Thomas E. Lifka Staff Excellence Award

Through the generosity of Dr. Thomas E. Lifka and the enthusiastic support of the UCLA Division of Social Sciences, we are pleased to announce the Thomas E. Lifka Staff Excellence Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize and honor Social Sciences division staff members who have demonstrated exceptional performance and service during the preceding academic year or contributed to a career of distinguished service within the Social Sciences Division. The Thomas E. Lifka Staff Excellence Award will officially be presented on an annual basis at the Division’s staff recognition event in the fall.

There will be one primary award of $5,000 given to the one employee who most demonstrated exceptional performance and service. There will be two additional awards for $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, given to the runner up nominees. Note: Since the maximum award the division can give employees is $5,000 within the fiscal year, the main awardee will not be eligible to receive the STAR Award, but the two runner up awardees will receive the Lifka Staff Excellence Award in addition to the STAR Award.

The nomination must be accompanied with specific examples of excellence and service that are above and beyond what is required of their job duties. Some examples include a history of exceeding productivity, recognized exceptional customer service, and/or outstanding creativity and dedication. No more than one nomination may be submitted by any unit.

Nominees will have demonstrated and sustained exceptional performance that consistently exceeds goals and work expectations in quantity and/or quality in the following areas:

• Creativity: One-time innovation or creation that results in time/dollar savings, revenue enhancement, and productivity improvement; and/or ongoing innovative/creative activities that benefit organizational systems, protocols, and/or procedures.
• Organizational abilities: Exhibiting extraordinary skills in leadership resulting in the accomplishment of significant departmental or divisional goals and objectives; effective project management, which could include developing a project and/or implementing a project with substantial success; and/or demonstrating organizational capability leading to a greater level of effectiveness.
• Work success: Significantly exceeding productivity, customer service, quality of care or similar goals, including demonstrating superior interactions with managers, peers, supervisors, subordinates, the University community, and/or clients and customers served
• Teamwork: Acting as an exceptionally effective and cooperative team member or team leader for a team that has significantly exceeded the goals/objectives of the department/unit.

The nominated staff member must be an active employee in one of the units of the Social Sciences Division and must have been in this same position within the unit for a minimum of 12 months at the time of nomination. As the award will be paid out via the Staff Appreciation and Recognition (STAR) plan, only staff members who qualify for STAR awards may receive this award. Awardees must also understand that this payment will reduce the STAR program cap for the year.

In 1982, Tom came to UCLA as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Academic Services. Eventually, Tom was promoted to Associate Vice Chancellor, and at the time of his retirement in June 2011, he headed a division comprised of the following departments: Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools, Financial Aid Office, Registrar’s Office, Student Loan Services, Career Center, and International Student Services. In addition, Tom held responsibility for student computer systems and, in partnership with the Office of Administrative Information Systems, oversaw the development of computer support from its infancy to the large, complex systems of the 21st century. An interesting aspect of Tom’s job was for almost 30 years chairing a small committee charged with reviewing and admitting UCLA’s student-athletes. Tom likes to joke that in this capacity, he made a personal contribution to the winning of more than 50 NCAA championships for UCLA.

Since retirement in 2011, Tom has volunteered as a docent at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, where he also lectures on Holocaust history. He sits on the UCLA Social Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board. Improving as a proficient amateur painter continues to be Tom’s favorite avocation.