Letters of Recommendation


Please take a moment to read through these letters of recommendation, written by people in the community that I have worked for.

I am pleased to offer this letter of recommendation for Kathleen Kallen, who held the position of Web Master for the Western Michigan University Department of Human Resources from April 2002 to August 2003.

It was with great regret that Kathleen's position was eliminated due to an overall reduction in force (layoffs) that occurred here at the University. Positions were selected for elimination based on a very structured formula that did not take job performance into consideration. If it had, however, Kathleen's position would have been secure, because her work for us was simply outstanding.

Please allow me to preface my comments regarding Kathleen's achievements by explaining the state of our Web site prior to April 2002. Our Web site had been developed over several years by many short-term employees with varying levels of training and expertise; the result was a rather chaotic site written primarily in straight HTML, without consistent design or structural logic, and with many outdated files and elements.

Kathleen tackled what could have been an overwhelming project by juggling immediate Web update needs with her strong desire and ability to organize, redesign, and update our site. The WMU Human Resources Web site now has approximately 200 well-designed, functional, and informative pages (plus links to hundreds of supporting documents) largely due to Kathleen's accomplishments, which include:

1. Redesigning the site, bringing it to a professional level. She did this by designing and implementing Dreamweaver templates and library items, designing a new masthead and toolbar, standardizing the HTML code, standardizing the text layout, and designed and implementing cascading style sheets.
   
   
2. Reorganizing the site structure, identifying and removing outdated material and files, and providing logic to the overall file structure.
   
   
3. Providing on-going site maintenance, updating page content and design, and developing new pages as needed. She also identified and resolved errors and found ways to minimize load time.

Kathleen is a very respected coworker who brought many desirable attributes to our workplace. While her pleasant, friendly demeanor was always appreciated, she also was very willing to share her knowledge with our staff, whether in one-on-one instruction or by writing and presenting training materials.

Another key success measure is Kathleen's ability to communicate well with management and coworkers. She grasps concepts and ideas brought by others, often in layman's terms, and responds quickly with feasible implementation models.

One shining example of Kathleen's work ethic is how she takes the initiative to find solutions. If she, or someone else, has an idea for a site-enhancing function, she does whatever is necessary to learn how to implement it. She not only conducted independent research, but she also met regularly with other University Web managers to research, share, and find solutions to various issues-anything from working with obscure features of PDF documents, to intricate server, Dreamweaver, JavaScript, and PERL issues.

I believe you will find Kathleen to be an excellent Web designer and a strong contributor to your organization. I invite you to visit our Web site at www.wmich.edu/hr/ to preview Kathleen's work-I am confident that you will be impressed. Please feel free to call me at (269) 387-3654 if I can help further.

Sincerely,

Kathlene M. Scheffers
Communications Coordinator
Western Michigan University

I am writing this letter of recommendation and referral at the request of Kathleen Kallen. Earlier this year, I contracted with Kathleen to develop and implement a website for the Campus Employee Dispute Resolution Services (CEDRS) program at Western Michigan University. I was extremely happy with Kathleen's ability to take my rough ideas, and to turn them into an accurate, professional, attractive and intuitive, user-friendly website. Kathleen effectively blends excellent technical skills with good listening, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. She made this project painless, efficient, fun, and ultimately better than my original vision.

Kathleen was gracious and professional in incorporating my afterthoughts and minor changes once the project was underway. I appreciated the range of Kathleen's expertise, which allowed us to include a printable brochure as a PDF document, a PowerPoint presentation, and links to pages in other websites so that information from other sources would remain current.

Kathleen was forward-thinking in her design approach, and helped me to think beyond my initial imaginings. She kept the larger vision in mind, while effectively attending to accuracy and clarity in the details. Kathleen's dedication to the project ensured that it was completed and implemented on budget and ahead of schedule. The website can be viewed at: http://www.wmich.edu/cedrs/. Kathleen also provided the same level of professional assistance as I developed a new CEDRS brochure in Adobe PageMaker (which is mounted on the website), and with other desktop publishing projects.

To sum it up, my working experience with Kathleen was very positive, and she comes with my highest recommendation. I hope that you are able to find a way to put her dedication, commitment, knowledge, and skills to good use. Feel free to call me if I can be of any further assistance.