Panda is way more active this year doing things for the server that I see than I did last year.
In fact GM team overall is much better at getting content on the server than it has been in a long while.
I was in one of the pvp fight for items events she did one day and won me a stone buckler, that was mighty fun stuff. I also just talked with her today to basically start some scripting with Rankin for a future quest on the server.
She is there, but just not as public a face as she use to be.