Syreeta Taylor Wins Regional Admin Award for Leadership
Syreeta Taylor ’24 is the 2025 winner of the Admin Award for Leadership, honoring administrative professionals.
She was recognized by the Admin Awards for the Washington D.C. and Mid-Atlantic region, at the “Good as Gold” ceremony held last month in Washington D.C. at the Waldorf-Astoria.
The Leadership Award recognizes an administrative professional that formally or informally leads others and has a passion for helping fellow employees and their organization succeed. The award honors the nominee that best demonstrates multiple leadership qualities, including: confidence, focus, integrity, innovation, patience, decisiveness, open-mindedness, empowerment, generosity and persistence.
Taylor, the executive assistant to the dean of the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences (CHESS), was nominated for the award in May of this year.
Upon receiving news of her nomination, colleagues from across UNC Charlotte wrote letters of praise, offering testimonials to support Taylor in becoming a finalist for the award.
Supporters of Taylor’s nomination included former Interim Dean of CHESS John Smail, who noted Taylor’s ability to help the College navigate significant change and “keep the ship afloat,” during the formation of the new College and a turnover in leadership.
Taylor, seated between her brother and colleague, was stunned by the announcement of her win.
Taylor was accompanied to the ceremony by Dace Brown, her friend and colleague in the College for Health and Human Services, and her younger brother, Miguel Little.
She was announced as a finalist for the Leadership Award at the start of the ceremony, which surprised Taylor.
“Many of the award nominees were from prominent national or global companies, so I was excited to be named a finalist representing a public university,” said Taylor.
Darrell Williams, supervisory human resources specialist for the US Department of Defense, presented the recognition in the Leadership Award category.
When Taylor’s name was called as the Leadership Award winner, she sat at the table stunned, while cheers and applause erupted around her. Brown recounted that she jumped up excitedly and had to encourage Taylor to stand and walk to the stage to give her acceptance speech.
Chris Boyer, founding dean of CHESS, praised Taylor for the recognition and for her efforts to support the College.
“Syreeta approaches her work with a sense of purpose and a human touch, getting things done in an efficient and empathetic way,” said Boyer. “I’ve really come to admire her wisdom. She has a nose for what’s important and she has an incredible ability to make things happen.”
“There’s also nothing like having a Marine as your executive assistant,” Boyer added, smiling.
As a result of her award, Taylor and Boyer have been invited to speak during a national roundtable discussion entitled “The Partnership Advantage: When 1+1=11.”
The virtual event will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 1 from 12 to 1:15 p.m. Eastern time. The discussion is part of the Beacon Institute for Administrative Excellence and is free to attend with registration.
