ExtraOrdinary Award Archives - Diversified Insurance Industries, Inc.

Carly White

Senior Accountant

Tenure with DII: 2 years

Name of Recognizer: Kelly Crouse

She is so nice. In personal lines we do very little with our accounting department which makes it difficult at times because we do so little of the agency bill items. She is always helpful and never makes you feel like you are bothering her or that you are stupid…she is just an overall good person. I really enjoy working with her. She is an asset to DII….

Kelly M. Crouse

Account Manager

Tenure with DII: 13 Years

Name of Recognizer: Marcy Kovelman

Kelly is someone whose dedication, hard work and exceptional contributions to our team has not only set a remarkable example but has also significantly impacted our success. Kelly is rarely noticed and never wishes to take credit. I personally have called on Kelly for knowledge when I have questioned a coverage. She is a wizard at locating policy forms and can easily take you to the exclusion which removes or limits coverages. She is busy but never too busy to help. During catastrophic weather when certain specific losses are being called in in rapid succession, she has been there to assist with policy review since each client’s policy limits to vary as to what is provided for such losses.

Marcy Kovelman

, CLCS

Claims Specialist

Tenure with DII: 9 years

Name of Recognizer: DiAnne Saine

The person I have chosen to be the next recipient of the Extra Ordinary Award takes service seriously. This person is a very busy individual raising a family, helping aging parents, and juggling multiple responsibilities but whenever I say I need help this person is there. Service is something that comes naturally to this individual because the insurance business is not something that they have been doing their entire work life. When we deal with clients on a what is often one of the worst days of their life our past efforts to provide the best service are put to the test. I am happy to say that on these days, I can ask Marcy Kovelman to step in and help and she does an amazing job. Whether it is recognizing that a situation is about to take a wrong turn and reaching out to an adjuster or filing a claim after normal business hours so that the client doesn’t have to wait, she is on it. She follows up with the clients to be sure that they are not waiting at the scene of an accident and has even offered to go and pick up an insured after her car was severely damaged at the end of a work day. Just last week we heard about her efforts to send flowers to a client that had been hurt in an accident. These are just a couple of incidents that I can recall when Marcy is involved directly with an insured. Her service heart is on display anytime our clients are in need, and I think we are very fortunate to have her in our corner.

DiAnne Saine

, CPCU

Vice President

Tenure with DII: 29 years

Name of Recognizer: Joy Davidson

The person I have chosen to be the next recipient of the Extra Ordinary Award has a warm and charismatic personality and is an introvert but at the same time an extrovert. This person is always friendly and helpful to all co-workers and that smile, and laughter is contagious. She was born in Germany, oldest of 3 children, a younger sister and brother. Her father was military and as a young child moved to central TX in a town called Kileen, where Fort Hood military base is located. There she attended school. Her given name is Belinda but we know her as DiAnne Saine. She later moved to MD where both siblings followed her so all 3 are together. DiAnne married Donnie Saine and has 2 girls, Katie and Allie and as an animal lover has 2 dogs. She is active helping Donnie as a Shriner and volunteers with other organizations. DiAnne is a giver of her time and talents, she took care of her mother for years, sewed masks for co-workers when covid hit. My grandkids benefited from her masks as she made each one a mask out of material that would fit their age and gender. She also embroiders and some of us in personal lines have had the fortune to receive some of the beautiful items she has made. DiAnne’s love is God and her family. Her grandson Tucker is an intricate part of her life, and she travels as often as she can to WV to see him. If you want to have a long conversation with DiAnne just ask her how Tucker is doing. She also experienced tragedy when her other grandson, Judson, passed away. During this difficult time for DiAnne she was an inspiration to the rest of us with her faith. A tree was planted in Judson’s memory, take the time to visit the tree on the north side of our building. Dianne, you are more than deserving of this award. I pass it on to you with pride and admiration. Thank you for your kindness and may God Bless you.

Carin Hays

Vice President / Director of Human Resources

Tenure with DII: 18 years

Name of Recognizer: Chelle Barstad

Carin interacts with each one of us almost every day lending an ear, listening when we have issues and/or checking on us to be sure we are on the right track. She shows acts of teamwork, integrity and service with every interaction with current team mates as well as new and prospective team members. We have Internal contests and prizes are awarded to her via a name drawing and yet, she will put her name back in the hat for another person to get the prize. She always wants others to enjoy the prize. Carin shows care and concern with her team members as well as the environment and surroundings in our office space. She just recently noticed our sink drain was clogged and needed to be cleaned so she took the initiative to add chemicals to take care of the odor. Carin gives more than she gives herself credit for. She makes sure we have breakfast every first Tuesday of the month and is a GREAT singer when we sing our duet for DII anniversary celebrations. A prime example of her overwhelming kindness is that in mid- October, I left the office in a rush to get home and get my daughter to her homecoming dance. In my rush to leave, left my camera at work. As everyone knows, I love to capture the moment and love to take photos. In a panic, I called Carin to find my camera and asked her to put it In my office. She asked, without hesitation, “where is the pre-party for the homecoming?” She met me at my daughter’s date’s house with my camera, so I was able to capture the moment. I am so thankful to her for her doing that, yes my cellphone would have worked but she knew I wanted my camera and it was so thoughtful of her to take the time to bring it to me. I know Carin will be upset that I am giving her this award, she will probably tell me, “ I don’t want this OR give to someone else as I will make do.” However, today – Feb 11, I give the EXTRAordinary award to CARIN HAYS!

Brianna Barry

Account Manager

Tenure with DII: 9 years

Name of Recognizer: Natalya Pankova

Since my childhood, I have never considered myself a crafty person. I never thought that I was creative and I can do make cool things out of nothing, like take a stone and color it or take a wood plank and make a nice piece of art. For the last couple years, I have been attending the Life Enrichment classes and I really enjoyed doing all of these craft staff. It opened me up to new things and I discovered new talents I wasn’t aware I had. I can do nice crafts too! I wanted nominate Brianna for doing such a great job putting together absolutely Extra Ordinary Life Enrichment classes!

Chandre’ L. Kelly

, CLCS

Team Lead / Account Manager

Tenure with DII: 10 years

Name of Recognizer: Stephen Licata

I wanted to present the Extra Ordinary Award to someone that reflected DII in a positive manor and is highly respected by their peers. That is why I wanted to present the Extra Ordinary Award to Chandre because of her positive attitude, her constantly giving off positive energy, and someone I can share laughs with. I normally talk to her in the morning and having her energy and positivity is a great way to start the day. Chandre in my opinion is a great person to hold this award.

Stephen Licata

Client Services Coordinator

Tenure with DII: 6 years

Name of Recognizer: Nick Doccolo

I chose Stephen based on personal character traits rather than performance. I don’t really see much of the insurance side so I have no idea what goes into making a sale, getting a client, or anything like that, let alone a high performance sale. I’ve seen Stephen train new employees with patience, understanding, and he is very giving of his time. I’ve also seen him apply these same principles to helping out just about anyone who asks for help. On top of that, the other reason that I chose to give it to Stephen was that, from an IT perspective, he’s also been there trying to figure it out with me if he has a problem. He tries to understand what caused the problem and how to fix it in the future so he knows how to fix it himself. He asks me questions on why something works the way it is, how it works, and how to do it again. He’s also taken initiative for a tech related setup that we have in the Bruns’ office. We created a setup to allow Stephen to swap the monitors over to another computer when Barczak is not in there and within a week, he no longer asks for help with it. He has taken it upon himself to learn how the swap works so he can do it himself. I never asked or insinuated that I wanted him to take over from me in the role, but I believe that it showed his character as he chose to learn it so he didn’t have to ask me every morning.

Nick Doccolo

IT Systems Specialist

Tenure with DII: 4 years

Name of Recognizer: Steve Johnson

Trying to find an extra-ordinary employee in the new office is tough. Everyone works in their zones and with the noise cancelling, while wonderful and amazing, doesn’t allow me to hear conversations more than 20 feet away. This is a beautiful thing, just not the best for searching for extra-ordinary things people do. Since I sit near Nick, I get to hear him work with many people in the office from the time we come in early until the end of the day when we leave. When presented with a problem from a panicked individual in the office, Nick’s demeanor, which is quite calm, immediately puts people in our office at ease. Being that Nick is in the nerve center of tech in the office, everything comes at him and people want answers ASAP. He calms people down and works on a solution immediately. Something of which does not occur much in life these days. I have seen him work on tech equipment in the office and it always gets taken care of quickly and efficiently. I hear him get the issue report, make phones calls or whatever it takes to get the situation resolved. Jorge did a great job in that position, but Nick’s extra effort put into tasks and people skills works well. Sorta like an Emergency room tech, calming folks down to fix the issues works well, our office needs this type of person.

Steve Johnston

Vice President

Tenure with DII: 21 years

Name of Recognizer: Cherie Meyer

This individual is very soft spoken, always willing to help out whether an insurance question or change a flat tire. This person can be relied upon to be there for team members and the DII customers. I don’t think that I have ever seen this person in a bad mood, or heard a cross word. This person is not one to call attention to themselves. Not only does this person come in and do a great job with the accounts assigned, but this person has also managed to find a “nitch” market that they have pursued and has been very successful in writing business. This person would be deemed a “hybrid”- part account manager and part producer. This person is a team player and just a nice person. But no matter how you look at it, he is an asset to DII and truly an Extraordinary Person.

Karen Wladkowski

Vice President

Tenure with DII: 36 years

Name of Recognizer: Jorge Vazquez

I chose Karen as next in line to receive the ExtraOrdinary award for the following reasons. 1. Her dedication to DII over the last 33 years, coming in on Saturdays to help clean out files, staying late with Jack to make sure he has everything he needs for the next day and fighting with the village to make sure we have hot water in the bathrooms, etc. 2. Her servant spirit – everything she does in this office is for others. 3. Her loving heart – every time something happens to one of us or our families, Karen is there with kind words and a loving heart. She treats all of us like family, even when we don’t deserve it. 4. Her attitude – she puts you in your place when you need it most, and holds people accountable for their actions. 5. The way she treats my family – my kids love coming here and she’s the main reason. I could go on and on, but you get the point.

Julee Hager

Senior Customer Service Representative

Tenure with DII: 28 years

Name of Recognizer: Phyllis Jeddry

I chose Julee to receive this award because she is always willing to help anyone with anything when asked. She is incredibly busy in her unit as an Associate/Account Facilitator but she has never said no when I have asked for her help with anything and she always does it with a smile on her face. When she does offer her help, she always goes above and beyond to make sure that the job she is doing for you is done well and taken care of. Not only does she always offer her help but she is one of the most dedicated employees I know. She comes in early every day, never calls in sick and is an incredibly hard worker. I can’t think of anyone else in this office whose dedication and hard work measures up to hers. And for this, she is truly an example of what an EXTRAORDINARY person is.

Phyllis Jeddry

, CPCU, AAI, AU

Vice President / Marketing Manager

Tenure with DII: 38 years

Name of Recognizer: Barb Pycha

I chose to highlight the selfless deeds of Phyllis Jeddry during the early 2016 blizzard. As the snow piled up, one of our co-workers had posted on Facebook that she had no one to shovel her out of her home. She had attempted to hire someone in her Towson neighborhood with no success. Almost immediately, Phyllis posted that if Judy needed help she would be glad to assist her. Phyllis does not live in close proximity to Towson and the amount of snow we received would have made the trip from Bel Air extremely difficult. Even though Judy ended up not needing the help from Phyllis to dig out after the blizzard, the offer to help was genuine and heartfelt. As if this thoughtful act were not enough, when we did return to work, I found that Phyllis had brought Jennifer to work as plows had not touched the development where her family lived. When Phyllis found out that Jen was stranded, she immediately offered assistance going out of her way to bring her to and from work. If you recall, roads were not well plowed after the event making that trip from Bel Air to Nottingham to Cross Keys quite the adventure. I thought that these two small acts of kindness and generosity spoke to Phyllis’ servant’s heart in a very big way and led me to my decision to pass the ExtraOrdinary torch to her.

ExtraOrdinary Award

Carly White

Kelly M. Crouse

Marcy Kovelman

, CLCS

DiAnne Saine

, CPCU

Carin Hays

Brianna Barry

Chandre’ L. Kelly

, CLCS

Stephen Licata

Nick Doccolo

Steve Johnston

Karen Wladkowski

Julee Hager

Phyllis Jeddry

, CPCU, AAI, AU

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