My sister says she's embarrassed to brag about herself, but as her older brother I have no qualms about either bragging about or embarrassing her. The following is the text of an e-mail sent around her division by her supervisor, and it is posted here with her permission.
I am pleased to announce that Jenni Heaton-Amrhein has been selected as the recipient of an honorable mention for this year's Virginia Hart Special Recognition Award. She will be recognized for this award at a ceremony at the capital on May 20th.
Virginia Hart was the first woman to serve on a Governor's cabinet in Wisconsin. During her public service career, she served as Secretary of the Department of Regulation and Licensing, Chairperson of the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations Commission, and Chairperson of the Labor and Industry Review Commission. When Virginia Hart retired, her friends and colleagues established an award fund in her honor to recognize "exemplary performance and contributions to the citizens of the state" by women in state government. The award recognizes the "unsung heroines" of state service - women whose contributions to clients, co-worker or the public may not be highly visible, but are substantial.
I would like to quote a portion of the application submitted to nominate Jenni for this award, as I think it does a good job of summarizing why Jenni received this award.
"Jennifer is an amazing government employee who freely gives her time, energy and vast talents to improving state government and helping our regulated industries. She is held in high esteem by her coworkers, peers and managers. She consistently produces high quality work, and effectively gets things done, whether it is completing a task or developing a complex conceptual model. She is continually looking for ways to improve the service we provide as government programs and has never passed up a challenge for improvements, whether personal, professional or programmatically. Jennifer truly personifies the very best that Wisconsin Government has to offer and we hope that you will seriously consider her for this award."
Congratulations Jenni!
I agree that the award is well-deserved! She learned it all from me, of course, by watching me carefully and then doing the opposite.
