Leticia Medwell wins staff award for Mission Excellence

Library manager Ms Leticia Medwell has won the Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award for Mission Excellence for her passion and support to Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) Clemente program that helps vulnerable people gain access to university education.

Her dedication has seen a number of people move on to undertake further education and to secure jobs to which they would otherwise never have aspired. Her commitment has been critical to the success of the program at ACU's Aquinas campus in Ballarat.

Leticia has achieved all of this while doing her full time 'day job' as one of ACU Library's most effective and productive managers. Her commitment to service and to the dignity of the human person is demonstrated daily in her determination to help her staff be the best they can be.

Within the Ballarat community, Leticia has pursued government organisations and individuals to continue their contribution to Clemente whenever their interest appeared to flag.

Leticia supported Clemente students in growing their confidence in accessing relevant information from library staff. These students feel very much at home on the campus and particularly in the library. The library is seen as a place for people to be together in seeking and benefiting from the scholarship, art and culture.

Very importantly the students, many of whom are older people, know that they are respected, their needs become the priorities of others and support is offered even before it is sought.

Leticia brings together her integrity as a person, commitment to ACU's mission, ease in working with people from diverse backgrounds, an ability to work across organisations, organisational insightfulness, and a demand for quality education, particularly for the most disadvantaged. She expresses her faith in action and inspires others to move together in mission for the dignity of all people through Clemente Australia. In all her work, Leticia demonstrates a caring attitude and a willingness to help people achieve their potential.

Her work with Clemente is simply a manifestation of her approach to all people, her respect for the human person and her commitment to the greater good.

Leticia holds a Bachelor of Arts (Librarianship) from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education. She has worked in newspaper, corporate and academic libraries, most recently in electronic services. She has enjoyed a career in academic libraries for more than 25 years; 13 of those have been working nationally to provide access to electronic resources and services at ACU.

Leticia is responsible for the Library website. In 2011 she coordinated a major review of the site's information architecture, resulting in a leaner, task-focused website.

Since that time Leticia has worked consistently with the ACU web team to develop a professional and engaging web interface for ACU Library, to improve mobile access to the site and the variety of third-party products that power our services and resources.