Congratulations to Katie (Koch) Code, Director of Alumni & Constituent Relations and Nathan Lind, Academic Liaison for Computing for receiving the April Auggie Pride Award. Their hard work and positive attitudes as they go above and beyond their expected duties are an inspiration to the community. Staff Senate admires the work they do everyday and are honored to award them both with this month’s Auggie Pride Award.

Katie Code

Nomination: Auggie pride personified is Katie Code. You probably expect that from our Alumni Director, but what Katie brings to her role at Augsburg is an infectious spirit that rallies Alumni locally, regionally, nationally and even internationally.

At this moment she is planning President Pribbenow’s trip to Norway in June, where the King of Norway will host key Norwegian, Lutheran colleges. That is one of the biggest opportunities imaginable for Augsburg, but there are smaller events happening all of the time that Katie throws heart and soul into—from the Auggie Alumni travel program to Canterbury Downs to Alumni awards to the dozens of affinity programs hosted by our Alumni Relations department each year.

Katie doesn’t just execute programs and events, she makes the events and programs connect with alumni and tie them back to Augsburg. Her Auggie spirit is so strong it connects all 60,000 alumni back to the institution. She is Auggie Spirit. She is called to encapsulate the spirit of Auggies every day. She is Katie Koch and she is deserving of this honor.

Nathan Lind

Nomination: Nathan Lind does a tremendous amount of work which is often often behind the scenes. He has worked through the process of finding the better videoconferencing setups between Minneapolis and Rochester, championed Zoom software (like Skype, only much better) which allowed more flexibility for students out-of-state to remotely attend a class and in doing-so put Augsburg on the cutting edge with premier technology.

Nathan’s awareness of the IT budget has realized significant cost savings. Zoom software is one example where we are now paying less for MORE functionality. Most recently, he discovered we were paying $7,000 annually for a video streaming service which was underutilized and devised a solution to move the videos to Google Drive so the money can now be used somewhere else. His attention towards stewardship supports the mission.

Nathan is an environmental advocate and advocates for a cleaner healthier campus environment by sharing his ideas. He actively provides feedback and looks for ways to move us forward.

Auggie Pride Awards will resume next fall with the semester. To nominate an Augsburg staff for this monthly award, email the name of the staff person and reason for your nomination to staffsenate@augsburg.edu.