International Affairs is proud to announce that the Winter 2021 Employee of the Quarter is Mely Fitzgerald. Mely was nominated and selected by peers for her professionalism, dedication to International Affairs, and her collegiality.

Mely Fitzgerald has a long history of cultivating meaningful relationships across campus. She currently serves as the Executive Assistant to the Interim Vice Provost of International Affairs. Before joining International Affairs in 2015, Mely worked in Summer Sessions. Having worked at UCR and UCSD, Mely celebrated 20 years of service to the University of California in 2019.

The dedication and creativity of our staff continues to be a source of inspiration. In addition to navigating the new challenges of working during a pandemic, 2020 also brought new operational changes to International Affairs, in terms of leadership and workload. As Mely’s colleagues noted on the nomination form: "Mely has been extremely supportive to IA's new initiatives over the past year. She has exceeded her regular duties and accomplished multiple tasks to support International Affairs' core functions at UCR.”

Mely’s work in organizing UCR’s participation in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities Virtual Student Exchange (APRU VSE) program were a particularly noteworthy contribution to International Affairs in 2020.

She planned, coordinated, and hosted all of UCR’s presentations for the APRU VSE series during the pandemic. Mely helped identify, contact and prepare campus partners to serve as presentation collaborators, set up the registration and recordings, and presented certificates to all attendees. “Thanks to her hard work, UCR has been acknowledged by APRU and other UCs as a role model practice when delivering non-credit virtual courses to the international community,” stated one nominator.

Visit UCR’s APRU Virtual Student Exchange Program to learn more and watch the recorded sessions from Fall 2020.

Congratulations Mely! Thank you for all that you do to support International Affairs at UCR.

The International Affairs Employee of the Quarter program is meant to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding work our staff undertake each day. It is part of an ongoing strategy to build a healthy, inclusive, and supportive environment for our staff.