LBC Assistant Dean Niki Rudolph wins MSU Outstanding Supervisor Award

November 16, 2023

Dr. Niki Rudolph, LBC Assistant Dean for Student Success and Advising, was one of five recipients of the 2023 MSU Outstanding Supervisor Award. She was recognized for being a positive leader who supports and understands her students and staff, using her own strength, compassion and humor. 

Rudolph has been assistant dean since 2021.

“An outstanding supervisor values diversity and promotes an inclusive environment within the workplace and beyond. Niki Rudolph brought together a diverse team with unique talents and regularly celebrates the richness of that diversity, empowering her team to feel valued, supported, and respected members of a unified team. Her positive leadership style and empowerment cultivates passion and purpose in the department’s work,” noted members of the LBC Student Success and Advising Team.

Her colleagues praise her for putting team members forward for promotions, working to retain and recruit personnel, and creating a work culture that centers transparency, consistency, care, and compassion.

“Niki has steadfastly led our team in a way that has fostered an atmosphere of support while encouraging autonomy, initiative and ownership of our work. We have a team that truly embodies the ideals of teamwork, and it stems from Niki. It’s clear that Niki fully supports us in our work and life while always challenging us to take initiative and pushing us to discover further potential,” writes Jacki Dotts, the LBC assistant director of recruitment.

“Niki’s workload regularly includes dealing with students’ experiences involving Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct, reports to the Office for Institutional Equity, suicidal intentions, and mental health. All the while, Niki also supervises and supports a whole team who also face these challenges regularly. Every year this is the case for Niki as assistant dean, but with the violence of February 2023, these needs were significantly increased. With Niki’s unwavering support, strength, and humility, the SSA team responded quickly, effectively, and with great compassion and thought during this extremely challenging time. Niki centered trauma-informed approaches in the team's work and provided spaces for her team and for our students for community and support,” wrote Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, LBC dean, and Georgina Montgomery, LBC Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning.

Niki demonstrates her commitment to wellness and work-life balance. Niki’s colleagues find the work climate she has created to be extraordinary due to her supportive and compassionate nature, concluding that “We are not only a work team; we are a work family!”

Story adapted from the Worklife Office press release.