As assistant director of administrative operations, Kristen Ruby usually works behind the scenes.
She does a lot back there. Ruby handles the vital stuff you cannot do without but only notice when it’s not functioning properly – health insurance, parking permits, public safety, the alert system when snow causes class cancellations and the like. She has been a staff member at ACPHS for nine years, but her workload greatly increased a year ago, with the departure of two other veteran staff members. Ruby has taken it all in characteristic stride.
She was invited to the annual Leadership Recognition Banquet for the first time this year and figured it was because she had been moved to the Student Experience department. She attended the event largely to get a chance to see students – who know her mostly as a name at the bottom of important emails – and to support a colleague she thought was receiving an award.
Instead, that honor, the SGA President’s Award, went to Ruby. It’s a unique recognition among those given at the banquet, at the sole discretion of the SGA President, Dominick Lomonaco.
In what was for Ruby a surprise announcement, Lomonaco acknowledged her always pleasant attitude and eagerness to help students.
“Without her, our jobs would be a lot harder,” Lomonaco said of those in SGA. “Today, I want to give her the recognition she deserves. For her endless dedication to ACPHS and the ability to deal with all of us students – no matter how stubborn – this year’s SGA President’s Award goes to the one and only Ms. Kristen Ruby!”
Ruby, always modest, said in a phone call the next day that she did not feel altogether comfortable being in the spotlight.
“I love what I do. I don’t look for recognition,” she said. “I was blown away that I received this award. It kind of energizes me to keep doing what I’m doing, and to do more, to see that it means something to them.”
Ruby has worked in all kinds of school settings, including as a teacher of pre-school, kindergarten and middle-school students. She jokes that her success with college students may come from understanding that they have something in common with kindergartners.
“They’re out for the first time, away from their parents, and they need somebody nurturing them,” she said.