NORDP 2024 Keynote: Building your Unicorn Career with Alaina Levine

Written by: Eric Dickey, Conference Planning Committee

Alaina Levine can pinpoint when she began her career in professional development and networking to a specific, catalyst moment in her life. And it all hinged on one word: Nothing.

She has degrees in Math and in Anthropology and studied in Cairo, Egypt which provided her with a Middle-Eastern studies and Arabic background. But she knew she didn’t want to be a mathematics researcher or an academic. She sought the advice from her mathematics advisor and asked him what her job prospects outside of academia were, and he literally used the word “nothing.”

Career development in STEM is too rarely discussed. Alaina herself noted that she never got the job talk during her mathematics training. Later while at the University of Arizona, she found herself in a position teaching STEM students about career development, soft skills, networking, and negotiation. She helped them identify their own unique gifts to build what she calls their “Unicorn Careers.”

What is a Unicorn Career? Alaina defines it as a customized, authentic career that aligns with one’s values and humanity. It allows you to be yourself 100% of the time and it is a career that brings joy, meaning, and money. As humans, we are diverse and have unique gifts, skills, abilities, and perspectives.

In her keynote talk, Alaina will discuss strategies by which we as RD professionals can make our jobs into our own Unicorn Careers by aligning our skills and abilities with the needs of our institutions and clients. We can use our interests to focus on who we are, and by doing so, we can honor our full authenticity and full humanity. We can make an impact by simply being ourselves through mentoring and creating safe spaces and trust.

We all know that taking such a leap of faith in ourselves, of stepping into our full humanity, will include emotions like doubt and fear. To Alaina, feelings are fantastic data. We can analyze data about ourselves to discover what we can do differently, better, or more. By building our own mental fitness in low-stake scenarios, we can position ourselves to use it in high-stakes scenarios.

As the current President of Quantum Success Solutions, LLC, Alaina is a prolific speaker and writer on career development and professional advancement for STEM Nerds (engineers, scientists, and technical leaders). She also helps Research Development offices land transformative funding through her site visit consultation and speaking and innovation coaching. 

She was drawn to NORDP because she believes her diverse background mirrors the diversity and backgrounds of research development professionals and leaders. She respects and values the collective and diverse wisdom that RD professionals bring to the profession and to the institutions, communities, and scholarship that we serve. She looks forward to sharing her data-driven and process-oriented approach and providing tools which will enable conference attendees to position themselves for success.

Help us welcome her to the NORDP stage in Bellevue, WA.

New NORDP Board Member Cameo: Ms. Amy Gantt

Who: Ms. Amy Gantt, Director of Strategic Research Development

Where: Tufts University

Number of Years Working in RD: 20 years

Length of NORDP Membership: 13 years

Entering the field

Amy earned her master’s degree in sociolinguistics from North Carolina State University, deciding not to pursue a PhD because, while she really enjoyed learning about linguistics, she didn’t envision a career in linguistics. She then spent about five years waiting tables and teaching in North Carolina, including at community colleges. About 20 years ago, she left North Carolina to move to Boston, still unsure about what she wanted to be when she grew up. In Boston, Amy started working as a freelancer for Tufts through a connection with Peg AtKission, who was leading the creation of research development services there. She thought that she would do this work for a little while until she figured out her career path. Well, 20 years and a couple of promotions later, and a lot of institutional change, she’s still in the field.

Her research development work

Amy’s team’s responsibilities have grown over the years to become quite broad. She and her team are responsible for very large federal proposals, and they partner with their corporate and foundation relations colleagues to work on very large foundation proposals. They are also responsible for helping junior faculty with their proposals, with a focus on NSF CAREER and other early-career awards. Amy oversees three seed funding programs that are managed by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, and she oversees limited submissions. Amy places a priority on developing partnerships, particularly with other institutions, although her team partners with industry as well. Amy’s team helps to develop research strategy for both individuals and for teams and for the institution itself. Her portfolio is very broad and, as a central office, covers the entire institution.   

Amy notes that one thing that Tufts does very well is community-engaged and community-based participatory research, in line with Tufts’ emphasis on making an impact on society. Something she really enjoys is connecting fundamental science to impact and how it’s going to engage people. Her social science training has helped her to think through study design – things like ‘what variables are you controlling for’ and ‘what ways are you going to recruit?’ When hiring, she looks for people with very strong writing and communication skills, but just as important to her is a sense of curiosity. Amy enjoys diving into all different fields, thinking very deeply about what connections there are across them and what is unique to a specific field and about how she can leverage all of those different pieces.

Amy’s history with NORDP

Amy joined NORDP in 2011. She became aware of NORDP through her regional group (New England area), which was fairly new, and she believes that she was reached out to by them around that time. Through her interactions with the Region, she learned more about NORDP. The Northeast group has stayed close to her heart throughout the years, and she served as chair for the Region for a three-year term.  During that time, she organized meetings and came to understand more about NORDP at the national level. As often as university finances allowed, she attended conferences. She recognizes the value of these events and alternates attendance among her team so as many people as possible have the chance to benefit from in-person attendance. Amy has presented posters and oral presentations on a wide range of topics at conferences over the years: She’s spoken on how to avoid saying ‘no’ in a resource-limited environment and how you can be really creative with a small staff and do a lot. She has also talked about her career path in RD, and she’s presented with colleagues on institutional engagement with corporations and where that fits into RD, particularly on the federal side.

Her motivation to run for the NORDP Board

Serving on the Board was not something on her radar, but Amy was nominated for a position. When this happened, she remembered how much she enjoyed and learned from being chair of NORDP Northeast, and she thought that this would be a really great way contribute at a time when there’s a lot of creativity in RD and excitement about RD ‘professionalizing’. She also recognized it would be an opportunity to expand her network and learn more about the Organization. Amy recognizes that there is much room for learning from one another, from figuring out new ways to do things that would increase efficiencies to improve competitiveness and leveraging each other’s strengths on the administrative and research sides of our institutions. She recognizes the value and importance of professionalizing the field without losing the creativity.

What Amy is most excited about as a new NORDP Board member

Amy is excited about many things! She really enjoys thinking strategically about making NORDP more inclusive, in terms of increasing the compositional diversity of our members, in making sure that we’re meeting the needs of our communities, and that the Organization is leveraging its strengths. It’s important to Amy that we are not burning out volunteers, that we offer programming that reaches the people that it needs to reach, and that we are supporting the growth of our industry. Amy also recognizes the importance of telling that story outside of the RD community.  Something she has always loved about NORDP is that people are so helpful and collegial rather than competitive. She holds the value of community very dear.  Amy supports the continuing expansion of RD, which includes bringing new people in. She’s excited about new people, new ideas, and keeping moving!

Amy’s very grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of NORDP leadership, and she’s grateful to the community that we’ve all collectively built around NORDP. She wants to ensure that we continue to have the same (or even better) support and environment for people who are coming into the field. Amy acknowledges that most people don’t grow up thinking ‘I want to be a research development professional’. She doesn’t necessarily want that to change, but she does want people to see that this is a fun career; it’s really satisfying and she wants to encourage people, if they’re so inclined, to become a research development professional.

Empowering immigrant RD professionals via iKNoW

Contributors: iKnoW members:

Elizabeth Lathrop, University of Maryland, College Park

Meira Orentlicher, Touro University

Prapti Mody, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Yoanna Ferrara, Syracuse University

The NORDP affinity group – Immigrant Knowledge and Wisdom (iKnoW) – seeks to empower and engage research development (RD) professionals who identify as immigrants or allies of immigrants. From the initial 15 founding members in 2023, we have grown to >30 members thus far. Members of iKnoW come with diverse perspectives to share experiences, interests, and goals contributing to inclusive excellence, resource generation, recruitment and retention of RD professionals to further advance NORDP mission. Collectively, iKnoW is a place for members to share international knowledge and immigrant experiences in the context of RD professionals, with opportunities for advocacy, networking, mentoring, and leadership development on immigrant impact to foster a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion within NORDP.

The iKnoW launched our inaugural networking events at the 2023 NORDP in-person Conference in Arlington, VA. As an iKnoW Co-chair, Samarpita Sengupta organized the highly popular “Monuments by Moonlight” bus tour, which provided opportunities for networking and relationship-building within the growing iKnoW community. iKnoW also hosted a member meetup dinner as well as an interactive poster session to meet existing members in person and to recruit new members. We encourage everyone to be on the lookout for  iKnoW activities at the upcoming 2024 NORDP Conference in Bellevue, WA.

Another notable accomplishment includes a NORD pilot project award: in collaboration with iKnoW members from four institutions (Touro University, University of Michigan, University of Arizona, and University of Vermont), Meira Orentlicher is spearheading a study to increase the understanding of immigrant faculty researchers’ experiences and needs, and to begin to identify strategies for addressing the needs and supporting their growth and development in the US academic institutions.

A few testimonials from current iKnoW members highlight the impact this tiny-but-mighty group has had on them!

Prapti Mody: As a South Asian who immigrated to the USA and has tons of diverse immigrant friends and colleagues, I identify strongly with iKnoW’s values and mission goals. I joined this affinity group after meeting with Gagan last year at the 15th NORDP annual conference, so I have been a member for just under a year now. Our meetings are equal parts fun time and resource generation brainstorming. It’s so interesting to connect with people from all across the world as part of this group, learn about their experiences and share ideas. For example, in one of our meetings, we designed a flyer highlighting points to be aware of while traveling internationally. iKnoW is a great resource group and a beautiful network of RD professionals.  

Yoanna Ferrera: Initially, I joined iKnow out of curiosity. At the affinity group dinner in Arlington (NORDP 2023), I met remarkable people who, like me, had moved to the United States from worlds away or, as second-generation immigrants, have straddled continents and cultures. I value the sense of community and everyone’s willingness to support others. We have discussed care options for aging parents who are non-US citizens or non-English speakers. This topic may also be of interest to many faculty. We have bonded through book clubs. We plan approaches to recruit immigrants to the RD profession and support members looking to switch jobs, e.g., through mock interviews and career guidance. Samar’s and Gagan’s leadership is inspirational—they encourage the iKnow-ers to be involved in the various NORDP committees, pursue leadership roles, and contribute immigrant perspectives to the organization.

Faina Thompson: Absolutely thrilled to share my experience with the Immigrant Knowledge and Wisdom (iKnoW) group! Meeting the members at the 2023 NORDP conference was an absolute delight and sparked an immediate connection. It was a moment where I felt seen, understood, and welcomed into a vibrant community. iKnoW is an outstanding network of RD professionals, eager to share their expertise. The conversations are as diverse as they are informative, with topics spanning the globe. iKnoW welcomes you with a remarkable sense of community and professional camaraderie. It’s not just a group, it’s a global community that enriches you both professionally and personally. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The iKnoW affinity group meets monthly, on every 3rd Tuesday of the month, at 4pm ET/3pm CT/2pm PT. We welcome you to join our community by contacting the current Co-Chairs: Samarpita Sengupta (SS141@alumni.utsw.edu) and Gagan Bajaj (gagan.bajaj@med.uvm.edu) for meeting information!

Get to know a NORDP Committee: Professional Development Committee (PD)

Written by Elizabeth Christensen and Susan Elkins

The NORDP Professional Development Committee coordinates the development and delivery of professional development training and resources for NORDP members. The Committee’s current focus is online professional development in three main strategic areas: (1) career planning, (2) operational resources for research development, and (3) skill building.

The Professional Development Committee is led by a proactive team of co-chairs:

Erin Christian, EdD

Research Grants Business Specialist, Common Spirit Health

Emily Devereux, PhD

Director of Research Development, Research Office in the College of Engineering and Computing, University of South Carolina

Susan Elkins, CRA

International & Research Services Development Manager and Grants Administrator, Office of Research and Innovation, Drexel University

Series and Webinars

The NORDP PD Committee helps to curate, advertise, and find speakers for the ever-popular Tools and Tips (TNT) Series and Webinars on a variety of topics of interest to NORDP Members. Most of these sessions are recorded and available on through the NORDP website learning management system (LMS).

TNTs (Tools and Tips) are short 30-minute sessions that explore a tool or strategy that many find helps them be more efficient/organized. These range a wide range of topics from the use of SciENcv to what’s at your desk that you use to de-stress.

The Career Stories series is a partnership of NORDP LEAD, the Professional Development Committee, and the Member Services Committee.  These informal “fireside chats” highlight the professional trajectories of NORDP members by showcasing the multiple ways that members end up in research development as well as the variety of paths available for career growth and advancement.

Webinars are typically 60 minutes in length. They usually have stated aims/goals associated with the session and one to three facilitators. Participants will walk away with increased knowledge base of the subject matter.

Discussion Panels are typically 60 minutes in length. They are less structured. There will be a facilitator and a number of subject matter experts. The audience will also have an opportunity to add to the conversation as well as ask questions of the panel. The goal is to have an interactive discussion on the topic being discussed.

Working Groups

The Professional Development Committee runs several Working Groups led by some amazing NORDP members:

Webinar Production – led by Dawn McArthur and Emily Devereux. This group selects topic areas for the coming year’s NORDP webinars from our topic framework and then identifies and invites webinar presenters in those areas, using NORDP conference evaluations as a resource. If you have an idea, please reach out to us!

Webinar Planning – led by Katie Shoaf and Josh Roney. This group serves as technical production hosts for NORDP webinars, working closely with the “webinar host” and the presenter(s).

The Professional Development Committee also coordinates with other NORDP Working Groups to facilitate collaboration across the NORDP community, providing many resources and benefits to NORDP members:

NORDP Communications Working Group – PD liaison is Susan Elkins. This working group leads publicity and announcement of activities for NORDP. These communications can be internal among the NORDP Membership and shared externally (e.g., LinkedIn & Twitter).

NORDP Board Liaisons – We have board members who work with PD who tell us anything from a board perspective that we need to be aware of. We also can communicate any issues/questions that we as a committee have and they will take this to the next board meeting on our behalf.

Goals and Objectives

The objective of the NORDP Professional Development Committee is to provide NORDP members with meaningful, timely, and engaging opportunities to expand their research development knowledge and add valuable skills to both their professional and personal toolboxes. The PD Committee’s goals are to:

  • Develop, implement, and organize engaging and worthwhile professional development content based on the needs of the NORDP membership;
  • Provide opportunities for NORDP members to offer their relevant expertise and to gain valuable leadership skills by leading webinars and developing other professional development materials;
  • Recruit knowledge experts to contribute time and relevant intellectual resources to the NORDP community;
  • Collect and disseminate best practices in research development, for use by NORDP members;
  • Compile and maintain a database of professional development resources for NORDP membership.

Volunteer Opportunities

There are many opportunities to participate in the NORDP Professional Development Committee.  The Committee meets monthly via Zoom to develop and produce Professional Development materials, decide on upcoming programming, and to research specific topics and methods for professional development. The Committee also recruits members and other experts to lead webinars and develop professional development resources for NORDP’s membership.

Activities that engage and invite new Volunteers to get involved are the virtual and in-person Open Houses held throughout the year.  The Professional Development Committee also sponsors an annual Holiday Party via Zoom. The committee hosts at least one open house event for all members to meet with us to learn more about what we do and talk about the volunteer opportunities.

For those who may be on the fence about volunteering to serve on the professional Development Committee, co-chair Susan Elkins says: “Serving on the Professional Development Committee is a great opportunity to seek out new members and try out a NORDP leadership role.”

The Details:

Committee meeting scope/schedule: The goals of the Professional Development Committee are to help provide opportunities for Research Development Professionals to build their skills and knowledge and to share information about research development practices and activities that have been used successfully in various settings.

The professional development committee leadership meets the second Thursday at 3pm Eastern. The entire committee meets the third Thursday at 3pm Eastern. Each working group also meets as needed.

Current Co-Chairs: Erin Christian, EdD, Emily Devereux, PhD and Susan Elkins, CRA

You might enjoy serving on this committee if: You are interested in providing the NORDP membership development learning opportunities. This committee does a lot and your involvement can fit around your needs. We would be grateful if you can tech host assist for a few offerings a year. Or if you have the bandwidth, we are looking to have a total of six co-chairs.

How to get involved: Email the committee co-chairs at PDCommittee@nordp.org (We’d love to hear from you!)

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Take Center Stage at the Annual NORDP Conference

Written by: JL Weissman, Committee on Inclusive Excellence

The 16th Annual NORDP Research Development Conference is only a few short months away, and here at the Committee for Inclusive Excellence (CIE) we are looking forward to this valuable time to connect with colleagues. We had hoped to compile a comprehensive list of relevant presentations for attendees interested in DEI topics, but soon realized this task would be impossible. Nearly all presentations at the conference touch on DEI themes; to list them all we would simply have to send you the entire conference agenda! Building a more equitable and inclusive research enterprise is clearly a priority for the NORDP community. Below, we highlight a small selection from the wealth of conference sessions. We hope to see you there!

Hear about funding priorities in DEI from major funding bodies at the conference keynote: “DEIB Perspectives from NIH, NSF, and AAAS”

Get a crash course in writing NIH diversity supplements to support trainees from underrepresented backgrounds by attending: “Preparing NIH diversity supplements and finding funding for trainees from under-represented backgrounds” presented by Viktoriya Zhuravleva & Arthur Uhimov. 

Hear about how implementing team science practices can help support your institutional goals at: “How Does Team Science Support your DEI Mission?” Led by Hannah Love & Hannah Torres.

Discuss how research development professionals can become key players in fighting against a colonialist past & present at: “Landback Institutions – Can Research Development Professionals Have a Role Beyond Land Acknowledgement Statements?” Hosted by Jane Casteline.

Discuss strategies for building inclusive environments in multidisciplinary research teams at: “Inclusion is Inclusion: How Team Science Skills Promote DEIB” led by M.S. AtKisson & Jessica Venable

Learn and reflect on how you can improve faculty retention programs to increase diversity at your institution at: “Centering Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Early-Career Investigator Training” presented by Matthew Schwartz.

Engage with a broad selection of DEI topics across the proposal development space by attending: “CIE Lightning Storm: DEI in the Proposal Development Process” featuring Amber Moore, Anna Ward, Courtney Coffey, Jane Garrity, and Riley McIsaac.

Learn about early successes and lessons learned from a GRANTED workshop series at: “Mid-Year Report from the Middle Tennessee Research Administration and Innovation Network (M-TRAIN)” presented by Philip Ko & Sajid Hussain

Experience the breadth of GRANTED-funded projects at: “Research development and GRANTED conference projects: Brief reports from successful applicants” featuring Jennifer Glass, Amy Cuhel-Schuckers, Camille Coley, Gillisan Harootunian, and Jessica Andrews

Discuss how resource-strapped MSIs can still succeed when competing for “big” funding opportunities at: “Demonstrating commitment with limited resources” Led by Jackie Lee Weissman & Rosemarie Wesson

Hear about lessons learned from and strategies developed by the NORDP Consultants Program at: “Strengthening the research infrastructure at MSIs and ERIs by creating inclusive research environments: Early results, recommendations, tools, and next steps from four NSF GRANTED awardees” featuring Kimberly Eck, Barbara Endemaño Walker, Sarah O’Brien, Kimberly Littlefield, and Melanie Bauer.

Cultivating Significance: The Importance of Developing a Network of Mentors in Proposal Development

Contributors: Proposal Development Peer Mentoring Groups (PMG) Co-conveners — Sonya Craig, New York University, Grossman School of Medicine and Lindsay Ridpath, University of Arizona

The Proposal Development field is growing as proposals become more complex and as the competitiveness for obtaining research funding continues. Academic success is not achievable through the efforts of a solitary individual; the era of lone geniuses thriving in academia has passed, emphasizing the collaborative nature of contemporary academics that thrives on teamwork, be that with other investigators or with research development (RD) professionals.

To help RD professionals build a network of support, NORDP initiated the peer mentoring groups (PMGs) in 2019, out of what was then the Community of Practice Groups. As David Widmer stated for an earlier blog post about the PMGs: “We are never fully developed by a single mentor. If you think about your broader network, it’s clear that you are being mentored by multiple people.” Jan Abramson said PMGs developed “from a discussion about member needs, the importance of building a network of mentors, and making sure anyone who requests a mentor has one.” A driving factor in PMGs is NORDP members’ needs. Christina Howard, David Widmer, Jan Abramson, Kathy Partlow, Faye Farmer, Katie Shoaf, and other members of NORDP’s Mentoring Committee, are the brains behind the PMGs, orchestrating the programming that has proven to be a valuable resource for many. The Proposal Development PMG is one of six active groups.

Proposal development can be summarized as the process of advising, writing, editing, coordinating, and compiling grant applications. The RD specialist can have many roles within proposal development, including as an educator, a project manager, a writer/editor/illustrator, or an advisor and advocate. Many proposal development professionals give guidance on and coordinate writing of grant components (including budgets, letters of support, and research strategies), manage grants libraries and other institutional resources, and coordinate and manage peer or “Red Team” reviews. 

The proposal/research development role has evolved over the last decade, leading to major growth in proposal development specialists in university settings. Now, innovations in generative Artificial Intelligence and graphic design have the potential to transform both proposal development and proposal evaluation, meaning that the roles of RD professionals are likely to change in the near future. Likewise, complex proposals and transformational initiatives, like ARPA-H, are transitioning grant writing from a solo experience to one requiring strategic planning from a group. Industry support in research is also increasing, as more government agencies are including industry participation in their proposals. Some examples of this are the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) and Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) programs, and the US Economic Development Association’s (EDA) Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs). Companies like Amazon are increasingly offering research awards (Amazon Research Awards) to test solutions. Industry understands the value academic research brings and is increasingly interested in research collaborations rather than developing an internal R&D arm. 

By connecting with colleagues at other universities through our Proposal Development PMG, members are able to stay abreast of how other institutions are negotiating these new developments as they arise. Our PMG has active members from all over the US, in the medical, engineering, social science, and humanities fields. Some members are in leadership roles within their institutions working in large RD offices, while on the other extreme, we have colleagues who are independent consultants who work from home. We both joined the PMG for different reasons: Sonya was working within an academic unit as the sole grant writer and wanted to grow her RD professional network; whereas Lindsay joined the PMG as a Foundation Relations professional with the goal of cultivating connections and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the research enterprise. Whatever your office size or job classification, if you have an interest in discussing proposal development best practices and challenges, we invite you to join us for an informal conversation the first Tuesday of every month at 1 pm ET. See this site within WisdomShare for more information, or direct any questions by emailing the Mentoring Committee at mentorprogram@nordp.org.

The January 2024 Career Stories featured Kayla Dryden, Research Development Officer for Arts and Humanities at The University of Texas at Austin.

Kayla Dryden • Research Development Officer for Arts and Humanities • The University of Texas at Austin

Kayla Dryden is the first-ever Research Development Officer for Arts and Humanities at The University of Texas at Austin. In this role, she provides major proposal development support for faculty, facilitates skill-building and team research, and leads arts and humanities strategy in the central Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Endeavors

Kayla holds an MA in Museum Studies from NYU and as an undergraduate, studied English and Art History at Cornell University. Within NORDP, she is a member-at-large of the Creative Arts, Social Science, and Humanities affinity group and the co-chair of the Membership Services Committee.

As an undergrad, Kayla wanted to be an arts journalist or critic, however, after a couple of lackluster media internships, she realized that wasn’t her path. A summer job working at the university art museum led her to a career at the intersection of arts management and philanthropy. Before joining UT Austin in 2021, she spent 15 years both in-house and as a consultant to arts and cultural organizations and artists, specializing in grants, communications, and project management. She has worked at the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), The Museum of Modern Art (New York City), and other museums, galleries, and grant-makers in the U.S. and in Asia.

During a seven-year tenure with MoMA, she led the grants portfolio and administered the internal Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art together with leadership at the museum and at the Annenberg Foundation. The cutting-edge projects supported by this fund were deemed unlikey to receive external funding, often pushing the boundaries of what was possible to present in a public institutional space. Kayla credits this experience with honing her ability to break any concieveable proposal down to component parts for review, and to steward a diverse group of stakeholders to “get to yes.”

All these experiences led her to her first “capital R” Research Development position at UT Austin and a niche that suits her skills and abilities both as a writer and administrator and as a people person. In her current role, she works to earn trust from arts and humanities faculty members who may have had a range of experiences with the research enterprise. She is inspired by the opportunity to advocate for these faculty, and by the importance and impact of their work.

Here are some questions from the Career story that went unanswered: 

Q. How big is your office? How many RD staff members work with you in support of the faculty?

A: I sit in UT Austin’s central Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Endeavors. Our Research Development team has about 20 staff members, including program staff for our three grand challenges, an operations and events team, limited submissions and competitive intelligence specialists, research administrators, and more. I’m part of a cohort of three other Research Development Officers, including our Deputy VP for Research and fearless leader, Jennifer Lyon Gardner.

Q: What should other universities do to better support arts & humanities faculty in research funding?

A: If you are serious about fostering a culture of arts and humanities research, there must be an investment in infrastructure like post-award support at the local level. Central offices should consider if their offerings truly serve all disciplines, and think about their terminology. Do you really need to ask for a biosketch when any short bio will do, or use the term team science when you mean team research? Not all art and humanities scholars are going to be interested in pursuing external funding. Find those that are already doing this work (perhaps outside of the university), those who want to do this work, and those who are curious about it.

Q: Are there other staff members (not in the central office) who support these faculty with research development? How do you coordinate with them?

A: Local support for arts and humanities research varies widely across UT Austin’s 19 colleges and schools. I work very closely with college-level research administrators, associate deans of research, and staff in units like our Humanities Institute, as well as foundation relations and development. Some of these colleagues serve formally or informally as research development specialists in their college, and in other cases I am more hands-on. My role entails a large amount of internal coordination and relationship-building! However, it’s been so helpful to have a birds-eye view of what’s happening across campus: I can connect RAs who are supporting PIs on the same opportunity, introduce potential collaborators, or refer folks to resources available in another college.

Kayla would love to answer any questions you have for her, so please feel free to email her at kayla.dryden@austin.utexas.edu

To listen to her full interview by the career/kindle team, please click on this link ((you must log in as a NORDP member to access): MC LMS – NORDP LEAD presents: “Career Stories” – Kayla Dryden – January 10, 2024

NORDP Career Navigator – Mentorship for Exploring Careers in RD

Written by: Kellie Gross, NORDP Career Navigator Program

For many, research development (RD) is a career that is discovered by chance, and with that discovery, questions abound: What jobs exist in RD? How do my existing experiences and skills apply to a job in RD? Is this field a good fit for me? The Career Navigator mentoring program was developed to help NORDP’s trainee members answer these questions and more. In this program, trainee members are paired with NORDP Career Navigators who share similar backgrounds and career paths of interest to the trainee. Through a mentee-driven relationship, trainees can learn more about the field of RD and find support for landing their first RD position.

Kathy Partlow

To date, this program has supported 10 NORDP trainee members. Mentor Dr. Kathy Partlow, who has promoted and supported interdisciplinary research development since 2012, and mentee Dr. Sofia D’Ambrosio, who transitioned into RD from her PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, participated in the program in 2020. Over several months, Kathy and Sofia met to discuss topics such as Kathy’s path to RD, how to navigate an RD job search, and how to translate academic research skills to an RD job. Sofia credits a piece of advice from Kathy – build relationships with your local RD office – with helping her to land her first RD position at Washington State University, her PhD institution. She is now a Research Development Specialist within the Office of Research Development at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Sofia D’Ambrosio

Learn more as Sofia and Kathy reflect on their experiences with the Career Navigator Program:

What influenced you to join the Career Navigator program as a mentor or mentee?

Sofia: I first heard about the Career Navigator program through the NORDP listserv in 2020. I was a PhD student at the time and knew RD could be a potential career path for me after graduation. But I really wasn’t sure how to start with the job hunt as I approached the end of my degree. Where do I find RD job postings? What are typical RD positions I should be on the lookout for? And most importantly, how do you ‘spin’ your skills as an academic scientist towards an RD career?

The Career Navigator program seemed like an easy way to get advice from someone that had made the transition from PhD researcher to RD professional. As a busy PhD student, I was also drawn to the fact that the program offered an informal setting without too much time commitment or pressure.

Kathy: I’m passionate about mentoring and have experienced first-hand as a mentee and now as a mentor the impact mentoring can have on your professional and even personal growth. So many of us have stories about how we somewhat blindly stumbled into research development. I conducted informational interviews that were extremely helpful in supporting my transition to RD, but I think we can all look back and wish we had someone who was dedicated to shepherding us through the process. This is exactly what the Career Navigator program offers for NORDP trainee members who are aspiring RD professionals. I was excited for the opportunity to share my lessons learned and a-ha moments to make that transition easier for the next generation.

What was your favorite part about your mentoring relationship?

Sofia: Kathy made the transition from academic research to RD seem feasible. Prior to our mentoring relationship, I felt like all my research training had set me up for a postdoc, researcher, or faculty position after graduation – and not much else. Kathy opened my eyes to the possibility of leaving the bench for RD.

Kathy: When Sofia and I met, she was already making all the right moves for exploring RD as a career and gaining experience in writing, grantsmanship, and the RD101 course. She was extremely easy to mentor. I mostly reaffirmed that she was taking the right steps and shared my confidence which in turn built her confidence.

Sofia, you are now serving as a mentor in the Career Navigator program – what drew you to taking on this role?

Sofia: I wanted to help postdocs and PhDs understand that RD exists as a potential career path. I had no idea RD was a field until I happened to run into a NORDP member at a science communication conference during my PhD. And I had no idea I was actually qualified for positions within that field until I met mentors like Kathy showing me the path from academic research to RD! I wanted to show other academics that RD can be a brand-new way of contributing to the research ecosystem that they hadn’t thought of before.

What have you found most rewarding and most challenging about being a mentor?

Kathy: I always find the relationships formed to be the most rewarding aspect of mentoring. I learn just as much (and maybe even more) when I’m the mentor. The challenge can be overcoming common misconceptions (e.g., you need more experience, it takes too much time, etc.) that are not true and can prevent you from becoming a mentor. I found it very rewarding to share my experience and revisit what I learned when securing my first RD position. I’m amazed at the impact, as Sofia and I only met over the course of a few months. The Career Navigator program is very focused, where the mentees are graduate students or postdocs that are interested in pursuing a career in RD. If you took a similar career path, I highly encourage you to volunteer to be a mentor!

Any words of wisdom or encouragement to those who are considering a transition into an RD career?

Sofia: Don’t be afraid to cold contact RD professionals for an informational interview. Plenty of folks will never get back to you, but you’ll be surprised how many people say yes! Even just 10-15 minutes of someone’s time asking about their career path and any advice they have can be valuable. They may even connect you to another helpful resource or person that you would never know about otherwise.

Kathy: I think you can be intentional and thoughtful about your transition to RD. NORDP and its community are supportive and have resources to help, so seek them out and you can make those stories about stumbling into RD part of the past.

New NORDP Board Member Cameo: Dr. Carly Cummings

Who: Dr. Carly Cummings, Senior Director of Research and Faculty Development

Where: University of Idaho

Number of Years Working in RD: 12 years

Length of NORDP Membership: 7 years

Entering the field 

After receiving her PhD, Carly decided that she didn’t want a career in research, but she really enjoyed teaching, so she took a faculty position at a primarily undergraduate institution in New England. She started a lab there and supervised undergraduate research; she was funded for this research from a variety of sources. After some years, she decided on a change of course, so she resigned from that position and moved to Washington, DC, to start working in science policy. During her over two years in DC, she was a Science and Technology Policy fellow at the National Academies and worked at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in the Research Competitiveness Program, where she coordinated peer review processes to inform science and technology investments from state agencies and other nations. Part of this work involved writing requests for proposals (RFPs), soliciting proposals, managing the proposal evaluation process and making funding recommendations. Here, she gained deep knowledge of the peer review process and how federal agencies work. Next, Carly was recruited to a dean’s office at the college level, at Mississippi State University for a mixed RA-RD role. Over five years later, she moved to Utah State University and founded the RD office for the College of Science, which she led for almost two years. From there, she went on to start another RD office, this time a central office, at her current institution, the University of Idaho. She notes that she’s worked in a variety of capacities, but a common thread is that she likes to start things from scratch!

Her research development work

In her current role, Carly is charged with growing the research portfolio for the University of Idaho, an R2 institution with R1 aspirations. The creation of her office was part of a strategic plan, which includes supporting faculty in their pursuit of extramural funding. Her office takes a 360-degree approach to meeting their mission and achieving those goals. The office provides standard proposal development services, but they also place high emphasis on faculty development. For example, she developed the Faculty Success Seminar Series that ran for three years, with up to 16 seminars per academic year. Now, she is overseeing the creation of a library of resources with recorded presentations and slide decks available through their webpage. Her office has a focus on early-career faculty and runs the Proposal Development Academy: What You Need to Know Before You Write for a cohort of ~12 faculty who have been nominated by their deans for this opportunity. The focus is not on proposal writing but on learning about the organization structure of funding agencies and acquiring the broad range of skills required for developing competitive proposals. Her office also manages limited submissions and supports leadership training for early- and mid-career faculty through partnership with AtKisson Training Group.

Carly notes that in order to grow the business enterprise, it takes people who are capable and willing to write competitive proposals and then eventually write bigger proposals, and so on. She emphasizes supporting the people they have and likens this to planting seedlings and taking good care of them so they can grow into trees. At University of Idaho, Carly’s office started out as a team of three, and now they are an office of seven. She’s had great support from research leaders on campus, and she feels honored to have been able to grow the office as she has. The value of an RD office is definitely recognized!

Carly’s history with NORDP

Carly joined NORDP about seven years ago when she moved into an exclusively RD role at Utah State University. She found it very refreshing to learn that there are other people who had the kind of jobs she did because, until then, she didn’t really appreciate that there were other people doing the same kind of work at a university, which made her feel isolated. Over the years, she’s seen the real value of NORDP come from conversations and connections with people that she wouldn’t have met otherwise, including people she can call on when she needs some assistance. In fact, knowing that she has support through the NORDP community played a part in Carly deciding to take on the challenge of starting a central RD office from scratch. 

Carly has participated in every NORPD conference and presented a few times. She’s a regular conference volunteer; presenting and volunteering are priorities for her team, she sees that as how they give back. Carly was on the working group that helps reshape the Leadership Forum for a number of months, with the aim to make this leadership offering accessible to more individuals at varying stages of their career..

Her motivation to run for the NORDP Board

Carly was approached by a current board member to ask if she has considered running for the board, and at first she wasn’t sure what she could contribute!  However, after that conversation, she changed her mind. The conversation prompted her to think back on her experiences with RD, reflecting that everyone has their own path. She realized that representing a smaller, rural institution gives her a valuable perspective that she wants to share with others. She wants to let people know that they can advocate for resources and shared approaches to communicating with leadership about metrics, including putting them in perspective.  For example, she was able to grow her office in three years and used metrics that she set (and quickly met) to support that growth, helping make leadership comfortable with the investment.  She acknowledges that most in RD are scrappy and able to do a lot with little but that growing staff can be a reasonable goal.  She’s found growing her office immensely rewarding, feels fortunate to have had that opportunity, and hopes that this success can serve as encouragement to others to grow their offices or step into a director role. Carly also wants to represent the voice of those in EPSCoR and IDeA states, where she has a deep connection, not just through her work in Idaho but in Utah, Mississippi and Vermont, with an understanding of how difficult it is to capacity build. 

What Carly is most excited about as a new NORDP Board member

Carly plans to advocate for having institutions partner to achieve shared goals, something she would like to promote for the NORDP regions. She’s in Region V, and she is working with her partners in Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and Utah to develop ways to share knowledge and resources, especially in the development of programming as well as faculty collaborations. She believes that this approach is keeping within the collaborative, rather than competitive, spirit of NORDP.  At a previous conference, she noted a poster from Region I that provided further inspiration on how well regional institutions can work together. The leadership Carly brings in capacity building and in growing RD within institutions will serve NORDP well!

The December 2023 Career Stories featured Sarah Robertson, Director of Sponsored Research at Bryn Mawr College

Sarah Robertson, PhD

Written by: Roshni Singh, LEAD Kindling Crew

Sarah Robertson is the Director of Sponsored Research at Bryn Mawr College. In this Primary Undergrad Institution (PUI) environment, she strategizes to enhance sponsored research programs, through grant trainings, editing, internal competitions, and creating networks for collaborative efforts in research, as well as managing compliance and financial issues related to research.

Dr. Robertson is an alumna of Bryn Mawr College where she completed her AB before earning her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania studying intracellular trafficking. She is delighted to have returned to her alma mater where she is helping the faculty members develop their ideas, think like a reviewer and get funded; as this type of work is also essential to her growth and sanity!

After almost a decade at grant funding foundations, Dr. Robertson returned to academia to start her research development career after she successfully convinced the University of the Sciences that they are in urgent need of a Research Development position to assist the faculty members more their research to the next stage. She replaced their first director, only 6 weeks before the uniform guidance went live. UG implementation was successful thanks to self-taught skills and great mentorship.

Dr. Robertson brings an extensive professional background in grants, both in grant administration and research development, to her role at Bryn Mawr and her volunteer roles. She has extensive experience in thinking like a funder and reviewer. This is due to her roles with oversight of the Susan G. Komen® research grant portfolio, educational programs, and the community health grant portfolio. In addition, at the American Association for Cancer Research, she worked closely with some of the leading experts in cancer research planning educational events, writing grants, and participating in the Foundation’s grant application review. She has also served as a reviewer for the NSF, NIH, and CUR.

The exposure to different areas of research, bringing in new ideas, and wearing different hats inspires her to go to work every day as she likes being on the ground, and she firmly believes that the “dreaming stage changes the world”. Her experience in customer service from an early age while working at her mother’s business has helped her hone her outgoing, relationship building skills despite being an introvert that is happy alone. She believes there are no dumb questions no matter what stage of life one is in. In her experiences, even reviewers can get nervous and have doubts, so faculty members are no different, and our jobs as RD professionals is to make them successful by not judging, but helping and supporting. She also firmly believes that women should be ready to take risk and apply for jobs even if they don’t qualify for 100% of the job description, as one should not be defined by bullet points.

Being a member of NORDP since 2015, Dr. Robertson has benefited from its resources ever since. She has served as a member of the Program Committee in 2019, served as a member of the Nomination Committee from 2020-2023, and has been active in the Mid-Atlantic Region executive committee since 2020. Given her role at a PUI, she joined the PUI Affinity Group in its first year and is delighted to serve as its Co-Chair this year. Her collaboration with the others in the PUI Affinity Group leadership led to the development of a funded NSF GRANTED conference grant.

Dr. Robertson’s tips for new RD members are to network, learn from others, utilize NORDP’s mentoring program, and use their resources as NORDP site has a wealth of resources.

Dr. Robertson loves working at Bryn Mawr College and hopes to retire here. We wish Dr. Robertson all the best in her role that her diversity, experiences, and passion for the RD profession brings her.

Dr. Roberston would love to answer any questions you have for her, so please feel free to email her at serobertso@brynmawr.edu.

To listen to her full interview by the career/kindle team, please click on this link ((you must log in as a NORDP member to access): MC LMS – NORDP LEAD presents: “Career Stories” – Sarah Roberts December 12, 2023