2022 BellXcel Peterkin Award Winner Named

Pursue our mission with energy and purpose; innovate bold, intuitive solutions; embrace personal responsibility; promote collaboration; trust and inclusiveness; empower results and impact – these are the core values of BellXcel. The annual Peterkin Award, named after Dr. Robert B. Peterkin, a pioneer in educational leadership and past BellXcel Board Director, celebrates the employee, nominated by their colleagues, that best exemplifies the organization’s core values.

On April 6th, 2023 during a company wide meeting BellXcel CEO, Dr. Lauren Sanchez Gilbert, announced the winner of the 2022 Peterkin Award, Denise Cage. Denise began her career with BellXcel in November 2021 and serves as the Assistant Director, Customer Experience. Throughout her tenure, Denise has earned the respect and admiration of colleagues across the organization. The announcement was met with an immediate wave of congrats and applause, offering further testament to how deserving Denise was of this honor.

During Denise’s tenure at BellXcel, she has made the goals, concerns, and overall success of customers her number one priority. “Denise focuses on several details (for several different customers) at once, while maintaining a view for the high-level goal of customer experience and BellXcel efficiency,” said Danielle Caban, Director, Research & Analytics. “She worked through several customer needs related to evaluation and reporting with persistence, thoroughness, and an eye for getting the customer what they needed to serve their community while remaining mindful of internal BellXcel team structures, capacity, and value.”

Denise is an incredible asset to the BellXcel team. “She consistently and beautifully demonstrates the BellXcel Values,” said Kris Murray, Associate Vice President, Account Development. Kris continued, “Denise serves as my eyes, ears, and intuition with customers, always letting me know when some additional support is needed. I trust her insights implicitly and can confidently move forward with the information that she shares with me.” Hailey Carter, a colleague within the Customer Experience team shared that “Denise works hard, yet quietly, behind the scenes. I just hope she knows that people notice all that she does for our customers!”

Denise was incredibly honored, and surprised, to receive this recognition. When asked about receiving the award, Denise remarked, “It’s nice to take a step back and see that the work I do makes a difference.” Denise’s favorite part about working for BellXcel is being able to see the impact of her work. She said, “It’s one thing to be behind the computer, but a totally different thing to go to the sites and see the impact we make – it warms my heart and keeps me going.”

Congratulations on this well deserved recognition, Denise!