Congratulations to Catherine Beaver, Dean's Pillar of Excellence Award Winner

The Duke English Department's business manager, Catherine Beaver, is one of four Trinity College of Arts & Sciences staff members to receive the Dean's Pillar of Excellence Award.  The Pillar of Excellence Award was established in 2017 to encourage and acknowledge staff members dedicated to the Duke Community.   

Honorees display a commitment to service, initiative, leadership, increased efficiency, enthusiasm, collaboration, mentoring, or diversity.  Dean Valerie S. Ashby, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, emphasized the importance of these contributions in her announcement of this year's winners. 

"Recognition of these significant contributions feels especially important this year, as all staff were called upon to help keep our students learning and our research moving forward despite a global pandemic. We are truly grateful for their work, and for your ongoing support of a culture that lifts up and celebrates accomplishments like these." – Dean Ashby 

The colleagues who nominated Catherine Beaver for this award shared these words about our beloved business manager in their nomination: 

"Catherine is indispensable to our department and to Duke as a whole in part because of her extraordinary knowledge of Duke and its process, her meticulous record-keeping, her discretion, and her commitment to her job. However, Catherine's importance to the department is, even more, a function of her ability to bring out the best in everyone—faculty and staff—and to do so in a respectful, calming and non-confrontational way. I cannot stress enough how extremely helpful I found Catherine's continued encouragement that I first listen closely to each person involved [in a situation] … and consider how the situation likely appears to them, which then allows me to determine how best to phrase suggestions—or to make hard decisions—in ways that respect the other person's perspective and dignity." - Duke English Department 

On behalf of the Duke English Department, we would like to congratulate Catherine Beaver on receiving this honor and thank her for all that she does for the department and Duke University. We are fortunate to have her as a leading part of Duke English.