patiently guiding me about procedures and regulations as well as navigating relationships between UMBC and the agency funding my project. In addition, Elle graciously co-delivered a workshop for my students in my graduate seminar about how to plan a project budget, which they found both informative and engaging, with several noting that they came to understand budget planning for the first time.”

~ Dr. Francis Hult, Professor, Department of Education

“As a community-engaged scholar that works on projects that are not your typical research project, I appreciate that Elle's response to roadblocks in my projects is ‘We will find a way to make this work.’"

~ Dr. Felipe Filomeno, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, and Associate Director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship

“One salient moment reflecting the way Elle seems guided by a higher sense of self as she fosters teamwork and excellence as a UMBC Staff person was reflected as she had to advocate for our co-Principal Investigator at another institution. We suspected that our colleague’s subaward was dramatically under-budget because it was carelessly put together. Our colleague is an untenured Black woman teaching in a southern R1 university. When we realized that her level of effort was calculated at .06%, despite the project being one that would support educators during a year-long professional learning program, Elle immediately understood the potential racial dynamics. She did not allow their budget office to just say ‘oh well’ and brainstormed solutions with them by building relationships grounded in compassion and humility to adequately compensate our collaborator, which involved asking the grant sponsor for permission to reallocate budget funds. Throughout the whole situation, Elle maintained a high level of professionalism and used her professional knowledge and institutional position to advocate for our colleague with a gracious and equity-minded spirit. In that moment, she showed herself as a true collaborator."

~ Dr. Keisha Allen, Assistant Professor, Department of Education

"Yet again, this has been a year of many changes, which have created the need to readjust our workflow and business processes once again. Elle has lead the way in not only developing new processes, but also acting as a liaison between MIPAR and central offices to troubleshoot obstacles and figure out a way to make a process work for us. Because of some of Elle’s visualization, we have been able to streamline some of our tasks and become more productive. She is always brainstorming ways to improve MIPAR’s services. Any time I have “raised the bar” Elle has risen to the challenge. She has done a remarkable job, especially with the post award administration of some of our more difficult projects and with mentoring and training staff. Elle is phenomenal in every way. In referring back to her setting expectation meeting at the beginning of the year, Elle has not only met all goals she and I outlined for her, she has exceeded them by vast margins. Elle is a champion."

~ Ms Deb Geare, Associate Director of Research Administration for the Center for Social Science Scholarship (and direct supervisor)

"From formal positions with the LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association to being the person that all LGBTQ folks can flock to when they first start UMBC and need help navigating the not-so-intuitive system that exists, Elle is an asset to our community. She is a mentor, a friend, an ally, and--when need be--a fire starter who can get things done efficiently and effectively. Her work often goes unnoticed by virtue of her expertise in logistics and planning (AKA the stuff that most people don't want to do), but nonetheless her work and her contributions deserve recognition."

~ Amelia Meman, MSW, Assistant Director, Women's Center