Staff Award for Excellence - Michelle Reinhold

Michelle is the role model for exemplary workers! She has been the program coordinator for the Division of Hematology and Oncology's fellowship program for the past 6 years. From day one of starting her position, Michelle has worked to bring our program to a higher level, and she has several qualities that make her outstanding. First, Michelle has a lot of initiative and is very driven. She wants our program to be the best and is constantly looking at ways to bring quality to our program.

Michelle's motivation is also seen throughout all of her daily work. She is very efficient and very organized. I have never had to ask for things twice and all of her work is done timely and rarely does she make mistakes. To be honest, I have never worked with an administrator who cares and works harder than Michelle. She is a model for all employees and deserves to be recognized for her dedication to our fellowship program and to Michigan Medicine.

Finally, Michelle is a very kind person. Over the years that I have worked with her, she has reached out to our fellows on a personal level. She is always there for them should they need someone to talk with no matter what hour of the day. Michelle has also organized baby showers, birthday celebrations, and other small events to support our fellows. She is someone who truly values wellness, which is most appreciated by our entire program.

Michelle is also never satisfied knowing just enough to do her job. She wants to know everything there is to know about how to run a good program and she is constantly reaching out to other programs around the country to garner ideas for our program and to improve her skills and abilities. Moreover, Michelle has the mindset of a teacher and very much appreciates this quality in others. I was most impressed a couple of years ago when we both attended the Annual Oncology Program Directors Meeting in Washington, D.C. and found that Michelle had worked with the meeting staff to organize an entire afternoon session (that she led) with all the the program coordinators who were in session. She called this a "best practice model" session whereby she asked each program to talk about three aspects of their program. At the end of the session, she created a database with contact information so that they would have access to each other's contact information.

In addition to her leadership qualities on a national level, Michelle has been a leader for her fellow program coordinator colleagues at Michigan Medicine. Michelle is no stranger to assisting other coordinators with their programs. She has led a couple of teaching activities over the years for her peers and was recently a "super user" in helping the coordinators set up resident and fellowship applicant interview scheduling.

Michelle's positive attitude and excellent organizational skills allow her to provide outstanding service to our fellowship program applicants. Every year, I send out a survey to the 60 plus individuals that we interview for our training program after the match is completed. I am always thrilled to receive comments from the candidates noting that we are the best in customer service! Moreover, the applicants tell me that Michelle is the most organized coordinator of a program with whom they interviewed. Additionally, they comment on how pleasant she is and how excited she is to be a part of our program. Michelle goes out of her way to make sure every detail is attended to and is always looking at ways to make things better.

Michelle takes on challenges independently in an effort to improve the quality of life of our fellows. For instance, she revamped the on-call system for our fellows where they used to take call before finishing their daily clinics, resulting in a great deal of stress for our learners who were trying to finish their notes and clinical duties. Michelle petitioned the Cancer Center leadership to have a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner take call from 5 PM until 8 PM to allow our fellows time to eat dinner, visit with family, and rest before taking an all-night call. The results were very well received by our fellows and such a quality of life initiative bolstered the morale of our program tremendously.

Michelle has also offered her time to sit on a task force for remote access to conferences for our institutional learners. The Michigan Medicine leadership is requesting that we expand access for educational activities to our house staff who are working off site. Michelle has several ideas on how this can be accomplished and has volunteered to work on a committee the Department of GME to accomplish this goal timely and effectively.