Lorelei Kurimski

UI President Sally Mason announced on Aug. 14 that Lorelei Kurimski, UHL program consultant, is a recipient of the Outstanding Staff Award for 2009.

Kurimski is one of nine UI staff members this year to receive the award, which is presented annually for "outstanding accomplishments and contributions that significantly benefited or brought honor or recognition to the University."

For the past 10 years, Kurimiski has been a program consultant at UHL for the Grant-to- Counties, which provides free water testing to Iowa residents whose primary source of drinking water comes from private wells. She leads the UHL Lean program, a management philosophy that promotes efficiency and eliminates waste. Through Lean, UHL has discarded or recycled more than 3.5 tons of unneeded and unused items, creating more than the equivalent length of two football fields of usable space since March 2009.

Kurimski received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Western Illinois University and her master's degree from UI in the Department of Civil/ Environmental Engineering.