Kudos: Antonio Brown Takes Positivity Into Account
Congratulations to Antonio Brown, the recipient of this month’s Huck Kudos award. Antonio is an accountant in Huck’s administration office, where he plays a critical role in the day-to-day financial operations of a wide variety of units across our complex organization.
A major sports and health enthusiast, Antonio is also a certified personal fitness trainer. He played all-conference football as a student athlete at Central Methodist University and came to Penn State from the University of Michigan in 2017. One of the first things he did after settling in was to help lead the Huck Fitness Challenge in Spring 2018.
Antonio’s wife is Sarah Brown, head coach of Penn State’s gymnastics team. Their first son Isaiah was born shortly after they arrived at the university, and they are expecting their second son in March 2020. Antonio plays “Mr. Mom” when Sarah is on the road with the team and has to keep his energy high.
“Antonio brings a refreshing, upbeat, and positive vibe to the office every day,” says his supervisor Kim Ripka, Huck’s director of administration. “He has a unique way of being able to balance the demands and complexities of the position with a friendly and personal touch.”
Part of Antonio’s strategy to manage all that complexity is to devise useful tools that make life easier not just for himself, but for others. For example, he created streamlined monthly reports for Huck’s graduate program chairs so that they could more effectively monitor expenses.
Additionally, Antonio helped Huck’s core facilities transition their invoicing process from a manual method to the electronic iLab system. As the primary point of contact for all iLab billing questions, he provides customer service to faculty and external customers on invoices and ARSO agreements. This highly painstaking, detail-oriented work gets intensely demanding at times. And that’s where Antonio’s positivity makes all the difference.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed.
One anonymous Kudos submission reads, “Thanks to Antonio Brown for going the extra mile to process last-minute purchase orders before the holiday break—nothing beats an end-of-calendar-year rush!” States another, “Kudos to Antonio Brown for getting us past the $2 million mark in iLab billing!”
Kim Ripka enthusiastically agrees. Antonio is making a real difference at the Huck, every day. “What I appreciate most is his willingness to go out of his way to help others and offer his assistance,” she says. “I believe that his Kudos award is well-deserved!”
The Huck Kudos program is designed to recognize these kinds of outstanding staff efforts, awarding the recipients with an extra day off work. Each month, kudos are collected from anyone in the Huck who wants to recognize a staff member going above and beyond the call of duty. To send in your kudos for someone’s job well done, email your positive comments to Laura Drew:
