On the last Wednesday of this past February, faculty and staff throughout the college of LAS gathered at the I Hotel and Conference Center to celebrate recent awardees of the LAS staff and academic professional awards.
Among the awardees was Emily Lange, who has been employed in the Department of Mathematics since 2019. Lange currently serves as the department’s assistant director of human resources, and she is a recipient of the 2023–2024 LAS Staff Award, established to recognize individuals or their outstanding contributions to the college.
In her role, she develops and oversees hiring activities for all academic professionals, civil service, and academic hourly positions; this includes developing job descriptions, organizing and training search committees, facilitating interview and candidate selection processes, and providing onboarding support to newly hired members of the department. Lange manages H-1 visa and green card requests, working closely with International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) to assist our international students and faculty members comply with federal, state, and university regulations. She is also the department’s primary contact regarding employee benefits and payroll processing.
For a time, however, Lange wore many hats in the department, filling in where needed as longtime veterans in the department retired early in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past five years, she’s become the go-to person to help solve the most complex problems, according to her nominators.
Nominators described Lange generally as “a professional who is always willing to take away from her own time to assist a colleague,” noting numerous instances of times that she had gone to extraordinary lengths to help people resolve issues with their job appointments. Letters to the selection committee praised her positive attitude and caring manner that have had a positive impact on the overall climate of the department. As some put it, Emily’s work proves crucial to the overall efficacy of student success initiatives like the Math Merit Program or Mathematics & Statistics Student Support Center.
Lange’s award marks the is fourth occasion in three years where a mathematics employee has been honored with a prestigious LAS staff or academic professional award.