Watertown, Massachusetts, United States
Manager with 10+ years of experience in pre- and post- award research administration. Entered the field after completing an M.S. thesis in STEM, bringing a unique insight to how to best serve my researchers. Extensive experience with large centers, subcontracts, fabrication grants, and complicated re-budgets. Sponsors (pre- and post-award): NASA, JPL, STScI, NSF, DoD (AFOSR, ONR, DARPA), DOE, and various private sponsors (Sloan Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Research Corporation for Science Advancement) Award Types: Grants, Cooperative Agreements, SBIRs, and Contracts (Cost-Reimbursement) Software: Expert in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Advanced in Microsoft Teams, Google suite, SAP, Ariba, Concur.
-Manages ~175 active grants and contracts totaling over $65M for 50 Principal Investigators. PIs are from three departments and two colleges (CAS Astronomy, ENG Electrical and Computer Engineering, and ENG Mechanical Engineering). Many of these awards are large and complicated projects with multiple subcontracts. In FY23 the expenditures of these grants totaled over $10.5M. -Completes approvals for all Procurement ($2.5M in FY23) -Acts as point of contact for questions regarding Export Controls/ITAR. -Processes payroll for 130 individuals (50 PIs, 10 Postdocs, 50 graduate students, and 20 undergraduate students), many of which are split over multiple grants and PI portfolios -Handles all hiring and visa paperwork for 3 dozen research staff. Works with the appropriate offices to have appointments approved, visa applications processed, and HR onboarding completed. -Created and continues to update an effective system in Excel for tracking each PI's grant portfolio expenditures and projections. Reviews expenditures monthly to ensure compliance with sponsor regulations. Meets with PIs to review their portfolios and past spending as well as project future expenditures. -Develops and effectively communicates departmental procedures/policies related to office workflow, travel, research purchases, and hiring. -Prepares annual operations budgets for the Center, Institute, and Perkins Telescope Observatory (PTO). Forecasts quarterly income based on projected overhead return and PTO partner nights. Tracks balances monthly. Suggests large non-research projects that can be addressed based on budget. -Creates and submit invoices for nights used by partners at the PTO. Works with AR to ensure that payment is received from customers. -Scaled task tracking, office administration, and managing of staff as we grew from 23 PIs to 50 PIs. -Supervises the Fiscal Coordinator (purchases), Financial Administrator (complicated purchases/subcontracts), and Grants Administrator (proposals).
-Handled all proposals for 24 PIs -Submitted ~100 proposals/year -Maintained grant portfolios for 2 PIs