Elaina Koltz named as Regents’ 2019 Academic Staff Excellence award-winner

Congratulations to Elaina Koltz ’06 (Human Development), selected to receive the Regents’ 2019 Academic Staff Excellence Award, as announced this week. Koltz is a financial aid advisor and Veteran Services coordinator for UW-Green Bay.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will honor this year’s recipients of the Academic Staff Excellence Awards in Milwaukee on June 7. These awards recognize exceptional service to the university and are the UW System’s highest recognition bestowed on members of its academic staff.

Elaina Koltz

“This year’s award recipients reflect the high caliber of our academic staff across the UW System,” said Regent Janice Mueller, chair of the selection committee. “We are delighted to recognize their wide-ranging and significant accomplishments as they work to support student success and strengthen their institutions and communities.”

Award recipients are selected for superior performance resulting in significant contributions to the department and institution; use of positive personal interaction to manage work changes; and a consistently creative approach that improves productivity and work quality. Each recipient is awarded $5,000.

Koltz is widely respected for her knowledge of complex student veteran education benefits and her dedication to helping students succeed. In 2002, she became UW-Green Bay’s school certifying official, the liaison between the university’s students and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. As the financial aid advisor for Veteran Services, she assists the growing population of student veterans at UW-Green Bay.

She has helped the University expand its programming, including forming and leading the Veterans Support Team, a campus-wide group that assists the more than 500 student veterans and dependents who use veteran education benefits. She helped implement a Veteran and Service Member Student Lounge where veterans can find resources and build relationships to support each other. The lounge is the site of a monthly Veteran Open House featuring community resources for veterans. As advisor for the university’s Vets 4 Vets Student Veteran Club, Koltz assists with programs in which the group is involved, such as the City Stadium Run for Veterans and the Northeast Wisconsin Veterans Treatment Court. She is president of the Northeast Wisconsin (NEW) Battalion Bravo Company, which helps connect veterans with community resources. She is currently working to bring to UW-Green Bay the Vet Success on Campus program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which would be the second such program in Wisconsin.

For information on the other recipients, see the UW System press release.