The Ph.D. students in the Machine Learning Department fondly call Diane Stidle the “mom of the department.” Faculty members call her the department’s “heart and soul.”

That’s why Stidle, the department's business and graduate programs manager, is this year’s Andy Award winner for Culture.

The Andy Awards, named for Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, are a tribute to the spirit of teamwork and dedication embodied by the staff at Carnegie Mellon University. Individual staff members and teams of colleagues whose work has had a significant impact on the university were recognized for their outstanding performance and commitment to excellence at the Andy Awards ceremony Sept. 30.

“Diane makes everybody feel welcome not only with her warm personality and light-hearted sense of humor, but also with her genuine human touch,” Christos Faloutsos, professor of computer science, wrote in a nominating letter.

Since becoming the Machine Learning Department’s first staff member in 1997 (it was then called the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery), Stidle has worked to make the office environment “home” to faculty, staff, students and alumni. 

“Since that day she has worked enthusiastically and consistently to foster a wonderfully positive and supportive department culture, consistently exceeding expectations along every dimension,” wrote eight professors in a supporting letter — Tom Mitchell, William Cohen, Geoffrey Gordon, Robert Kass, Barnabas Poczos, Alex Smola, Larry Wasserman and Eric Xing.

The professors noted her “self-defined role as a helper and confidant” to students and her “superb community-building skills.”  They credited her for creating an engaged and loyal alumni group; for instituting weekly departmental teas for students, faculty and staff; for encouraging students to organize retreats; and for recently organizing a reunion for students, faculty and alumni at a major machine learning conference in Chicago.

“Diane Stidle has demonstrated the highest standards of CMU, a genuine concern for every person she interacts with, and an amazing ability to foster a culture in which we all feel we belong,” they wrote.

In a supporting letter signed by 33 Ph.D. students, Stidle was called “the glue that holds the department together.”

“She knows us all personally, her door is always open and she receives everyone with warmth,” they said.