Janice Maddox, Financial Aid

October 28, 2021

As professionals, we sometimes can get caught short when unexpected events occur – particularly when totally out of one’s own locus of control. Recently, such was the case when Janice Maddox, associate director of Financial Aid compliance and coordinator for Financial Literacy, picked up her phone only to be met with a highly sensitive situation and the handling thereof. The details are not important. What is important is the extraordinary level of emotional intelligence demonstrated by Janice. AFSA was made aware of Janice’s remarkable ingenuity because an external stakeholder took the time to express in writing not only Janice’s tangible solutions to an ongoing Financial Aid issue, but her soft skills; that is, envisioning, empathy and empowerment. Rather than consider the matter “closed” following that first phone call, Janice excelled in her ability to communicate over the course of several days ensuring all matters were addressed and touch points handled properly.  Kudos to Janice for reminding us that soft skills really are not soft skills.  Emotional intelligence requires us to listen intently to our customers and to always seek to understand.  The “U” in the Be One UT values stands for United and Connected meaning collaborate internally and externally for great collective impact. Many of us have always known Janice to be a kind and caring individual, but it’s quite the distinction when an external stakeholder reports similarly. 

Cathy Sanchez, Director of Financial Aid, shared “One of Janice’s strengths is her interactions with students and families. She really loves to work directly with people and her compassionate navigation of a fragile situation made a difference - positively impacting the circumstances.

We salute Janice in her sophisticated abilities to relate well to both processes and people!