Students honor Cathy Donaldson as outstanding staff

Cathy Donaldson

The UAF student government organization chose Cathy Donaldson for its Staff of the Year Award.

Donaldson is the academic and research staff member for the School of Natural Resources and Extension. She helps students resolve issues, such as finding someone to sign paperwork, proctoring tests, connecting them with an advisor or working through many other issues. She has also filled in as a recruiter at various events and works with UAF recruiters on answering questions about the natural resources and environment programs.

Sierra von Hafften nominated Donaldson for the award from the Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A student senator, von Hafften said she thought of Donaldson because the award is for someone who makes a difference in students’ lives.

“She is extremely helpful and willing to work with students,” she said. Von Hafften said she has learning disabilities and Donaldson has worked with her on exams and has proctored exams for other students who miss exams because of illness.

Von Hafften is from Anchorage and expects to graduate a year from now. She said she switched from geological engineering to the natural resources and the environment major, in part, because of the helpfulness of faculty and of Donaldson.

“She is really nice and very welcoming,” she said. “It’s a very welcoming department.”

Sara Church, who is finishing up her junior year, said Donaldson did a great job communicating with students and helping them get paperwork together for the NRM 290 field trip she took last year. Donaldson regularly forwards job and internship opportunities to students, and Church applied for one of those internships and received it. The ongoing internship is with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Donaldson also proctored exams for two distance-delivered natural resources management classes she took that were taught from Palmer by former Professor Norm Harris.

Donaldson said she is humbled by the award because she knows other great staff at UAF. She enjoys helping students and working with the school’s faculty. “Everybody cares about what’s best for the students,” she said.

Donaldson has been with the school since January of 2016. She has a master’s degree in water resources from University of California Davis and worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for several years as a wildlife biologist in the endangered species area.

She was recognized at the student awards breakfast on April 27.