Gail Elliott took\u00a0her job seriously.<\/p>\n
When someone walked into the Campus Security Services (CSS) office, it was her smiling face who greeted them. If they called the office, it was Elliott\u2019s calming voice they heard on the phone.<\/p>\n
After\u00a014 years of service as Administrative Assistant for\u00a0CSS, and nearly two decades at\u00a0Brock, Elliott\u00a0retired at the end of\u00a0December.<\/p>\n
As the office’s first point of contact, it was important to Elliott that she\u00a0provided the best service she could.<\/p>\n
“No matter\u00a0the\u00a0situation, or how volatile it was,\u00a0I always remained\u00a0calm\u00a0and\u00a0friendly,” she said.\u00a0“I\u00a0assisted\u00a0people\u00a0the best way I could.”<\/p>\n
During her time with CSS, Elliott experienced a wide variety of\u00a0situations from inclement weather to campus power outages to having a\u00a0suspicious package discovered on campus. She also helped countless people\u00a0seeking lost belongings, inquiring about campus\u00a0parking and reporting incidents.<\/p>\n
Elliott still remembers the time\u00a0a student’s aunt called in a panic, trying to get in touch with her nephew for a\u00a0family medical emergency.\u00a0After helping the family connect with the student, the aunt wrote to the CSS director calling Elliott\u00a0\u201chelpful, empathetic and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to\u00a0beginning her role\u00a0with Campus Security Services\u00a0in 2003, Elliott\u00a0was\u00a0employed through Temporary\u00a0Employment\u00a0Services from 1999 to 2000, performing\u00a0administrative duties at 24 different departments across Brock.\u00a0After accumulating enough hours to apply for a permanent position, Elliott secured administrative assistant roles\u00a0in\u00a0Procurement\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Office of Research Services.<\/p>\n
Her early career involved working as an educational\u00a0assistant\u00a0and\u00a0family respite provider, as well as in administrative roles with\u00a0public schools and a board\u00a0of education.<\/p>\n
Even with\u00a0her varied\u00a0experience,\u00a0Elliott said working for\u00a0Campus Security was\u00a0unlike any\u00a0other role she held at Brock.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s an interesting job, but you can’t talk about it,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cEvery\u00a0day I dealt with\u00a0confidential, sometimes\u00a0highly sensitive information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although she officially retired at the end of 2017, Elliott is employed\u00a0two days a week\u00a0with CSS to\u00a0help with the new\u00a0administrative\u00a0assistant’s transition and\u00a0complete\u00a0some important project milestones.<\/p>\n
In her new-found free time,\u00a0Elliott\u00a0swims,\u00a0plays the guitar and\u00a0spends\u00a0quality time with\u00a0her\u00a0four\u00a0grandchildren,\u00a0three daughters and her husband, Raymond. A fifth grandchild is due in\u00a0March.<\/p>\n
She also plans to continue volunteering with the MS Society of Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.<\/p>\n
Elliott has mixed emotions about\u00a0leaving Brock permanently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved my position,” she said.\u00a0“Donna Moody\u00a0is an\u00a0excellent Director and I feel\u00a0privileged\u00a0to have worked for her. Under her leadership, I’m\u00a0proud to say\u00a0that\u00a0I’ve\u00a0played\u00a0an important role in implementing positive, efficient changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I look forward to\u00a0retirement and spending more time with my family, I will miss the family I made at Campus Security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After\u00a014 years of service as Administrative Assistant for\u00a0Campus Security Services, and nearly two decades at\u00a0Brock, Gail Elliott\u00a0retired at the end of\u00a0December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,4],"tags":[4912,6181,6321,474],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49444,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49442\/revisions\/49444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}