Applause for Bergen Johnston

“Bergen has been absolutely critical to the work of the RDAR Center. She is so thorough and dependable in everything she does - we always know that her work will be of the highest quality. And Bergen consistently goes above and beyond in communicating with the team, creatively solving problems, attending to critical details, and doing whatever it takes to make a project successful. She is an essential member of the team and is absolutely deserving of recognition!”

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“Bergen has been amazing! We had to submit our IRB materials and receive approval from IRB before NIH would release our grant funds. We were given short notice from NIH which means we had to scramble to get all of our IRB materials and revisions completed. Bergen worked tirelessly and had such great attention to detail in helping getting the forms completed and submitted. Her long hours definitely ensured we got our materials submitted on time and have since rec'd funding on this grant. Bergen is also instrumental in the RDAR Center through her work on the RHC data. She is highly organized, efficient, and just a pleasure to work with. She always goes above and beyond expectations and we appreciate Bergen and her strong work ethic so much! She is a gem! All of these reasons are why i am nominating her for the CAS Applause award. Bergen is truly deserving of this recognition! Thank you! ”

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“Ms. Johnston has been critical to furthering the success of RDAR Center in a number of ways. For example, she was instrumental in navigating the reopening and re-contacting our participants in the longitudinal Rural Health Cohort (RHC) after human research was ceased due to COVID-19. This was no small task. She had to work closely with colleagues and the IRB to design an approach that would allow for the collection of the second wave of data while keeping staff and participants safe during the pandemic. This approach was effective and far more successful than I could have ever imagined thanks to her tireless efforts. I could list numerous other examples with the RHC such as persisting to find an ideal new building location for our field research, navigating the updates and changes to RDAR Center IRB, etc. However, I will mention in detail just one other example. A goal of the RDAR Center is to increase grant submissions and, of course, success. She has been key to efforts here. Take as an example the recent NIH R21 awarded to Khan (Sociology) and McChargue (Psychology). She did much of the pre-award compliance work such as meeting the quick NIH deadline for what they call Just In Time (JIT) information which would include all UNL compliance approvals. In brief, the Applause Award would be a perfect way to recognize such dedication and service that goes well above the call of duty.”

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“Bergen is an essential cog in writing, submitting and running funded research. She is one of the hardest working staff members I've come across. During grant deadlines, she tirelessly worked late and on the weekends to help with the editing process. If it were not for her, we could not have submitted the grant on time. I recommend her without hesitation.”