Rising Professional Award

2015 Recipient: Emily Diederich, M.D.

Physician, assistant professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center
1999 B.S. in Kinesiology, 2001 M.S. in Kinesiology

Emily Diederich is a pulmonary and critical care physician at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She serves as director of simulation for the Zamierowski Institute of Experiential Learning, a training center for health care students and professionals from the University of Kansas Hospital and KU Medical Center.

Her advocacy of simulation-based learning grew from her conviction that the most critical step for any medical practitioner is to practice requisite skills. “Simulation-based education provides the unique opportunity to do this in a safe, standardized way while allowing for objective evaluation, feedback and reflection,” she said. She developed a simulation-based curriculum in critical care and has written and presented extensively on simulation-based education.

Dr. Diederich is recognized for significant contribution to the field of human ecology at the early stages of her career.

She received her medical degree from the University Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and completed a residency at Northwestern University, Chicago, followed by a fellowship at the KU School of Medicine. She is board certified in internal medicine, as well as pulmonary and critical care, and serves as co-chair of the American College of Chest Physicians Difficult Airway Simulation Course.

Among her honors are U.S. track Coaches Association Academic All-American, Leo H. Criep Award for outstanding senior medical student for internal medicine at Pittsburgh and Max Allen Clinical Scholar award from the Department of Internal Medicine at KU.

 

2015 Recipient: Andrea R. Oltjen

Director of Catering and Events Sales of Chelsea Hotel Group: The Martha Washington & Marta Restaurant, Chelsea Hotels, New York City, NY
2007 B.S. in Hotel and Restaurant Management

Andrea Oltjen, the 4^th generation in her family to attend Kansas State University, serves as director of catering and events sales for the Martha Washington Hotel New York, an historic all-women’s hotel recently renovated into a boutique property that includes Union Square Hospitality’s Marta Restaurant. She develops and builds the events team responsible for contracting $2.5 million in catering revenue.

She is recognized for significant contribution to the field of human ecology at the early stages of her career.

Growing up on a farm outside of Hiawatha, she showed quarter horses, placing in the top 36 in the Youth World Show in 2000. She says her parents encouraged her to major in hotel and restaurant management because they understood their daughter’s knack for genuine hospitality and entertaining people.

Oltjen has worked with W Hotels in Chicago, Hyatt Regency Greenwich, Connecticut and Delmar Greenwich Harbor on Long Island Sound where she planned events and contracted guest rooms for celebrities and dignitaries.

She then opened the Hyatt Times Square in New York as event sales manager where she helped develop the catering and events processes. “Entertaining clients and selling a quality culinary product and wine are my true passions, making my choice long ago of hospitality management at K-State the perfect choice for me,” she said.