#EdenInspires is an employee recognition program designed to acknowledge our colleagues who go above and beyond their everyday responsibilities and represent the ideals of Eden’s Core Values. We are thrilled to announce the winners of our FY23 first and second quarter #EdenInspires awards.
Sandra Woodson — Adult Services, Day/Employment
Sandra is exceptional at engaging participants and promoting teamwork. Recently, she came up with a brilliant idea to involve participants in a carnival event held at the Schalks Day Center, which was a huge success. We commend Sandra for believing more by thinking outside of the box, and creating a fun environment for staff and participants.
Brittany Bosi, Marie Breden, and Pat Welsh — The Eden School
Brittany, Marie, and Pat did what it takes by providing the highest level of support to our staff and students during their supervisor’s leave of absence. We are immensely grateful to Brittany, Marie, and Pat for their exceptional work and dedication during this time.
Mark Byzewski —Adult Services, Day/Employment
Mark arrives at work every day, prepared and ready to work. He has built strong relationships with the participants and ensures they remain focused on their tasks; all the while being trained on almost every job placement available. In addition, he has stepped up to provide training for new staff at Miele. Mark leads by example and consistently does what it takes in order to exceed expectations.
Courtney Hannah — Adult Services, Day/Employment
Courtney has been recognized by her colleagues for doing what it takes in challenging circumstances. Most recently, Courtney took the initiative to volunteer and retrieve a van while the regular vehicle was being serviced. This ensured that our Eden residents would not be left without transportation. We want to extend our gratitude to Courtney for her unwavering support to our staff and participants.
Akiko Hunter and Elaine Stansen — Adult Services, Day/Employment
Akiko and Elaine are dedicated workers who take great pride in their job. They consistently take the initiative to clean the entire center from top to bottom, making sure that it looks and smells good. Their hard work ensures that our participants have a clean and fresh environment to work in every day.
Nicole Johnson — The Eden School
Nicole did what it takes by helping her lead teacher prepare the classroom for back-to-school night and the pep-rally, and she went above and beyond by hand-making team costumes for the Halloween parade and matching holiday show shirts for staff and students in the early childhood classroom – and managed to do all of this in her free time!
Latricia Karsuah — Adult Services, Residential
Latricia continues to do what it takes daily by providing different teaching techniques to ensure participant success, all the while with a positive outlook. In addition, she is a team player and works together by covering shifts during staff shortages, assisting with medical appointments if her supervisor is unavailable, and providing the best service to Eden’s participants.
Suma Nagaraja — The Eden School
Suma is an amazing teammate who consistently does what it takes for her students and peers. Her dedication and kindness were recently demonstrated when she noticed that one of the students was not eating his lunch. Suma went out of her way to prepare homemade rice for him, which encouraged him to eat school lunch.
Katie Stanavitch — Adult Services, Day/Employment
Katie is known for her diligent efforts in ensuring that participants’ needs are consistently heard and met. This is especially true when it comes to their hygiene and hydration requirements. She is quick to notice and report to other staff members if a participant displays any unusual or precursor behaviors. She has also assisted the clinical team in running pull-out sessions.
Lawrence Stevens — Adult Services, Day/Employment
Lawrence has consistently exemplified Eden’s core values. However, on a specific occasion, Lawrence demonstrated his flexibility and willingness to do what it takes by working an unplanned 8-hour shift until 11 pm, in addition to his regular shift at the Day Program due to staff shortages. This is a perfect example of Lawrence’s dedication to working together.
Dara Blatt, Tanya Collins, Deb Dellasala, Terry Kincs, and Jessica Sferlazza — The Eden School
On a particularly challenging day when there were several staff shortages, these amazing colleagues went above and beyond to help cover and support several classrooms. They demonstrated remarkable flexibility by not only working together but doing what it takes.
Breonka Brooks — Adult Services, Residential
Breonka has consistently worked together with families by accompanying participants to family functions that they would otherwise be unable to attend.
Amanda Edwards — The Eden School
Amanda worked together with staff and families without hesitation by providing much-needed support when her Lead Teacher was unavailable to attend several long-distance doctors’ appointments to support a student.
Denise Scotland — Adult Services, Residential
Denise has consistently supported Hinkle House by working together with staff and families by building a strong rapport with participants to ensure they receive the best possible care. She has taken the time to learn their medical histories and accompanies them to medical appointments to ensure all needs are met.
Margaret Bartuah — Adult Services, Residential
Margaret is an exceptional team member who consistently provides outstanding care to our participants. She goes above and beyond to ensure participants’ needs are met and is always willing to assist in other locations by adjusting her schedule to accommodate the needs of the program. She attends medical appointments and offers her assistance to the supervisor whenever possible. We truly appreciate Margaret’s dedication and hard work.
Kelly Blidi and Hydia Giddens — Adult Services, Day/Employment
While Old Trenton Road day center was preparing to make a huge transition, Kelly and Hydia worked together by coming to work on a Saturday to clean and reorganize workrooms to ensure minimal disruptions for our participants and a successful start to the program the following Monday.
Jordan DeAndrea — The Eden School
Jordan is a great team player who always steps up to help whenever the school team requires an extra hand. He goes above and beyond by canceling his own supervision sessions to ensure that both students and staff receive the support they need. He covers lunches to ensure that staff can take their breaks and volunteers to help transition students with behavioral challenges during dismissal.
Melody Serrata — The Eden School
Melody has worked together by assisting a classroom to communicate via phone with a parent by utilizing her ability to speak multiple languages. Thanks to Melody, we no longer have to rely on email to communicate!
Liberty Snyder — The Eden School
Libby has worked together by volunteering to do bus time during EDP on several occasions with a positive attitude. In addition, she has played a crucial role in keeping student programming and data analysis running smoothly, despite staff shortages. She has graphed for multiple students, and provided support to subs and floaters.
Kaitlyn Connaughton — Outreach
Kaitlyn worked many extra hours researching information for a presentation at the Autism NJ conference. She displayed passion while presenting the information and the ways Eden has applied evidence-based training in our own training.
Congratulations to all our winners, and thank you for all that you do for our participants! Staff can nominate next quarter’s winners on the Eden Staff Matters portal.
