Kristen Campbell enjoys helping others. As assistant registrar, that’s a good thing. Campbell doesn’t have to seek out those who need her help. They find her — always. Whether it’s helping create the class schedule, confirming the residency of undergraduates, overseeing room scheduling for academic spaces or assisting athletics with its NCAA certification, Campbell is not hurting for opportunities to be helpful.
“I wear many different hats,” Campbell says. “I stay plenty busy.”
Campbell performs these and other tasks admirably. Co-workers marvel at her attention to detail, organizational skills and enduring patience in times of high stress — all reasons she is June’s UAB Employee of the Month.
“What stands out when you work with Kristen is her outstanding professionalism and her exceptional, enduring patience,” says Catherine Daniélou, Ph.D., senior associate dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Arts & Sciences. “Kristen is quick and amazingly helpful. When you work with Kristen, you get your stuff done, you resolve issues and you move forward quickly without ever looking back because all is done and done well. There is no time wasted, no emails unanswered, no phone calls unreturned. She is hardworking, funny, warm and humble. Kristen exemplifies the best UAB can offer.”
University Registrar Tina Collins says these types of comments about Campbell are typical.
“The feedback that I get consistently centers on Kristen’s willingness to assist, her ability to synthesize information and conceptualize solutions and her knack for validating the importance of the work performed by other areas,” Collins says.
Campbell, an Albertville native, has been instrumental in developing and implementing the new curriculum-management system, and she played an important role in implementing the degree-audit system.
Creating a class schedule — specifically, finding a way to help professors get the spaces they need — is an annual challenge. Campbell tries to locate inefficiencies by taking classroom data, digging through it and trying to find the options available on campus at specific times.
“As our student body grows and the number of classes we offer increases, space is more limited,” Campbell says. “It’s at a premium. We try our best to put our faculty and students in rooms that are the right size and fit their needs.”
Carolyn Farley, director of academic and student services operations, works specifically with Campbell on managing classrooms assigned to the provost’s office. They have worked through a study of the use of larger spaces on campus.
Farley also says Campbell has helped identify the more critical investments in classroom renovations needed to keep pace with student growth.
“I really appreciate Kristen’s willingness to jump into new territory and assist in any way she can,” Farley says. “She has never said, ‘I don’t know how to do that,’ although I know I have asked some challenging questions of her. She is great about taking on the task and turning it around in a timely manner.”
Attention to detail, organizational skills and thoroughness are qualities Campbell possesses that are appreciated by Corey Bray, associate athletics director for compliance. They enable her to review and certify the academic eligibility of approximately 350 UAB student-athletes after each term.
“Kristen is a quick learner as evidenced by her ability to understand and implement NCAA academic eligibility rules that can be confusing at times,” Bray says. “She combined these core competencies with her already thorough understanding of UAB degree requirements to help create a process of registrar certification of student-athlete academic eligibility that previously did not exist.”
Campbell appreciates her honor, but she is quick to point out the help and support of co-workers.
“There are 15 people in the registrar’s office, and we have great teamwork,” Campbell says. “We really divide and conquer. Each piece that we do tends to be done by more than one person, which really makes this a great environment to work in and great people to work with.”
