Michele Taylor, UNLV's director of campus community development, has been selected as the recipient of the 1999 President's Outstanding Professional Staff Member of the Year Award.

Taylor, who has worked at UNLV since 1990, receives $1,000 as part of the award.

"Michele possesses so many of the qualities that make a UNLV employee truly outstanding," said UNLV President Carol C. Harter. "She is a tireless worker and is creative in her handling of the tasks assigned her. Most important, however, she always is thinking about our students and what her department can do to make their time on campus both more meaningful and more enjoyable."

When Taylor first joined the UNLV staff, she worked in the office of residential life, serving as assistant director, associate director, and then co-acting director.

In 1995, she helped create the department of campus community development to focus specific attention on UNLV's commuting students, who represent 95 percent of the university's student population. As director, she oversees the operations of the Moyer Student Union and supervises four program coordinators.

She also serves as a senator representing the professional staff on UNLV's Faculty Senate and chairs the campus' professional staff committee.

Taylor is active in professional organizations as well. She hosted the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators' national conference on students with psychological disabilities. She also coordinated the second annual student services symposium for the University and Community College System of Nevada. Additionally, she recently attended the National Coalition Building Institute and became certified as a trainer for multicultural and diversity awareness program workshops.