Sue Polhamus: The Spirit of APSA

The MSU-APSA Executive Board and the Membership Outreach Committee are happy to announce that Sue Polhamus is August’s Spirit of APSA Award winner. Congratulations, Sue!

Sue has been with the Management Department in the Broad College for 42 years – it’s been her MSU home since she started her career here. She was a CT for around 6 years before becoming the Academic Department Administrator, which remains her role today. She supervises two staff members and 14 graduate students.

Sue’s favorite thing about her work is the connections she forges with students and faculty, and learning about their research energizes her to be a better supervisor. Through her open-door policy, Sue invests time in getting to know her fellow Spartans: she celebrates her colleagues’ research successes and serves as a listening ear when they’re going through hard times. Her APSA nominator reports that when her former grad students have moved on, they often become Sue’s lifelong friends, returning to campus to visit her, meeting up with her and inviting her to their weddings.

When asked for a piece of advice to share with her fellow union members, Sue offered some valuable wisdom: “Don’t be afraid of mistakes. When I first started in the supervisory role, I felt everything needed to be done perfectly … which was totally unrealistic. So when I made a mistake, I took it personally and fretted about it, forgetting that most mistakes can be corrected easily. Now, I own my mistakes, resolve the error, apologize that it happened, learn from it and finally move on from it.”

Sue, thank you for serving as a valued resource and friend to many APSA members. We value your important contributions to our campus community, and we congratulate you on this well-deserved award! APSA members, you can nominate other worthy APSA supervisors for award consideration using this form.