University of Georgia

I started working for higher education in 1993 … purely because “my children [who weren’t born yet] would be able to go to college for free.” Numbers came naturally to me. I put myself through college doing various accounting-related jobs and found it dreadfully boring. I never envisioned doing accounting work again, but I was hired by a University of Miami business office … to do accounting work. A year later, an employee abruptly resigned and I was asked to act as an interim departmental administrator while the position was advertised and filled.

In doing so, I accidentally fell into the profession of research administration and loved it immediately. Thirty years later, I have worked departmentally and centrally, in pre award and in post award, teaching research administration, strategizing and implementing system and process improvements, reporting and projecting future growth, and working in a private school and a state school. I thrive on the “it depends.” I appreciate the grey-ness of our profession and the collaboration to find improved solutions. I enjoy hearing what a faculty member is trying to achieve, reading the regulations, and making recommendations to help with his/her science.