Distinguished Staff Awards are given to staff who have made outstanding contributions to the mission of their unit or the University. They respond creatively to challenges, maintain the highest standards in their work, establish productive working relationships, and promote a respectful and supportive workplace. Awardees receive $5,000.

Cynthia Fugate - UW Bothell Library

Back in 1990, Cynthia Fugate applied to be the founding campus librarian at the UW Bothell because she thought it would be fun to do something entirely new. After all, she says, it's not often in a library —a historical institution if there ever was one — that you get to start from scratch.

But she found the real inspiration for her work in Bothell one Saturday morning while covering the Reference Desk. "I was talking to one of the students who was working on a project," Fugate recalls. "She seemed not to be following me, so I said, 'Are you okay?' She said she was tired, that she had just gotten off after working a night shift. She'd come to the library for a couple of hours, after which she was going home so that she and her husband could take their kids to the zoo. Then she was going back to work.

Cynthia Fugate

"Well, it was one of those moments," Fugate says. "I thought, if she cares enough about her education to make that kind of effort, it's a privilege for me to serve her."

That attitude of service, Fugate's colleagues say, pervades her work. Reference Librarian Sarah Leadley pointed out that the needs of Bothell's place -bound students "often require rethinking traditional support services. As part of her strong public service philosophy and commitment to serving students, Cynthia is very responsive to the needs of the campus community and welcomes suggestions from faculty, students and staff." Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Stanley Slater said that in serving her demanding clientele, Fugate has "the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job and the humor of Rosie O'Donnell."

Fugate waves away the praise with the same hearty laugh that punctuates much of her conversation. "In my kind of job you don't do anything by yourself," she says. "The staff I work with closely are equally responsible for any success I've had."

But her denial only inspires another compliment — from Deputy Director of Libraries Charles Chamberlin, who says of Fugate: "She has accomplished what I believe is one of the most important responsibilities of a leader — she has attracted, nurtured and retained a truly outstanding staff who shares her dedication and work ethic."

Perhaps some of Fugate's dedication comes from her own experience of returning to school after time spent in the outside world. A Greek major in her undergraduate years, she says she "kicked around doing a variety of things" before remembering what a medieval history professor had suggested to her — that she should be a librarian.

"I told him, 'I don't want to check books out all day.' But he said that's not what librarians do," Fugate says. And when she explored the field she discovered that it was appealing to her. She went to library school at the University of Illinois, then sought out a job in the Pacific Northwest because she liked the area. She spent nine years at Suzzallo — first as a cataloger and then as government documents librarian — before her move to Bothell.

Checking books out all day is certainly not what she does at Bothell, where librarians are involved in all aspects of the curriculum. As Fugate explains it, librarians collaborate with faculty to integrate information literacy into courses across the curriculum, and they frequently visit classes, hold office hours and in other ways make sure the students are "information literate."

This ability to think beyond the usual role of a librarian has led to an expansion of responsibilities for Fugate. While retaining the title of campus librarian, she has also become the director of academic services at Bothell, supervising such units as the Writing Center, the Quantitative Skills Center and Information Systems. And she's been deeply involved in the planning of Bothell's move to a new campus this fall — a move that will put the library right in the center of UWB's co-location with Cascadia Community College.

Fugate is looking forward to the move with her characteristic enthusiasm, but there's one thing she wants to stay the same. "I want us to keep the sense of shared purpose and community," she says. "What we're really doing is shaping services to help people succeed."

Nancy Wick, University Week

Distinguished Staff Awards: Kellus Stone - Industrial Engineering Dave Hurley - Biology Program Mahmoud Zubeidi - Copy Services Supervisor Laura Robinson - Rehabilitation Medicine