Mary Ann Esporas has bagged Outstanding Women Award

Mary Ann Esporas has bagged Outstanding Women Award

• April 20, 2022

Ms. Mary Ann R. Padamada-Esporas has been a loyal Administrative Personnel at the University of the Philippines School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP SURP) for nearly three decades. She first joined the institution under the UP Planning and Development Research Foundation, Inc. (UP PLANADES) from 1991-1994. She dedicated more than half of her career at the Office of the Graduate Studies before taking on a short stint as Human Resource Assistant in   late   2019,   carrying   out   the   responsibilities of Administrative Officer. Presently, Ms. Padamada-Esporas is assigned to the Office of Research and Publication of the school where she takes on research and data gathering assignments.

Apart from her regular functions, she contributes innovatively to the institution. In 2018, she penned the Manual of the Thesis and Dissertation Format for Master of Arts (Urban and Regional Planning), Master of Science (Regional Development Planning), and Doctor of Philosophy (Urban and Regional Planning). The book was registered at the National Library of the Philippines (NLP) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Philippines in March 2019. She initiated the compilation of documents and information as well as a lecture for the format of thesis and dissertation for the students of UP SURP. She had been the Resource Person of the University of the Philippines Planners Organization (UP PLANO) the school’s student organization, for the thesis and dissertation format including a flowchart guide of activities for students from 2015 to 2020.

Ms. Padamada-Esporas is the first employee of the UP SURP to receive the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) Chancellor Award for Outstanding Employee (Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Kawani) 2020 — the highest distinction for exemplary performance, contribution, innovation, and achievements.

She also takes on responsibilities in the university outside of her home unit. The UP Office of the Chancellor (OC) also entrusted Ms. Padamada-Esporas to be a member of the newly constituted UPD Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Committee in October 2020, and the UPD Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (UPD PRAISE) for Administrative Staff in September 2021. She also functions as the Focal Person of the UP SURP Gender and Development Committee (GAD).

Me-An, as she is fondly called, is a widow and a solo parent. This, however, did not become strife for higher learning. Inspired by her family and UP SURP students, she decided to take up her Master in Business Administration specializing in Disaster Risk Management degree at the Philippine School of Business Administration (PSBA) Manila under a scholarship grant from the same institution, which she is currently finishing. She also earned viable units in Master of Arts (Library Science) from UP Diliman. She completed her Bachelor in Business Administration (major in Management) from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Manila (PUP Manila).

She is also a devoted researcher and conveys her ideas through presentations and lectures across Southeast Asia with the most recent at the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) in November 2021. She has also completed the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) program on Women’s Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction Programme 2021 Cycle in December 2021. She was chosen as one of the 87 scholars out of 278 applicants for the 6^th Asia Future Conference (AFC#6). The co-authored research paper will be presented in August 2022, Taiwan. Her research entitled “Alumni Management System” was registered and deposited at the NLP and approved by the IPO of the Philippines as original work in February 2019.

Ms. Padamada-Esporas is not only a dedicated public servant, but also a humanitarian response advocate. She was one of the first volunteers when the UPD received the Typhoon Yolanda (Typhoon Haiyan) survivors in November 2013. She is the Co-founder and Adviser of the imMeasurable Help & Relief, and Protector of the Environment (MHRPE), a special community service project began by her daughter, Maria Hannah Rhian, in 2012. The activities support  children,  women,  old people,  indigent, disaster victims, and  the needy.  From 2014 to 2017, Ms. Esporas supported Kuehne+Nagel, an international organization providing free training and workshop for the survivors of Typhoon Yolanda and locals of the country. Since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in March 2020, she has contributed to different community-based assistance activities and supports students, utility employees, security guards, construction workers, frontliners, etc. She continuously gives voluntary assistance like humanitarian and psychosocial community services.

In December 2021, Ms. Padamada-Esporas was one of the pioneers of the Who’s Who Award of the Aloysian Publication. She bagged three (3) major awards namely: the Gawad Pinoy for Outstanding Non-Teaching Personnel, Outstanding Global Researcher Award, and Gawad Pinoy for Humanitarian and General Services. The awards are given to excellent individuals who rendered the highest altitude of achievements in the field of expertise. In February 2022, she received two (2) major awards, the Outstanding Researcher of the Year and Writer of the Year, from the Instabright International Guild of Researchers and Educators, Inc. These award-giving organizations are approved by the Department of Education – Philippines.

Ms. Padamada-Esporas is honored to receive the Outstanding Women Award on a global level under the Wonder Woman Awards Category of the Women Icon powered by Times Women and World Women Council (WWC).