Sandy Bailey: The Spirit of APSA

Sandy Bailey, May's Spirit of APSA winner

Sandy Bailey, Business Manager and Fiscal Officer for the Department of Animal Science in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is May’s Spirit of APSA Award winner. Nominated by their fellow APSA supervisors and selected by the APSA Member Outreach Committee, these awardees embody the core values of the APSA: outstanding professionalism, community spirit and solidarity.

Sandy’s nominator told us that she exemplifies leadership in her unit: anticipating departmental needs, proposing process improvements and freely sharing her deep institutional knowledge. She fosters trust and goodwill, even when deadlines loom and pressures mount.

Sandy’s duties for Animal Science include comprehensive oversight of the departmental budget process, as well as coordinating building maintenance, partnering with facilities’ staff to keep research and teaching spaces functioning safely and managing departmental human resources activities by supervising, recruiting and onboarding new hires. She’s been with the department for over 12 years, where she supervises four staff members and a student employee.

Her favorite part of her role is working with Animal Science team members, especially the office staff that she supervises. She describes everyone in the group as “doing a phenomenal job,” which makes her job as a supervisor easy – and they share some laughs together along the way.

When asked for a piece of advice for other APSA members, Sandy offered the following: “We can’t do it all by ourselves. Ask others to help; explain what needs to be done; let them run with it. It’s always awesome to see perspectives and ideas you hadn’t thought of before. And it’s very teambuilding (and inspiring to all) to have everyone involved in a piece of the whole process.”

Sandy, your unit colleagues and fellow APSA members appreciate your exceptional contributions. Congratulations! Members, remember to nominate other impressive APSA supervisors for award consideration using this form .