Wingate receives Vice Chancellor’s Award for administrative services

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Kathy Wingate, 806-677-5600, kwingate@ag.tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION – Kathy Wingate, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research administrative services officer in Amarillo, was honored with the Texas A&M AgriLife Vice Chancellor’s Award of Excellence in the Business and Operational Staff category.

Established in 1980, this awards program recognizes the commitment and outstanding contributions of faculty and staff across Texas A&M AgriLife. The award was presented Jan. 6 at the 2015 Vice Chancellor’s Awards in Excellenceceremony in College Station.

Wingate was cited for providing outstanding service in business administration for 20 years at Amarillo. She supervises six support staff and coordinates business operations for the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Centers at Amarillo and Vernon. Together these two centers have 25 research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service faculty and more than 75 support staff.

In her position, she maintains detailed accounting records, trains, informs and has interaction with both AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension faculty members at the Amarillo and Vernon centers. She manages grant funding expenditures and staff hiring for these faculty members.

On a broader scale, Wingate has organized and conducted two semi-annual Off-Campus Business Administrators training conferences in College Station. She created the agenda in consultation with peers at other AgriLife centers and arranged for guest speakers from Administrative Services, Sponsored Research Services and elsewhere to give seminars on a variety of topics encountered by off-campus business administrators.

Her nomination said, “Mrs. Wingate’s expertise and knowledge are well known among the other Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension centers and at Texas A&M AgriLife Administrative Service. She is highly recognized as being the ‘best of the best’ in her position, supplying her in-depth knowledge, creativity and strict adherence to Texas A&M AgriLife policies and procedures.”

Because of this level of confidence, the nomination stated, the Amarillo Research and Extension Center is often used to “pilot” new administrative services programs, including the barcode inventory system, TimeTraq and the state procurement card for purchasing.

Wingate served on the Request for Proposal evaluation team for the document imaging and management system, worked with the Laserfiche implementation team, provided input on a new policy related to changes in processes for recruiting file management and retention prior to the rollout to other units and co-moderated the 2006 Support Staff Symposium discussion luncheon during the Texas A&M Agriculture Conference.

“These are just a few examples of her entrusted leadership role among all the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension centers statewide,” the nomination stated. “Mrs. Wingate’s in-depth knowledge and work ethic are an outstanding example for everyone to strive to achieve.”

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