The University of Tennessee at Martin has named Kayla Brooks as the recipient of the fall 2020 Beth Maloan Outstanding Student Employee award for her exemplary job performance and commitment to the university, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brooks is a senior communications major from Dickson and works for both WUTM 90.3 FM “The Hawk” as the program director and the Student Recreation Center as a yoga instructor. In the midst of the pandemic, Brooks has adapted her responsibilities in unique ways to ensure her duties to the campus community are fulfilled, including recording newscasts in the most acoustically-sound space in her apartment – the bathtub and hosting socially-distanced yoga in the quad.

In her three years at “The Hawk,” Brooks has served as a news reporter, news director and is now the program director responsible for leading the executive team and station staff, writing and editing on-air and online stories, as well as arranging programming on social media. According to Dr. Richard Robinson, professor of communications and faculty adviser of “The Hawk,” of the 43 awards the radio station has won in the 2019-20 academic year, Brooks is responsible for over half.

Brooks also has worked at the Student Recreation Center as a yoga instructor since fall 2018 and hosts weekly classes, whether online or in-person, to promote wellness and good health.
<blockquote>“Kayla Brooks represents the best that the University of Tennessee at Martin has to offer in a student and as a student worker,” said Robinson in Brooks’ nomination letter. “She is smart, dependable, dedicated and reliable in achievement, accuracy, and above all, honest.”</blockquote>
The award is given in honor of the late Beth Maloan, UT Martin director of budgeting and dedicated student employee advocate. A plaque and $1,000 check are presented to a student each spring and fall semester.

For more information, contact the Office of University Relations at 731-881-7615.
<p style="text-align: center;">###</p>