Ortiz honored for community contributions

On April 29, 2026, Grainger Dean Devesh Ranjan hosted a celebration at which he recognized engineering faculty and staff for outstanding daily work that shapes the heart of our college.

Lizeth Ortiz, an academic advisor in academic affairs, received the Culture Champion Award for staff.

Ortiz is the lead advisor and timetable manager for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In other words, she mentors and empowers an advising team for more than 1,100 students and expertly handles one of the largest, most complex timetables in the college.

Importantly, she’s cultivated meaningful, collaborative relationships through which she supports and uplifts students, faculty, colleagues, students, new advisors and many others. She’s an enthusiastic participant on advisor search committees, then mentors the new hires—even creating custom training opportunities to ensure their success. “As my mentor, Lizeth empowered me to be independent in my learning and training, yet feel incredibly supported at the same time,” says one of her mentees.

Ortiz also is active in the college’s “Engineering For All” program, where she’s taken a lead role in a yearlong teaching and learning community of practice for engineering faculty and instructors—an investment of time and talent that ripples outward into our student body and college community as a whole.