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Cindy Salyards |
A workstation specialist in the customer support services division of UNMC’s Information Technology Services, Salyards races between internal medicine offices, research labs and clinics where her behind-the-scenes work is critical to the overall function of the department.
“My goal is to make working with IT as painless and easy as possible,” she said.
But Salyards has done much more than that, say the customers who nominated her for the Chancellor’s Gold ‘U’ Award for January.
“Cindy is always there for the customer,” said one UNMC physician. “She is unfailingly helpful, cheerful, and most importantly, effective in solving problems. What is particularly striking about Cindy’s approach is her focus on results. The problems I ask her to address are usually very complex … and span multiple information systems across the campus and its corporate partners … Cindy somehow finds a way to get the job done.”
Salyards, along with three colleagues, support the information technology infrastructure for department of internal medicine’s 600-plus employees, including the department’s VA Medical Center collaborations. She also supports neurology and the graduate education office, acknowledging, “I wear a lot of hats.”
She also teaches campus network and file management classes every other month — a far cry to her early days of 5 1/4 floppy disks and black IBM screens.
In July, she’ll celebrate 15 years with UNMC, including five with the IT Helpdesk and 10 as a workstation specialist. “I’ve always been about working smarter, helping clients make the best use of what they have and teaching them about the technology without scaring the daylights out of them,” she said. “I think of myself as taking care of people first and the technology comes along on the ride.”
Others agree. “Ms. Salyards was a breath of fresh air when we began setting up our laboratory space in Wittson Hall,” one researcher said. “We had no computer or Internet access … and within a day, she had everything sized up and the orders placed. … It is obvious she cares about her job, her customers and UNMC.”
The Lincoln, Neb., native earned a bachelor’s degree in math and education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before marrying, moving to Omaha and landing a data processing job at Mutual of Omaha, where she said “computers found me.”
She is rewarded daily, she said, by satisfied customers and seeing “how the academic, clinical and research pieces all fit together.”
She also enjoys the challenges and fast paced nature of her job noting, “there’s not much time for sitting down.”
Salyards is not afraid to tackle technology’s most complex problems and often is seen dashing about campus, or to and from the VA, carrying computer keyboards and hardware.
“If you don’t get your hands dirty you’ll never figure it out,” she said. “That’s why I’m surrounded by computers.”
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Down the road she hopes to begin a master’s degree, but, for now, she’s focused on her customers. “This little box on my waist runs my life,” she said, referring to the pager that acts as her client’s technology lifeline. “My day plans me.”
Whatever the day brings, she takes great pride in “making technology work the way people think it should” and doesn’t sidestep a tough assignment. “I’m willing to take on whatever is tossed my way,” she said.
Outside the office, when the pager is quiet, she cheers on Creighton basketball, roots for the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, is active with her church and listens to her musician husband on keyboard and her son on drums.