Christina Hoyt, community landscape specialist for the Nebraska Forest Service and Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, on June 3 received IANR’s Outstanding Employee Award for the second quarter 2013, for going above and beyond job responsibilities.
Since joining IANR in 2004, Hoyt’s friendly and positive demeanor has inspired both internal and external team members to work together harder, nominators write. She “deals splendidly with the public, sharing knowledge in the teachable moments that come about during her work” and excels in interacting with children, “helping them to find the magic she sees in the natural world.”
In recent years Hoyt volunteered to coordinate duties for Project Learning Tree and Project Wet, which required additional training and effort to become certified. Nominators wrote that Hoyt kept the initiatives funded and on track, despite staff turnover, miscellaneous funding sources and other hurdles.
Nominators also wrote that Hoyt volunteered for training “in the very detailed hard science” including stormwater drainage, horticulture and botany, and of Nebraska Department of Roads requirements for grant funding, while verifying accounting accuracy for massive public grant projects. She also successfully works on appropriate plant selection and aesthetically pleasing designs in several simultaneous landscape-oriented projects statewide.
Award recipients receive cash awards and certificates. Application materials for these and other IANR awards are at ianr.unl.edu/staff-awards.