Waad Ayoub receives CEE Staff Award for Excellence

Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) Senior Communications Coordinator Waad Ayoub was recently honored with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Staff Excellence Award.

The award, which recognizes outstanding performance and demonstrated professional excellence by members of the support staff of the University of Illinois’ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was presented at CEE’s Annual Faculty and Staff Recognition Reception on November 9th.

“It feels great to know that your contribution is making a difference and is noticed by others,” Waad said. “It’s a motivation for me to go above and beyond the call of duty.”

Waad has been with ICT since 2013 and her position is one that allows her to be involved in the center on almost every level. Waad leads the technology transfer team at ICT and manages all media content, including the center’s quarterly newsletter, web content and featured research projects. She also manages conferences, workshops, and the training classes ICT puts on to license engineers across the state.

Waad also assists with research administration. She helps guide all types of projects from beginning to end. This includes reviewing proposals submitted to sponsors, submitting quarterly progress reports, reviewing monthly expenditures, and editing the final reports.

In addition to those roles, Waad has been coordinating several human resource functions such as coordinating search processes for new hires and processing appointments for graduate research assistants.

“Waad was hired as a technical editor and soon after showed signs of multitasking and high commitment and became a Senior Communication Coordinator,” Bliss Professor of Engineering and ICT and ATREL Director Imad Al-Qadi said. “She has exhibited an exceptional level of initiative and dedication and has demonstrated an attitude of excellence, teamwork, and went above the expectations of her job responsibilities. She has proven herself an outstanding asset to our center due to the exemplary work she does. She is a multitasker and a quick learner. We are very pleased that she is a member of the ICT family.”

Waad is bilingual with a bachelor’s degree in translation and foreign languages from the Islamic University of Lebanon. She speaks Arabic and English.

“I worked for ten years as a freelance interpreter and translator for a wide variety of clients, ranging from the Department of State, Michigan Department of Education to Hallmark, Tiffany and Co. and many others,” Waad said.

Just this past December Waad earned her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Illinois at Springfield.