Catawba County News
County Employees Honored During Annual Recognition Celebration
Published: October 15, 2026
Catawba County recognized several employees for exceptional performance during its annual employee recognition celebration October 15th.
Tyler Garrison, a Utilities & Engineering Business Manager II, was selected by his peers as the county’s Employee of the Year. Garrison has served the county for 21 years.
As stated in his nomination, “Tyler is a dedicated employee who sets extremely high standards for himself and works very hard to meet them. Since joining the Utilities & Engineering Department, Tyler has quickly established himself as a highly dependable and knowledgeable employee, taking primary responsibility for preparing three complex department budgets. He works closely with department leadership to ensure needs are accurately addressed, and helping supervisors follow policies and providing clear, useful information to support department operations. When programming inefficiencies were slowing down checks and balances between departments, he stepped up to take on the extra work needed to provide quicker, more reliable reporting to ensure accurate records and audit readiness. His dedication and willingness to put in the extra work has increased department productivity and morale in equal measures.”
Garrison was among seven finalists selected from the 18 employees nominated for the County’s Employee of the Year award. Other finalists were Teresa Buff, Assistant Tax Collector – Tax; Sharon Hamby, Licensing Social Worker – Social Services; Lindsay Mitchell, Administrative Assistant II – Social Services; Shelley Orr, Library Services Manager – Library; Brittany Presnell, Business Manager I – Emergency Services; Jennifer Tuttle, Charge Nurse – Public Health.
In addition to individual employee awards, Catawba County honored two teams for Team of the Year Awards.
The Adult Medicaid Long-term Care Team, as well as the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Team were selected by a panel of municipal managers, recognizing their determination to maintaining high-quality services to their clients during a period when State computer systems became unavailable.
The Adult Medicaid Long-term Care Team included Tammy Ballard, Teresa Shuping, Heather Weaver, Heather Caldwell, Shateela Carson, Jessica Whitbeck, Hannah Shelton, and Ashley Teague.
The WIC Team included Sara Kubiak, Karlee Prater, Alyssa Clement, David Thomas, Jasmine Harshaw, Liliana RojoChavez, Brenda IbarraAbrego, Kaylan Woodyard, Sharyn Guthrie, Ana Griffin, Amanda Gragg, Jeremy Stockton, and Shannon Pruitt Bowers.
These two teams were selected from four finalists nominated for the award. The other finalists were the Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention Re-Engagement and the Continuous Quality Improvement Unit (CQI) Teams.
