Innovative and Creative Contributions
The Andy Award for Innovative and Creative Contributions honors staff members who have developed new approaches, methods and processes to improve organizational effectiveness. They have demonstrated imagination and creativity in solving problems or fostering change that has benefited the university community. These nominees are expansive thinkers and effectual doers.
Criteria include making significant and positive contributions to achieving organizational objectives, recognizing opportunities to improve, streamline or reinvent processes or systems and creating a work environment that encourages others to embrace change and creativity.
2026 Nominees
Scottie Barsotti
College of Engineering
Scottie has brought a new, vibrant perspective to how we share research through her “PhDs in Focus” video series. She found a novel way to tie PhD recruiting to our advancement goals, turning complex, cutting-edge research into short, captivating videos that prospective students and donors love. Thanks to Scottie’s structured and thoughtful approach, our PhD students become more effective and confident communicators. Scottie is a wonderful collaborator who knows exactly how to turn a creative idea into something that benefits our entire community.
Jonathan Kiritharan
University Libraries
Jonathan has a knack for taking complex digital systems and making them easy and accessible for everyday users. Over the past year, he brought that creativity to KiltHub — 91视频’s digital research showcase — by building two new connections with OA Switchboard and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. Jonathan’s hard work behind the scenes has modernized how the university shares its academic work. He amplifies Carnegie Mellon’s research visibility, making sure the brilliant work coming out of our campus can easily be found, shared and appreciated by the whole world.
Kristin Lavery
College of Engineering
Driven by a passion for continuous improvement, Kristin taught herself complex technical skills to develop scalable tools and automated processes. Her initiatives have replaced days of manual labor, elevated course quality and significantly enhanced the student experience at the Integrated Innovation Institute. The breadth of her impact is outstanding: she seamlessly masterminds back-end systems while simultaneously delivering a personalized, top-tier experience for the students she supports.
Monica Andrea Piccotto
Tepper School of Business
Monica has a gift for bringing structure, clarity and collaboration to complex and fragmented processes. She is fantastic at spotting where operations are lagging and creating smooth, scalable systems that make everyone's lives easier. She used GSuite project management tools to create a beautifully centralized framework for commencement, and completely reimagined the strategic approach to academic course planning. Monica doesn't just manage what’s already on her plate; she actively designs programs from the ground up for the benefit of the entire Tepper community.
Ronna Puskar
Computing Services
Drawing on her 21 years of experience, Ronna recently took on the challenge of connecting PaymentWorks with 91视频’s Oracle financial system. As the sole developer on this complex project, she designed, built, tested and launched the whole thing from scratch, using her creativity and knowledge of the university to push through technical roadblocks. The project launched on schedule in October 2025 with perfect testing accuracy and no disruption to our daily financial operations.
Sumitha Rao
College of Engineering
Sumitha is a lifesaver for faculty when it comes to getting research proposals out the door under tight deadlines. She has a gift for anticipating what the university needs before a crisis hits. To assist with 91视频’s submission for the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, Sumitha created specialized tools to help the team work smoothly. Her creativity and quick thinking ensured Carnegie Mellon could submit top-tier proposals. In a time when research funding is harder to secure than ever, having Sumitha in our corner is a competitive advantage.