Pitt-Bradford's Graham is Recipient of Chancellor's Award for Staff Excellence

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg has selected Christina Graham of Bradford as a recipient of the 2012 Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence in Service to the University.

Graham is director of student activities at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

She is one of four staff members university-wide to receive the award this year, which was created to recognize staff members who make a significant impact on the university through their commitment and performance.

The Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence is the highest honor a staff member can receive. Graham will be recognized by Dr. Livingston Alexander, president of Pitt-Bradford, during honors convocation Friday at the university. She was also recognized at the University of Pittsburgh Honors Convocation held earlier this year.

In his letter of congratulations, Nordenberg cited many letters received from former students supporting her nomination.

“She worked twelve hours a day and most weekends,” wrote Amy McCoy, a 2008 graduate who now serves as coordinator of special events at the University of South Carolina. “She lived to help her students succeed in life and that is exactly what she did for me.”

Nordenberg said that Pete Buchheit, director of facilities at Pitt-Bradford and a member of the selection committee, told his fellow committee members how Graham quietly gets done what needs to get done with the wellbeing of students at the forefront of her mind.

Buchheit cited an example flooding that required alternative housing to be found for 370 students and how Graham stayed with them overnight in the Frame-Westerberg Commons.

“Not only was the committee impressed with your dedication, but so too, was this Chancellor,” Nordenberg wrote.

Graham is the advisor for the Student Government Association, Student Activities Council and the National Society of Leadership and Success. She organizes the annual Movin’ On New Student Orientation, oversees spending for more than 50 student clubs and organizations on campus, sits on the Cultural Festival Committee, teaches a freshman seminar class focused on leadership development and is president of the Staff Association.

In 2008, she was named Outstanding Professional at the National Association for Campus Activities Mid America Awards. In the same year, Pitt-Bradford was one of five colleges nationwide nominated for Campus Activities Magazine’s Campus of the Year Award.

Graham joined Pitt-Bradford in 2002. Prior to that, she was a program coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh and assistant director of student activities at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.

She holds a Master of Arts degree in student affairs of higher education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

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