STAR Program Recipients Fall 2022

Fall 2022

These are the recipients of the Staff Appreciation and Recognition (STAR) Program for the Fall 2022. In addition to being recognized at our Law School staff luncheon, recipients will receive $2,000 and a crystal STAR award as a signal of the school’s appreciation.

Adebambo (Bree) Adesanya
Coordinator, Faculty Support Services
Faculty Support Services 

Bree always knows how to prioritize the right tasks, excels at finding the most efficient way to do things, and gets along swimmingly with all of her coworkers: these are the three pillars of a faculty coordinator par excellence. Bree is realistic, funny, and always seems to remain unscathed by workplace anxieties—even during the most frantic points in the semester. Leading by example, she reminds the other coordinators to take a breath, relax, and trust in one's own competence. She asks the most specific, pointed, and useful questions at staff meetings, ones that others have surely wondered themselves, but were either too distracted to remember or too insecure to utter out loud. Bree is neither distracted nor insecure, and these qualities have commanded the respect of colleagues and professors alike. For these reasons, she is long overdue to be recognized with a STAR award.

Michelle Ellis 
Program Coordinator
Morningside Heights Legal Services

Michelle Ellis is being recognized for her innovative ways of addressing a range of challenges throughout her tenure at the Law School.  During the 2008 market crash, the school needed to think of ways to become more conservative on spending, while still providing the standard level of service in which we pride ourselves on. When hired, Michelle was tasked with coordinating the logistics for the Clinic’s annual graduation party. One of the ways the clinic was able to dramatically cut back on costs that year (and every year to date), was to replace real flowers with artificial ones.  Michelle was able to produce the event using artificial flowers in a more elegant and dramatic way than could ever be done with the previous budget for real flowers.  

Michelle has also served as a Moot Court coordinator over the years under Professor Philip Genty, and gave the same meticulous attention to detail to the many moot court dinners she helped produce. She has been gracious with her time staying late and contributing many hours behind the scenes each night to ensure a successful Moot Court event. Her aim was not just completing her tasks, but also creating the best image for Columbia Law School.  Michelle’s attention to detail to help enhance the overall experience of students, faculty and staff is a testament to her commitment to the Law School community and its success.

Katelin Walsch
Faculty Coordinator & Center for Constitutional Governance
Faculty Support Services

Katelin’s contributions to the Law School extend beyond her role as a faculty coordinator.  She consistently goes above and beyond in filling gaps and identifying solutions wherever a need arises.  Last semester, despite an already heavy workload, she eagerly agreed to take on a prestigious visiting professor, as well as another full-time faculty member.  Katelin also helped Professor Olati Johson and a group of students launch “Through the Gale”, a podcast about racial justice lawyering and legal education.  She also organized the inaugural “Beyond the Casebook” series for 1Ls -an enormous project that involved coordinating dozens of faculty-student lunches during the semester, an effort that has expanded this year based on the infrastructure that Katelin so capably built.  Projects like these, which fall just outside the usual boundaries of a faculty coordinator’s role, are critical to advancing the Law School’s strategic goals and creating an equitable, inclusive environment for our community. A true team player, Katelin serves as a supporter, collaborator, and source of knowledge for her fellow coordinators. In just a short time, she has become a sought after resource for faculty (many of whom specifically request the opportunity to work with her) and her peers (many of whom go to her for advice about problem solving and prioritization). Katelin is smart, capable, interpersonally gifted, empathic, and committed to her work. And the entire enterprise is better off for her efforts.