Trombley named March’s Civil Service Employee of the Month

Diane Trombley, program assistant for Facilities and Services, has been named South Dakota State University's Civil Service Employee of the Month for March.

She will be honored from 2:30-3:30 p.m. Friday, March 17, in the Facilities and Services building, room 110.

As Facilities and Services’ daily operations coordinator, Trombley manages the work order system on campus. She handles many calls and emails for services each day, communicating with campus on various outages, coordinating rental equipment requests and letting individuals know how their work order is going.

Lisa Mueller, senior accountant for Facilities and Services, praised Trombley’s friendly disposition and customer service and organizational skills.

“In May after the derecho, Diane was at the front desk helping coordinate staff and faculty coming onto and off campus. She maintained her composure in dealing with the staff and faculty as she had to repeat instructions every time a new group came in and answering the phone during all of this,” Mueller reported. “Facilities and Services is pleased to have Diane working with us.”

Amy Jones, director of campus maintenance services, said Trombley is patient, detailed, thoughtful, thorough and a quick learner.

“Her job is in no way simple or straightforward. Creating work orders alone requires extensive knowledge about all our buildings on campus, the different departments, and even fiscal agreements, among many other things. She is the one who gets calls from upset or confused persons and has to figure out what (and who) is needed,” Jones said. “She has not only had to learn about all of what happens on campus, she has had to learn the world of facilities management including maintenance and operations. This is vast and detailed, and Diane has mastered it.

“Diane is one of those people who can be described as an ‘unsung hero’ in that she quietly does her work, but without her we would be in a mess,” Jones added.

Jay Vanduch, director of operations at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center, said he knows he’ll find an answer to a request when he calls Facilities and Services for work to be done or repairs made.

“An organization as large as SDSU often has labyrinths on paperwork and forms that need to be navigated, and Diane is skilled at finding the correct path for our work orders. She definitely makes our work easier and even, at times, possible,” Vanduch said.

Anthony Filholm, general services supervisor at Facilities and Services, said Trombley has contact with almost every person on campus, and her position is the bottleneck of incoming and outgoing information on maintenance needs, planning and notices. He praised Trombley’s hard work and dedication, calling her a pleasure to work with.

“Over the course of what she does, she has had to learn about HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, moving, security, grounds, welding, custodial and more. She has to know enough about these things to make basic decisions on priority, who needs to know and who to contact. Most of us have one field of specialty. She has to know many,” Filholm said.

Trombley grew up in Arlington and graduated from SDSU in 1986. She worked for 33 years at an audio-visual solutions company in Minneapolis before moving back to Brookings in 2020 to be closer to family. She has worked at Facilities and Services for the past 2 ½ years.

Trombley and her husband, Eric, have two grown daughters, Kristina and Megan.

All SDSU Employee of the Month selections are determined through a nomination process by the Civil Service Advisory Council. Each civil service employee of the month receives an appreciation monetary gift from the F.O. Butler Foundation. The trustees of the foundation recognize the importance of civil service employees and take this opportunity to thank them for their exemplary service.