Billie Nagelschmidt was honored for enhancing the reputation of the University and the three areas in which she worked during her 30 years of service.
During 15 years with the business school, she served as “principal operating officer for the dean, which meant she ran the place,” one faculty member noted.
Her next assignment was as administrative manager of the School of Medicine’s Rural Practice Project. During the five-year project, she helped establish community-oriented group medical practices in 14 remote locations around the nation. She won the admiration of her supervisor, who said she was “an ideal combination of competence, initiative, diplomacy and good humor.”
Her skills landed her the business manager job at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication where her “keen intelligence, her capacity to keep up with details in a larger context and her qualities of tact, taste and insight made her an invaluable resource,” her citation noted.
After her retirement, she served as placement officer for the journalism school for five years in a theoretically half-time position. In doing so, her citation said, “she has been an ambassador from the School of Journalism to the wider world of the profession, a role in which her work has enhanced the reputation of both school and University.”