Staff Award for Excellence - Danielle Tindall

Danielle Tindall

Danielle and son Hunter

Financial Business Analyst, Department of Internal Medicine

Nominator, Eric Mullen: "Every Department would be better if they had someone like Danielle. Her no-nonsense approach allows her to learn quickly and get things done. She is eager to absorb information and wants us all to do things the right way, the best way, the most efficient way." 

Work Performance

Danielle Tindall is a Senior Financial Analyst in the Department's Finance group. Danielle is the ultimate team player. She has been with us over 4 years and has learned so much on the job. She works independently very well and is a quick learner. She supports various Department initiatives as well as being the financial contact for Cardiovascular Disease, Nephrology, Infectious Diseases and Geriatrics. There are many projects we take on with no blueprint or best practice. Danielle finds her way and problem solves with the best. In our new model of one-on-one support with a Department Analyst and Division, Danielle has had kudos from two of her Divisions. One Division provided this feedback: “Danielle has been very supportive and we love to call her and bounce ideas off her to get her opinion.”

Danielle is not shy when it comes to sharing her opinion if she thinks it benefit the Department. Her ideas are constructive and beneficial. She has the unique ability to adapt quickly, learn on the fly and get things completed quickly and accurately. Finding someone with those skills is rare and when they are on your team they stand out.

Danielle maintains the gift and endowment database every month and works directly with the Development Office. They have told me that they LOVE working with Danielle. She is a member and supplier of data to the Internal Medicine Space Committee. For the past three years Danielle has participated in the Financial Statement and Budget Meetings with all the Divisions. She always provides valuable feedback and has become a go-to person when we need something done.

Leadership

Danielle works directly with her customers, vendors, other Departments, and Division/Department leaders. We have 2 other analysts that work with Danielle and they have been with us for two years. They look to Danielle for her opinion and draw on her experience.

Danielle has a young son at home and she is able to balance her work and home life very well. Danielle is usually two steps ahead of me and does her work without being asked or prompted. She is someone we can rely on to do a good job and do her part. In 2019, she went on maternity leave. A few weeks before she was scheduled to be out, I asked for a list of her work and wanted to discuss how it should be divided between the people that would cover while she was out. Danielle's response: “It's all set. I met with everyone and took care of it.” The following year, one of our newer analysts was preparing for maternity leave. When I scheduled to meet with her to review work she said, “Danielle and I already met and got it worked out.”

Danielle also manages our annual Internal Control process. She has this nailed down EVERY year. With no direction from anyone, Danielle takes charge with a project plan, meets with Divisions, reviews their data, gives suggestions and files our report with Michigan Medicine Leadership. Danielle gets things done and done well.

Danielle has gained the respect of her colleagues and is becoming a leader within the group. I feel very comfortable asking her to work directly with anyone, knowing that she will do a good job and represent herself and the Department well.

Customer Service

Danielle has a willingness to learn and be independent. She doesn't like to be idle and enjoys working directly with her customers. She expects accountability and ownership on projects and demonstrates the same traits herself.

She has recently worked on a project where she was in charge of ordering a large piece of equipment for our Nephrology partners in the Interventional Nephrology Unit. The vendor has asked for some very unusual terms. Terms that our Purchasing Manager, the University Purchasing Department and I were not comfortable with. She asked me for some advice. By the time I gave the advice and got some background information, she had already talked to the Vendor, talked to Purchasing and was going to talk to the Nephrology customer next. Already on the right path. She was looking out for the University's best interest as well as trying to protect the our customer from a bad warranty and possibly faulty equipment. She takes initiative.

We have a Departmental space committee that reviews all research square footage requests and productivity. There are two aspects to assessing research space: How much federal funding will support a particular lab and how much square footage is the right amount for the funding they have? Two areas of Internal Medicine provide that information. Danielle is in charge of pulling it together and telling the story to Departmental Leaders. She also provides the information to the committee to help support the decisions that are made. The Committee and our Department Administrator lean on Danielle for her analytical support.

Process Improvement

It is difficult to understand all the inner workings of our Department. Many exceptions, clinical work, research, teaching, endowments, etc. Danielle is not shy about getting into the details and understanding it. She is also very practical and thinks of logical problem solving solutions. It's frustrating sometimes because she ALWAYS makes sense but sometimes there are limiting factors that get in the way of sense and logic.

In the past three years, Danielle has improved some of our reporting processes. She has taken a blank slate in some cases and figured out the “best way”:

  • She has streamlined the internal controls process without intervention from others. She has Divisions selected and talking points selected well in advance.She meets with Divisions, provides them binders and guides for them to keep. Her process runs smoothly and is completed in advance of the deadline. Two years ago when she went on maternity leave, her goal was to wrap up ALL internal control meetings and certifications before she had to leave work. She did it.
  • She developed a new report to track Division Chief incentives throughout the year. She works directly with the Divisions for their input to the report. Chief incentives were not tracked throughout the year before Danielle's report.
  • Danielle did a fantastic job of making suggestions regarding Division Chief effort. “How much effort does it take for a Chief to manage a Division?” All Divisions are different. They all have different goals, different programs, varying numbers of faculty. Danielle thought through this and came up with fair and strong recommendations. It was presented to Department Leadership and the reviews and tweaks continue. But it was Danielle's work that started the discussion and gave us something to react to and build upon.