Seeking nominations for the 2026 Administrative Improvement Award

The Administrative Improvement Awards recognize efforts that improve customer service, processes, effectiveness, or efficiency of administrative services, saving time or costs, improving service delivery, or providing other benefits.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2026 Administrative Improvements Awards, sponsored by the Office of Finance and Administration. Nominations must be submitted by Sunday, Feb. 15.

"It is important to recognize the outstanding work happening in the administrative functions across campus," Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Rob Cramer said. "For over a decade, the Administrative Improvement Awards have celebrated employees and their exceptional contributions to increase operational excellence at UW-Madison."

The Administrative Improvement Awards recognize efforts that improve customer service, processes, effectiveness, or efficiency of administrative services, saving time or costs, improving service delivery, or providing other benefits.

Recipient awards

Individuals and teams will receive a certificate at the Awards Ceremony, hosted on April 9.

Teams that receive an award will be provided $10,000 in funding support to continue their project if there are additional phases, based on approval of the review committee. Individuals who receive an award will receive a $2,000 lump sum in their payroll.

Eligibility Criteria

All current employees, including student employees, are eligible for the award and can be nominated as an individual or a team. Anyone associated with UW-Madison may submit a nomination. Nominated projects do not need a formal charter.

More information about the awards, nomination process, and celebration ceremony can be found at finadmin.wisc.edu/aia. Questions about the Administrative Improvement Award can be sent to [email protected].

Past recipients

Below are past recipients and projects that have made a positive impact on our mission and received an administrative improvement award.

Campus AED Program

Jeffrey Schiller, Isabel Winter

Prior to the Campus AED Program, campus units were responsible for procuring and maintaining their own AEDs. This led to a large disparity of where AEDs were placed and the types purchased. The Fire and Life Safety unit worked to standardize the AED program at UW-Madison. This move has significantly improved emergency preparedness and safety. This simple yet impactful change has cut annual maintenance costs by 20 percent while ensuring equipment is well maintained and readily available.

FAFSA Simplification Project

Rebecca Adams, Karie Cunningham, Joselyn Diaz, Eric Gentz, Chris Lopac, Kristen McRoberts, Stevi Parmentier, Nicole Schumacher, Kasie Strahl, Karla Weber, Katy Weisenburger, Alex White, Pa Houa Xiong

The FAFSA Simplification Project task force developed and implemented new processes to adapt to the delayed availability of FAFSA application data. The task force established student-centered solutions to mitigate disruption for students and as of January 2025, UW-Madison provided over 30,000 financial aid offers to students for the 2024-25 aid year. To launch the 2025-26 FAFSA form, the U.S. Department of Education introduced a new process and UW-Madison was selected to play a key role in beta testing and resolving issues with FAFSA before it was available to all students and contributors.

Low-Code Solution for Online Position Justification

Lauren Bowers, Adam Fermanich, Wendy Gordon, Jeanne Hains, Joel Herron, Matt Merrill, Cassie Stauber

To streamline the hiring approval process under the UW System's three-year hiring cap, UW-Madison replaced paper forms with a digital solution using Betty Blocks, a low-code platform. This new system simplifies approvals, reduces processing time from five days to one, and improves efficiency across schools, colleges, and divisions. Since its launch in November 2024, it has been used 262 times with positive feedback. Ongoing improvements are enhancing flexibility and discussions are underway to expand its use across other Universities of Wisconsin schools. …