Continuing with our celebration of this year’s CALS Awards recipients, we are sharing information about the winners of the University Staff Recognition Awards this week.

Karl Breneman

Karl is a vehicle equipment tech for the Agricultural Research Stations. He is a knowledgeable resource for ARS and research staff, showing a willingness to engage with everyone. He continually notices opportunities to improve efficiency by changing equipment or operations. Karl takes a keen interest in research and demonstrates expertise with his ability to maintain systems across diverse equipment critical to CALS research efforts. 

Lindsey Burckhardt

Lindsey is an animal care supervisor at the Wisconsin Blaine Dairy Research Center. She goes above and beyond in ensuring smooth daily operations, managing staff and facility safety while supporting research and operational goals. Lindsey’s strong work ethic, decision making skills and ability to adapt to daily challenges create a positive work climate and make her an extremely valuable asset to the Blaine Dairy Center. 

Amy Cottom

Amy is a financial specialist for the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences. She goes out of her way to help others with things like travel and reimbursement policies as well as dealing with extremely complex purchasing and ordering requests. Amy is known for her knowledge, efficiency and kindness that has made a lasting impact on those she has helped in her department.

Jake Oertel

Jake has spent 13 years as an ag equipment operator at the Marshfield Research Station. He not only manages day-to-day field and harvesting operations but also several other projects, including being the lead pesticide applicator and lead operator of the research plot combine. Jake does it all with a pleasant attitude, a teamwork approach and with the complete trust of his coworkers and supervisors at the station.  

Pete Sutton

Pete has been an animal care technician at the Marshfield Agricultural Research Station for 13 years. He is an exceptional employee with attention to detail and the motivation to continuously learn. Pete not only enjoys working with cattle but also uses his degree in computer information systems to greatly benefit the station and CALS, installing cameras in the calving barn, coding the manure scrapers, and setting up station computers.