Northern Michigan University Occupational and Environmental Health Specialist Kim Hegmegee is one of nine recipients of NMU's 2022 Excellence in Service awards. She has demonstrated her hard work by developing and managing the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) research, procurement and distribution.
When NMU realized it was going to need to acquire a large number of various types of PPE early in the pandemic, Hegmegee worked with all departments on campus to understand what was needed and then conducted research to locate supplies and order and distribute around campus.
In order to accomplish this, she worked closely with the NMU IT department to develop and manage an online ordering system for departments. This streamlined approach allowed the university to distribute the supplies in a timely manner and it also kept track of the PPE inventory. During this, she worked closely with local and national vendors to fill NMU's orders as the demand for PPE was extensive.
Hegmegee also worked with Kimberly Clark to participate in a recycling program for gloves used as PPE. This partnership redirected over 1,000 pounds of used nitrile gloves from the landfill to a recycling plant. This initiative has helped NMU become more sustainable.
In addition to her daily duties and recycling nitrile gloves, Hegmegee also oversaw the distribution of the portable plexus-glass barriers along with working with facilities to meet the special needs of departments that need a more permanent solution. She incorporated this into the online ordering system. This system has proven to work very well.
When NMU entered into a contract with Safe Colleges to provide training in an online format, Hegmegee worked with supervisors to identify training modules unique to each area and worked within the system to populate the employees for each training group.