2020 ACE Award Recipients
We are excited to announce this year’s Altus Commitment to Excellence Award (ACE) recipients. We started this program in 2019 and we are thrilled to see how everyone has embraced the program despite how challenging 2020 was.
It brings us enormous joy to see the number of nominations we’ve received this past year, not only from fellow employees, but also from our clients and patients. It’s a true testament to the valuable work each of the nominees has put forward.
Selection Process
All employees who received the Employee of the Month distinction during 2020 were eligible to receive this award.
How our Employee of the Month program works:
- Peers nominate eligible candidates.
- One winner is selected every month by a select committee of 5 individuals
- Up until August of 2020, the criteria to select the Employee of the Month were: credibility, respect, alignment, continuous improvement, integrity, and being patient-focused
- Thereafter, we rolled out our new values, which include: care and mutual respect, open communication, collaboration, results-driven, and data-driven
Eligible nominees for the 2020 ACE Award were:
- Rebecca ‘Becky’ Williams, Travel RN
- Tanya Harris, Patient Experience, Team Lead
- Anuita ‘Annie’ Rojas, Onboarding Specialist
- Mary Harrison, RN – S099
- Yeneisi Martinez, Escalation Specialist
- O’Neisha Nunn, Medical Scheduler
- Michael ‘Mike’ Willis, Clinical Project Manager
- Lisa Tarango, Corporate Clinical Educator
- Jamie Pittman, HR Services Manager
- Tony Yeung, Billing, Team Lead
It goes without saying how proud we are of your achievements and we know with your passion and dedication, there will be many more to come.
This year we are happy to announce we have two winners!
Our ACE recipients will each receive a $1,500 check, a plaque, and a special recognition on our website and social media channels.
Our First ACE Award Winner is Lisa Tarango!
Lisa joined Altus Biologics in November 2018 as a staff RN at Dr. Alar’s office in Florida. She then transferred to the Education Team as a Clinical Educator and Auditor.
Since assuming her new role within our corporation, Lisa has shown great initiative. She updated and revamped the clinical training materials to ensure our new nurses receive the best quality training to achieve success.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lisa moved quickly. She focused her efforts on making all the training materials available on a virtual platform. Her work yielded great results. Thanks to her, our new nurses can receive the same quality training they require in our virtual classrooms.
Our second ACE Award Winner this year is Tony Yeung!
Tony Yeung is celebrating 11 years with Altus Biologics this month!
When Tony received his Employee of the Month recognition, his role was that of Billing Team Lead. Given his fantastic trajectory in our company and his many accomplishments, he was recently promoted to Billing Manager.
Tony oversees our billing automation process. The automation serves to maximize the department’s efficiency and reduces coding errors.
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees and especially to our newest ACE Award recipients.
At this time, we would like to share with you all a brief interview with each of our winners.
Lisa Tarango
Q/ Where you are from (born) or grew up.
A/ Buffalo NY.
Q/ What did you first want to be when you grew up?
A/ I had always wanted to be a nurse, except for a short period when I wanted to be a meteorologist.
Q/ Did you have a nickname? If yes, what was it?
A/ I have never had a nickname. I think that’s a good thing.
Q/ What’s your hometown now?
A/ I live in Winter Haven, Florida, but am soon relocating to Cocoa Beach, FL.
Q/ What advice would you give to your younger self?
A/ Save more for retirement much earlier and use good skin cream!
Q/ How do you juggle your work from home life?
A/ I’m still learning how to ignore my phone; it’s a struggle.
Q/ What do you do when you are not working? Your hobbies and interests.
A/ I love the beach, antiquing, and I love to bake.
Q/ What’s a fun fact about you many people may not know?
A/ I’ve researched my genealogy back to 1532 Europe.
Q/ A good quote to describe you personally or one that you relate to.
A/ “One cannot explore new lands if he is afraid to lose sight of the shore.”
Q/ Tell us about your studies and any specialties.
A/ I’m a BSN and have worked with both adult and pediatric populations.
Q/ Why did you decide to go into your career?
A/ Since I was 5, my dad was very ill and often in the hospital. I wanted to be the one to take care of him.
Q/ What or who has been your biggest influence or your mentor?
A/ My two daughters. They are very dynamic and tend to make me see the bigger picture and think about things differently.
Q/ What is your most significant achievement to date – personal or professional?
A/ Raising two daughters while working and going to school full time to make a better life for all of us.
Q/ What is success to you?
A/ Ending each day, knowing that I made the day better for someone in some way.
Q/ What is your motto or personal mantra?
A/ “Have a good day; give a good day.”
Q/ What three words would you use to describe your role?
A/ Challenging, rewarding, fun.
Q/ How did you first hear about Altus Infusion?
A/ On Indeed.com.
Q/ When did you start at Altus Infusion?
A/ November 2018.
Q/ What is your management style? How do you like to communicate with your team?
A/ I am very down to earth. I like to keep it real. I’m never afraid to ask a question to help me understand why. I have a sense of humor, and I think it comes through in the way I communicate.
Q/ What is a typical day like?
A/ It depends on the week/day. However, every other week I have a new hire training class. We slowly go through all the processes and procedures that will help them be successful within the organization. Other days I’m following up with new hires or fielding education questions from a variety of people.
Q/ What is the most common question you get from customers or new hires?
A/ From new hires, “How will I ever learn all this?”
Q/ How would you describe the company culture here?
A/ Caring, encouraging, and goal-oriented.
Q/ What do you love most about working with Altus Infusion?
A/ As an educator, my role allows me to share all I have learned so my tries/fails aren’t repeated.
Q/ Name one favorite memory from working at Altus Infusion.
A/ The week I left my full-time infusion suite to join the education team, I had several patients make special trips into the suite just to say goodbye to me.
Q/ What advice would you give to recent new entrants?
A/ When you feel overwhelmed, give yourself the advice you would give a new grad you were training. “You will get it. Give yourself time”. I tell all of our clinical new hires this exact same thing on day 1 of orientation.
Tony Yeung
Q/ Where were you born, and where did you grow up?
A/ I was born in California, but I grew up in Houston, TX.
Q/ What did you first want to be when you grew up?
A/ I wanted to be a chef.
Q/ What is your hometown now?
A/ I still live in Houston, TX.
Q/ What advice would you give to your younger self?
A/ Be honest with yourself.
Q/ How do you juggle your work from home life?
A/ Work-life starts at 7:30 am and ends at 5:00 pm unless OT is needed. Home-life starts at 5:01 pm until I get tired. You have to draw a line between work-life and home-life, especially when you work from home.
Q/ What do you do when you are not working? Your hobbies and interests.
A/ I enjoy fishing and being outdoors.
Q/ What three words would you use to describe your work?
A/ Billing Team Lead.
Q/ How did you first hear about Altus Biologics?
A/ From Mark and Clint.
Q/ When did you start at Altus Biologics?
A/ In 2010.
Q/ What is the most common questions you get from customers?
A/ I don’t get any as my job responsibilities don’t involve speaking to doctors or patients directly.
Q/ What do you love most about working with Altus Biologics?
A/ Serving our patients, doctors and helping out my team.
Q/ What advice would you give to recent new entrants?
A/ Be open to learning new things.
Congratulations to the winners!
Altus Biologics is proud to support a corporate culture where our employees can grow and excel in every aspect of their professional lives.