Three members of the Stanford staff have been selected to receive 2018 Amy J. Blue Awards , which honor staff members who are exceptionally dedicated, supportive of colleagues and passionate about their work.

This year’s Amy J. Blue winners are Christina Ablaza, program manager of the Creative Writing Program ; Sheila Dolezal, director of finance and administration in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology of Stanford Medicine; and Rafael Velazquez, food service worker in Stanford Dining, a division of Residential & Dining Enterprises .

President Marc Tessier-Lavigne will present the awards at a May 15 ceremony for the winners and their families, friends and colleagues. The ceremony will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Lagunita Courtyard, located on Santa Teresa Street across from Roble Field. Refreshments will be served.

Profiles of the winners will appear in Stanford Report before the ceremony.

The Amy J. Blue Award includes a $4,000 prize.

The award was established in 1991 to honor the life and work of Amy J. Blue, associate vice president for administrative services and facilities, who died of brain cancer in May 1988, about a month before her 45th birthday.

Stanford created a garden in her name, a small oasis of flowering trees and shrubs located near Memorial Church. It has four wooden benches, including one that rocks, and a sundial with an engraved motto: “Count only happy hours.”

Blue was known as a whirlwind of a woman who brought excitement, intensity and novelty into every undertaking. She also was known as an extraordinary leader – a woman of incisive intelligence, abundant energy and unrelenting honesty.