APPA, the Association for Higher Education Officers, singled out a Brigham Young University administrator and a BYU Facilities Management program for honors at its recent national convention in Washington, D. C.
Douglas Christensen, advocate for the Office of Administrative Services for Physical Facilities, was awarded APPA's Fellow Award for his long-time contributions to the association. The APPA Fellow Award is the organization's highest individual honor and newest award.
Christensen also received the APPA President's Award for his development of the FMEP Review Team. The Facility Management Evaluation Program is used by APPA member institutions to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of their facility operations. The institution completes a self-study and then review teams are sent to examine and review the results. FMEP is peer-review driven and goes much deeper into the workings and professional manner in which the institutions physical plant and resources are being managed.
In addition, BYU's Facilities Management Department was honored with APPA's 2004 Effective and Innovative Practices Award for its Capital Needs Analysis program, which was largely developed by Christensen. CNA is an integrated program that deals with the capital funding, planning, and projecting of needs relating to asset re-capitalization, retrofits and renewals, improvements and new asset planning of additional buildings and property needs.
This approach to life cycle monitoring has saved the university millions of dollars by maximizing asset investment and managing the return investment from the asset, said the APPA citation.
According to a long-time colleague and APPA emeritus member Charlie Jenkins, "Doug Christensen has spent countless hours with APPA members, brainstorming, advising and even dreaming of new and exciting initiatives for the association to pursue. He is equally generous in counseling individual members regarding their career paths."
"The APPA of today has Doug Christensen's fingerprints all over it. His service will hopefully continue for years to come. He has been on the cutting edge of many APPA firsts and it's only appropriate that he be one of the first to receive the APPA Fellow," stated Jenkins.
Christensen has held several offices at the regional and international level of APPA. They include: chair, APPA's Professional Leadership Center, 2000-present; president, APPA, 1995-96; president, Rocky Mountain APPA Region, 1992-93; and team member/leader for various FMEP studies.
