Michelle Artibee, associate director of Work/Life, received the Advocacy Center’s 2018 Community Partner Ally Award May 1 for her work to support domestic violence awareness on campus.

According to Linda Croll Howell, Artibee’s supervisor and the director of Human Resources Analytics, Artibee initially became involved in promoting domestic violence awareness on campus when she was prompted by a request from Elizabeth Brundige, associate clinical professor of law, for information on Cornell’s policies and practices regarding domestic violence.

Artibee assembled and led a team of 10 from campus offices and community agencies to address domestic violence issues at Cornell. The team compiled a Domestic Violence at the Workplace toolkit for managers and HR professionals, and developed an accompanying training program that about 100 managers have attended.

Last October during National Domestic Violence Awareness month, Artibee, her team and more than 80 volunteers held a campus Community Gathering and Resource Fair on domestic violence awareness. The team also organized several donation stations across campus.

Since then, Artibee has partnered with other HR leaders to include incidents of domestic violence on the University Reporting form. Artibee is a responder for all reported employee cases involving domestic violence on campus. Most recently, she collaborated with The Advocacy Center to train about 230 dining staff and 350 building care staff on the topic and resources available to support victims of domestic violence.

Cassie Pierre Joseph will be recognized by Tompkins Trust Co. with the James J. Byrnes Award for Excellence May 21 for her volunteer work and service to the Tompkins County community. The award comes with a monetary award, which Joseph is giving to Loaves and Fishes because of their local impact in building a community kitchen to nurture people who care for and serve one another.

Joseph is known for her efforts to diversify the professional culture of Tompkins County and mentoring professionals from underrepresented groups who are new to the area.

On the Cornell campus, Joseph founded and developed the Women of Color Colleague Network Group, the Veterans Colleague Network Group and other groups. Off campus, she organizes “First Fridays of Ithaca,” a monthly social networking event for higher education professionals, diverse business owners and other professionals from cities in the region, including Ithaca, Syracuse, Binghamton, Elmira and Corning.

“From Cassie’s encouragement, I became involved with the Women of Color Colleague Networking group, where I have found colleagues with shared interests and a shared commitment to help members of our community succeed,” said Christina Liang, associate judicial administrator.

“Cassie was crucial to my decision to stay in Ithaca,” said Nancy M. Bell, student services associate for the Dyson Minors Program. “My whole family lives in Honduras and I felt isolated. Then I met Cassie and she introduced me to the Women of Color Colleague Network Group at Cornell and other professionals in the Ithaca area. Thanks to Cassie, I found my family away from home, and I gained many amazing friends and mentors along the way.”

Said Rehana Huq, organizational development consultant for Organizational Development and Talent Management: “Cassie embodies incredible wisdom that she acts from all the time. She reaches out and makes connections, seeks help and perspectives when needed, and constantly gives back to the community. Hers is the kind of unique leadership that Cornell needs.”