Colorado State University

My research administration career began on Oct. 3, 2022! I brought 20 years of editing, program coordination, and outreach with me. I’ve been learning something new every day and solving puzzles with a great team. I’m currently learning and making connections at the NCURA regional meeting in AK.

I began as a University Research Administrator in 2016. Following 35 years of professional development with a small environmental firm, I found myself primarily supporting the contractual and finance aspects of numerous Federal, State, and Private projects. Project Management was my career objective, but my administrative strengths continued to outweigh my scientific/engineering knowledge base to run a project from opening to closure.

In 2016, I joined a great team of Research Administrators in the CSU engineering Research Business Office. It’s a joy to support a multitude of Federal and State sponsors, as well as over 30 research scientist/engineers (PIs). Both the CSU Sponsored Programs office and all the NCURA Webinars & Conferences have been a constant support for learning more and more about this ever changing task to administer Research Awards.

I actually just became a research administrator very recently in March of 2023! I used to be in the Mortgage Industry, but wanted to make a career path change as it wasn’t very fulfilling. Since I have started, I have really loved it. The community that being a RA is great and being able to participate in helping research get completed is a great feeling. I look forward to learning more and more and hopefully becoming an expert in pre-award. In the future I hope I can make it out to some NCURA conferences to obtain an ever greater depth of knowledge.