The Board of Regents is pleased to recognize Olivia Whittaker, Assistant Registrar of Academic Support Services, at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Olivia joined the Registrar staff in the fall of 2019 as Graduation Coordinator. Her impressive work ethic, attention to detail, reliability, and desire to serve students have earned her two promotions since then, first to the position of Coordinator of Academic Support Services and, on July 1 of this year, to her current position.
As Assistant Registrar, Olivia manages all aspects of degree audit, including updating curriculum requirements; training new advisors and department chairs to effectively use degree audit; and ensuring that requirements are clear and easy to understand as students work toward graduation. She also develops reports and electronic forms relating to academic records, registration, curriculum management, and degree planning; and creates reports and dashboards using Tableau software.
Among her notable accomplishments are updating more than 130 programs in the degree audit to reflect changes to UNK’s general studies program; creating electronic forms to improve ease of access; developing an online Bridge training for new academic advisors; and, in May 2022, helping one particular student earn a diploma – a student who attended Kearney State College in the 1970s but was unable to finish her degree at that time.
“Olivia truly desires to do more,” says her supervisor, UNK Registrar Lisa Neal. “Whether proposing new policies to assist students, learning new software to improve reporting, or building electronic forms to improve the student experience, she is up for the challenge.” Olivia shares her talents through active involvement in Staff Senate and Leadership UNK, and is a past recipient of the UNK Employee Achievement Award.
Please join me in congratulating Olivia Whittaker for work above and beyond the ordinary for the benefit of the University of Nebraska and the students we serve. With her today are her parents, Jon and Shelly Whittaker.