Jamie Overstreet Earns YB Staff Award for 2023

Jamie Overstreet, program coordinator of Oberlin’s Art History and Studio Art departments, was named the recipient of the 2023 YB Award for extraordinary service, an annual honor awarded to an Oberlin staff member.  Overstreet was honored by President Carmen Twillie Ambar at a lunch event for employees in the Root Room on April 26.

An 11-year employee of Oberlin, Overstreet coordinates the needs of approximately two dozen faculty and staff members for both departments, including maintaining the schedules for five buildings, managing budgets for all studio art courses, and scheduling and promoting some 30 visiting artists and scholars and numerous exhibitions annually.

“Jamie is absolutely integral to the functioning of the Studio Art Department for students, staff, and faculty alike,” one nominating colleague noted.

Additional praise for Overstreet among nominators included the following:

“She is the most public face for one of the biggest departments on campus. She makes the art curriculum possible for Oberlin College.”

“I’ve truly never worked with someone who performs so many integral functions at the same time with such efficiency and kindness, and her excellence sets the tone for the department.”

“Jamie is an absolutely incredible person. She is so organized and makes sure that everything that she is involved with runs as smoothly and simply as possible. She puts in so much extra effort in order to make events and communication accessible for everyone.”

“I cannot say enough about the recognition that Jamie Jacobs deserves and has earned through hard work. She is inspiring to all of us and runs a tight ship so that faculty and students can work in our diverse, complex ways.”

“In everything she does, she is both genuinely empathetic and the consummate professional. I’m pretty sure Jamie could run the world, and it would be a much better place if she did.”

The YB Staff Award was established to honor the extraordinary service of the late Yeworkwha Belachew—“YB,” as she was affectionately known—who served Oberlin in numerous roles for more than 35 years, most notably as ombudsperson and founder of the Oberlin College Dialogue Center (OCDC). The center was renamed the Yeworkwha Belachew Center for Dialogue upon her retirement in 2016.

First presented in 2016—to Belachew—the YB Award was established to recognize a non-faculty employee of the college or conservatory who demonstrates daily commitment and performance in advancing Oberlin’s strategic goals through exemplary service.

For more information about the YB Award and a complete list of past honorees, please visit the Department of Human Resources’ Awards and Recognition page.