The OSU Exemplary Employee Award honors professional faculty members and classified staff members for their outstanding performance.

Sierra Hansen
Storekeeper
OSU Chem Store
College of Science

Sierra Hansen is the main storekeeper in ChemStores, a not-for-profit work center dedicated to providing essential lab and research supplies to the College and University at the lowest possible cost.

As storekeeper, Hansen is responsible for ordering, stocking, and maintaining inventory for all materials and chemicals. In addition, she monitors all purchase transactions and ensures that the system remains up-to-date with the current Indexes, available and ordered stock, and costs.

“When the pandemic first hit the Corvallis campus, Sierra quickly noticed the shortages of surface and hand disinfectants. Instead of lamenting a dire situation, or passively accepting the inevitable as occurred at nearly all peer institutions, Sierra worked with Chemistry and College leadership to develop a recipe for both of these sanitizers that used stores inventory and some locally sourced ingredients. She helped organize the staff into production and we began manufacturing the needed sanitizer products,” a nominator wrote.

“Because of her efforts, OSU enjoyed a continuous source of items such as spray bottles filled with either surface and hand sanitizers, and bulk availability of these chemicals for refill and distribution, as well as face masks, nitrile gloves, and disposable towels. Without ready availability of these essential items, resumption of on-campus activities would have been much more challenging, slower or even impossible. We might have seen many more cases of Covid-19 in the campus community.”

Reprinted in it’s entirety from: https://universityday.oregonstate.edu/award-recipients