Giovanna LoCascio: Grace under pressure
When graduate students in the Department of Psychology find themselves in a tight spot, they know who to talk to -- the woman affectionately known as Gio, the unflappable graduate program secretary and unofficial den mother to dozens of master's and PhD students.
Giovanna LoCascio has earned a reputation in her department for grace under pressure and for being terrifically well organized. The co-winner of this year's staff excellence award from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, LoCascio is her department's not-so-secret weapon.
She responds to hundreds of requests each year from prospective students about her department's graduate programs and processes the 250 applications received for those programs.
When a student is accepted, she can expect to receive a phone call from LoCascio to give her the news and to answer questions. LoCascio organizes orientation sessions and non-academic advising for the newcomers when they arrive at McGill. She administers their financial support, telling them which fellowships to apply for (half of the department's graduate students have external funding -- a tribute to her efforts).
She takes care of assigning TAs to courses, winning praise from both professors and students for her unerring sense of who's right for what job. She also handles the arrangements for thesis submissions and oral defences. She sits on the department's teaching awards committee, maintains graduate students' records and oversees the course evaluation process for graduate seminars.
And that's all just part of her job -- she doubles as the secretary to the chair of the department, professor Anthony Marley.
Marley says she shines in that role as well, ensuring that urgent matters are brought to his attention quickly, while also guarding his time so that he can meet his teaching and research obligations.
Departmental chairs come and go, Marley says, but when a department is really lucky, "people like Giovanna stay."
LoCascio says there is a simple reason why she has decided to stay put in the department for the past 22 years. "It's a special place. The faculty, the students, the support staff -- we're like a team. Everybody works well together. In some places, you see this attitude -- 'she's just a secretary' -- I've never come across that here. People genuinely respect one another."
LoCascio began working at McGill in 1973 as a receptionist in the Faculty of Music. It was supposed to be a temporary gig, but she wound up staying and transferred to psychology in 1976. "I thought there was more of a chance for me to move up the ladder." She toyed with the idea of quitting and doing a degree in counselling, but abandoned the notion once she got married and had a couple of kids.
Of course, she has become a counselor of sorts, much to her satisfaction. And, given her academic interests, she's probably in an ideal department.
"We have professors doing all sorts of research here and I keep my ears open. I pick up things."
From the perspective of graduate students, LoCascio stands out as a friendly guide through the maze of policies, forms, questionnaires and other paperwork they have to contend with. "She always goes the extra mile for graduate students, no matter what they need," says David Aboussafy, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology.
LoCascio says her motivation is simple. "I want to make things as painless as I can for them."
The students trust her and when they relay concerns or problems involving the department, LoCascio diplomatically passes the message on to the appropriate administrators and professors. When LoCascio brings an issue up, people take heed.
"When you come to her with a problem, she makes you feel as if she has all the time in the world for you -- and yet she does a million things," says Rhonda Amsel, the associate dean of students and a lecturer in the department. "She really cares about the people around her."
Daniel McCabe
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