Department of Human Resources

2006-2007 OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD

Sara Hammer
Continuous Service Award

Many of our award winners have unusual breadth in their job duties, but probably none more than Sara Hammer. For the past several years, the Medical School has been the center for most of the autopsies performed for St. Louis County. This added an entirely new set of tasks – one we can safely say is not in most Administrative Assistant job descriptions here at UMD. With extraordinary professionalism, Sara assists funeral home and law enforcement personnel with the delivery and pick-up of the bodies, and communicates vital information between the pathologists performing the autopsies, St. Louis County law enforcement, families of the deceased and health care professionals.

Behind every new technology advancement is a staff member keeping everything moving along. When the Medical School switched from 35mm slide presentations to PowerPoint lectures, the task of converting thousands of pathology images and text slides fell to Sara, who accomplished it cheerfully, with speed and professionalism – and then helped the faculty learn how to create, modify and edit those presentations.

Sara also handles research budget and grant duties for her faculty, who affirm that her performance in all has been nothing less than superb.