Awards – NORDP News

NORDP 2023 Fellow: Jennifer Lyon Gardner

The NORDP Fellow Award recognizes the long-term accomplishments of members who have made sustained contributions to NORDP and worked tirelessly to advance research development as a profession and/or as a field. Status as a NORDP Fellow is the highest professional distinction the organization may bestow on a member.

Who: Jennifer Lyon Gardner, Deputy Vice President for Research

Where: The University of Texas at Austin

Number of years in research development: 16

Length of NORDP membership: 11 years

What does leadership mean to you?

I think leadership means different things in different contexts. The way I operate as a leader in my role at UT Austin is really different from the way I’ve operated as a leader within NORDP. Within UT, I started out as an office of one and had to do all the things myself. This meant I had to be very strategic about my time management and prove that RD services could be of value to faculty in order to move toward my goal of establishing RD at an institutional level. Once we had a VPR in place who believed in this goal, I was able to build up a large team. But I never set out to be a supervisor of a large group of people. I don’t consider myself to be the greatest mentor, actually – it requires a degree of patience that I find challenging when I have a bunch of things I want to accomplish. But I’m extremely fortunate to have managers within my team who are incredible at providing that mentoring. This allows me to focus on leveraging my strengths to lead the team. I excel at setting a vision for my team. I’m good at advocating for what we need and working with top level administration to get things done and bridging the faculty-staff divide.

Within NORDP on the other hand, when I was on the Board I sensed there was a need for something else. Within the Board, everybody is a leader. Everybody can set a good vision. What I saw was a need for someone who could put their head down and get stuff done. I spent so much of my time at UT being the person who makes all the decisions and justifies the existence of RD, it was honestly refreshing to have a group of peers to work with on the NORDP Board who already understood the value of RD so we could just get down to business. I took on the operational role of Board Secretary, which meant I spent a lot of time checking things off lists, keeping things organized, and doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work that I don’t think the average NORDP member will ever tangibly be able to see. But I’m proud that this behind-the-scenes work made the Board’s job easier and freed up their time to be able to focus on the important stuff, the same way that RD officers support faculty so the faculty can really focus on the scholarly content of a proposal and do their best work. And by contributing to the efficiency of how the Board and our organization runs, that ultimately benefits NORDP members.

What has your journey within NORDP looked like so far?

I came into NORDP not knowing anyone or anything about the organization. When I first joined (in 2013), I followed the listserv passively for a while and then I put a question out there. The question was about starting a seed funding program to incentivize cross-department collaboration (one of those perennial questions that still comes up on the listserv to this day). When I asked the question, Susan Gomes wrote me back and offered to chat and she had so much great RD-specific advice that I still share with others today. That first early interaction showed me how amazingly helpful and collaborative the RD community is and how important it is to have colleagues at other institutions who you can be frank with and compare notes.

In 2015, Rachel Dresbeck encouraged me to run for the Board. And I did, but I wasn’t elected. But after putting myself out there, I was asked to co-chair the Conference Committee and I said yes. It was the first time I had ever chaired a conference; I’d never done something like that before. I had my first child in the middle of planning the conference, and going to that conference was the longest I had been away from my then-5-month-old daughter. But I felt like it was an important new kind of leadership experience for me to take on. In 2017, I was encouraged to run for the Board again, which I was really nervous about because I had done it once before and wasn’t chosen. But I decided to go for it, and this time I was elected. I had never served on a Board before, so it was a massive learning experience. It was Karen Fletcher (who was Board Secretary at the time) who took me under her wing and helped me find my voice and recognize what I could contribute. And so it means a lot to me to be named a NORDP Fellow in the same year as Karen because she has been one of my biggest supporters and aspirational peers within the field. I had my second child while I was serving on the NORDP Board. And that’s something I’ve really liked about NORDP – how accommodating it is. I’ve always been able to find ways to remain engaged even as I was growing my family. That’s something that I think is particularly cool about our organization.

After I completed my time on the Board, I focused on revamping NORDP’s Leadership Forum. I was particularly interested in the Leadership Forum because I’ve been on a really rapid leadership trajectory within my own career. I became an AVP when I was 34, and I wanted to find a way to show more people in the organization that taking on that kind of position is not just a matter of waiting it out for someone to retire; you don’t have to be in your late 40s or 50s to be in a leadership role. I was also interested in finding a way to keep people engaged with NORDP and providing resources across all career stages. We opened up the leadership forum from an invitation-only to an application-based process to make it more inclusive and allow people to nominate themselves rather than depending on someone else in the organization to name them, which I’m really proud of. I’ve also continued to be involved in other NORDP events like the 3-part RD talent acquisition, retention, and development panel held in 2022-2023.

Throughout your time in NORDP, which relationships stand out to you? What led you to take on leadership roles within the organization?

My pursuit of leadership roles within NORDP would only have happened with the encouragement of Rachel Dresbeck and Gretchen Kiser. Initially, I didn’t see myself as “Board material.” They saw it in me before I saw it in myself. Once I was on the Board, Karen Fletcher, Karen Eck, and Jeff Agnoli played a big role in supporting me as a new Board member and helping me feel reassured that I do belong on the Board and that I do have something unique to contribute.

Since being on the Board, I continue to get a lot of value out of the close relationships I’ve built with peers within the organization, people like Jill Jividen, Kim Patten, Faye Farmer, and Nathan Meier. These relationships are incredibly important; we compare notes about things that are going on in our institutions and support each other. Knowing that my peers in RD share some of the same frustrations that I do sometimes lets me know that I’m not just failing as an RD professional.

What initiatives are you most proud of from your time as a NORDP volunteer?

Revamping NORDP’s Leadership Forum is certainly an initiative I’m proud to have led. There are also a few other things I’ve been involved in since being on the Board that stand out to me. One is serving as a recurring panelist for the three-part series hosted by Susan Carter and Nathan Meier focused on ‘Exploring the Research Development Talent System’, in which we employed a systems-thinking approach to jumpstart a larger conversation among NORDP members around recruiting, developing, and retaining RD talent. We got a lot of positive feedback from members after that series that they found the conversation helpful.

Finally, as I was nearing the end of my term on the Board, I rebooted a then-dormant executive (internal/Board members only) committee, the Governance Committee. This was one of those behind-the-scenes things that you might only become aware of if the Bylaws get updated, or something procedural like that. But my committee members (including Karen Fletcher, Rachel, Faye, and Nathan mentioned above, as well as Etta Ward, Joanna Downer, and Paul Tuttle) and I had a deep collective trust in each other and were able to have some really frank conversations about organizational culture and things we knew we wanted to improve about the culture. Back then, we’d sometimes really struggle to get a full slate of candidates for Board elections each year. In more recent years, through both the GC’s early work and also the Nominating Committee’s sustained efforts, NORDP has benefitted from a huge wave of incredible Board members who bring such a wide and impressive set of competencies to the role. If representation on your Board matters to you, I highly encourage you to consider serving on the Nominating Committee!

How has your involvement in NORDP impacted your career in research development?

My involvement in NORDP has undoubtedly had a positive impact on my career in research development as I’ve worked my way up from being a staff member providing RD support for a research center at UT Austin to where I am now. And one thing that has dawned on me more recently is that as I’m in the organization longer and longer, my role within NORDP is changing: it’s not so much anymore about what new knowledge NORDP can provide to me, or how NORDP is developing me as a person, but it’s more about how I can use my position and visibility within the organization and my position as a leader to bring others up. One personal goal I’ve set for myself going forward is that, at every conference, I want to do a presentation with a person I’ve not interacted with previously as a means to get to know them and give them greater visibility. So if you’re a NORDP member reading this and you want to hop on a collab for the 2025 conference, write to me!

What are you most excited about when you think about the future of research development as a field?

What excites me most about the future of RD is its growing visibility and recognition as a legitimate profession and field. The field of Research Development is explicitly referenced in federal agency documents now! On a more personal note, whenever we hire a new dean or leader at UT and I introduce myself as “leading Research Development for the institution,” they now typically respond with, “That’s great! At my previous institution we had someone like you and they were so valuable!” More and more organizations are choosing to invest in RD as a strategic asset, and that means more career opportunities for all of us in the field. To be clear, all of us in NORDP should feel proud of this and take credit for elevating the legitimacy and profile of our field and profession.

NORDP 2023 Rising Star Award: Jessica Brassard

The NORDP Rising Star Award recognizes individuals for their outstanding, early volunteer contributions to NORDP and strong potential for future contributions to the organization and the profession or the field.

Who: Jessica Brassard

Where: Michigan Technological University

Number of years in research development: 9 years (started in 2015)

Length of NORDP membership: 9 years

What initiative are you the most proud of in your role as a NORDP volunteer?

I would say serving as a Conference Committee Co-Chair is a pretty proud moment. I come from a marketing and communications background, but I didn’t want to enter the field of research development and say, “This is how marketing and communications works.” Instead, I focused on learning more about NORDP as an organization and how NORDP members like to communicate. Initially, I straight-up avoided opportunities to let my marketing and communications skills shine, because I wanted the opportunity to develop other skills important to have in research development. And to be honest, I didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a person who knew marketing and comms. But around the time of the virtual conference (held in 2021) it felt like the right time to get involved and offer my energy to do things that I am good at. Organizing a conference is very analogous to other event-based projects I’ve been a part of, including foundation galas, summer camps, and even sled dog racing — I knew how these kinds of things work. Everybody was trying to pivot to running virtual events like a multi-day conference. And so it became an opportune moment for me to bring all of my marketing, communication, and event management experience into a space where everybody’s just trying to break stuff and put it back together in a way that is a good experience for people. I wanted to be a part of it, which is why I initially joined the Conference Committee.

Once I had served on the committee for a year, I was invited to be a committee co-chair. At first I said, “No.” I knew serving in this role would take a substantial amount of time and I wasn’t sure I could carve out that time. I want my life to be about my family, work, other volunteer commitments, as well as some things for me. I was nervous about keeping all that and also showing up and doing a good job organizing the NORDP conference. But after having conversations with people I trust and talking about the payoff of serving in this role, thinking about what I would be able to offer, and making it clear the boundaries I would establish to ensure that co-chairing the conference would not take over my life, I decided to say “yes” to becoming a conference co-chair.

How did you hear about NORDP and what made you join initially?

It was an expectation in my first RD position that I would also be a NORDP member. Everybody in our unit was a NORDP member and our organization already had a precedent for supporting NORDP membership for research development staff.

As for how I found myself in research development in the first place: I worked in healthcare marketing and communications for a decade in a local hospital. Healthcare ownership and organization management has changed over the past couple of decades in America, and those changes finally reached the community-owned hospital where I worked. It became very apparent that I wouldn’t survive the shift — professionally, mentally, and emotionally. I was pretty desperate to find a position that would keep me in my community in northern Michigan that I love so much. I was also looking to build a career in which I could take pride in and have room to grow. It was a friend of mine, who was on a hiring committee at Michigan Tech, and who saw the potential for my skill set to fit and evolve within the Office of Research Development. I applied, interviewed, and got the job. (Thanks, Adam Johnson, for getting me into research development!)

What other roles have you played within NORDP?

I first started committee work within NORDP in 2021, when I joined the Mentoring Committee and the Great Lakes Executive Committee. As part of the Mentoring Committee, I was encouraged to join a subcommittee, the Marketing and Communications Group within the Mentoring Committee (known as the McMc). A year later, a liaison position opened between the mentoring committee and NORDP’s Communications Working Group (CWG), and taking on that role is how I got involved with the CWG. It was also around this time that I joined the Conference Planning Committee.

One important element of my approach to service, both within NORDP as well as other organizations I care about, is to be deliberate in how I balance my commitments. I think of my commitments as falling into two buckets: professional and community. My goal is to only say “yes” to up to three things that fall into each bucket. So NORDP, for example, falls into my professional bucket, along with any other service activities for my employer. When I first started in RD, I was very involved at Michigan Tech, serving on the University Faculty and Staff Senate, an AdHoc Childcare Working Group, and several hiring committees. Those activities took up a lot of time. Once those responsibilities at Michigan Tech sunsetted, I was able to get involved in NORDP service. Given my current NORDP commitments, I continue to stay mindful of monitoring my bandwidth and making sure that I’m not over-committing myself (I just said “no” to two board/committee invitations this month). So, for example, right now I feel like I can still serve on a hiring committee or two, but I wouldn’t, say, join an editorial board or leadership academy. I would need to step away from one of my other volunteer activities to free up the space to do that.

I maintain all this service intentionality in an Airtable base along with a wishlist of all the service opportunities I want to pursue in the future. I would love to serve NORDP in other ways someday, I just want to honor the opportunities by being fully committed during the time I serve.

What relationships have you built as a result of NORDP?

My mentoring relationships within NORDP have lasted well beyond the one-year programmatic year. I still have conversations with all of my former mentors and we meet at least quarterly and continue to help each other. Those relationships are foundational to the relationships that I have in NORDP. And then there are the people that I co-chair with who are really special friends. We’ve had to go through a lot of messy stuff together. It’s kind of like summer camp and I have these powerful shared experiences. We figure things out together, which leads to good communication and trust. That kind of trust is hard to generate spontaneously. I think getting into these service positions and serving with people, especially the co-chair positions, have been really crucial to building my sense of belonging within NORDP.

Describe how NORDP has changed from when you initially joined

My understanding of NORDP has really changed as I’ve gotten to know the organization and made more connections with other NORDies. NORDP has had a few years of change — just like everyone else in the world — and we had to learn how to stay connected and grow community through a pandemic. That was really hard for everyone. But we’ve made it through; we still are an organization after the pandemic. I can’t say the same for other organizations that I’ve been a part of. I think NORDP is stronger for it and we have a better sense of community, too. I’m proud of us!

My service on the Great Lakes Executive Committee has also enabled me to see changes at the regional level. When I initially joined NORDP, I remember some comments that the Great Lakes region wasn’t very active and it was hard to get members to show up. But that started to change with two years of regional conferences hosted in Columbus and Ann Arbor. Then even as the pandemic happened, we were able to keep things going, holding virtual retreats, book club discussions, and a monthly DEIB discussion group. I’m proud to say that the Great Lakes region has gotten a little stronger over the last couple of years.

What recommendations do you have for members to get more involved with NORDP?

Define the amount of energy that you think is enough to bring benefit to your life, and stick with that. Don’t say yes to the first thing that people ask you to do — be intentional. For example, if all you want to do is show up to a committee meeting per month and dedicate one extra hour of action items beyond that, define that for yourself. Then communicate to the other people in that group that that’s what you’re able to give. Know your limits and don’t be afraid to communicate them so that you don’t overextend yourself.

I’d also encourage members to think about what’s going to stretch you. What are the skill sets you wish you had? And how can you, within whatever bandwidth limits you have, give your time in ways that will allow you to develop those new skills? This may point you to particular committees or working groups that will allow you to get outside of your comfort zone.

Congratulations to Dr. Christine Pfund as the recipient of the 2023 NORDP Research Development Champion

Written by: Jan Abramson and the Mentoring Committee Leadership (Elizabeth Lathrop, Hilda McMackin, Angela Jordan, Kathy Partlow)

Congratulations to Dr. Christine Pfund—the honored recipient of the 2023 NORDP Research Development Champion! The award was established in 2020 to recognize RD Champions who are distinguished by their advocacy for the critical support of research development (RD) and/or wider efforts to advance the research enterprise. Dr. Pfund, of the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), has long been a champion for research development and the work of RD professionals.

Dr. Pfund is a distinguished senior scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work centers on advancing the science and practice of mentorship with a particular focus on culturally responsive mentorship education interventions. Through her work, she has developed, implemented, documented, and studied the training of research mentors across science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). Dr. Pfund holds multiple roles as the Director, the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), the Principal Investigator for the Coordination Center, National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN), and Director of Mentorship Initiatives, Institute for Clinical & Translational Research. She was a member of the National Academies committee that published the consensus report and online guide The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM.

In 2018, members of the NORDP Mentoring Committee had the opportunity to participate in CIMER’s mentor training. Inspired by their experience, they determined that CIMER resources and best practices would positively benefit NORDP and its membership. This led to the development of the first CIMER curriculum for RD professionals, Mentoring for Research Development Professionals, published by CIMER as part of the Entering Mentoring curriculum series. The process of adapting the evidence-based curriculum took over three years, and hundreds of NORDP Mentoring Committee volunteer hours. Dr. Pfund and CIMER were strong advocates for RD throughout the process, recognizing the impact of the work and the mentorship RD professionals engage in. Encouraged by her unwavering support, NORDP members are engaging in the national conversation around mentorship and can participate in creating a shared language of mentorship.

NORDP members are invited to participate in mentor training offered by the Mentoring Committee. The 5-week webinar series begins 1/30/2024. Registration will open in early January 2024, and is limited to 30 NORDP members.

2023 Innovation Award Winner: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Office of Proposal Development

The NORDP Innovation Award recognizes individuals, groups, or teams; functional units; or organizations who leverage unique skills or resources to kick-start innovation in research development and advance the profession or the field in ways that generate evidence of promise or demonstrable results. Innovators leverage partnerships, experiment with tools and techniques, or generate and share knowledge to advance NORDP and the work of its members.

Then NORDP President Anne Maglia, left, and NORDP Vice President Nathan Meier, right, present the NORDP Innovation Award to University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Office of Proposal Development (OPD) team, from left, Matthew Dwyer, Katie Pelland, Tisha Gilreath Mullen, Jaclyn Tan, and Amanda Bohlin, at the 2023 NORDP Conference in Arlington, Va., on May 10. UNL OPD won the award for their leading-edge programming to help UNL faculty win National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (NSF CAREER) grants. Not pictured: Jocelyn Bosley.

NORDP is proud to spotlight the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Office of Proposal Development (OPD), a group recognized May 10 with the Innovation Award. UNL OPD won the award by exhibiting inventive approaches and fostering impactful change on campus through its CAREER Club programming, which is designed to increase faculty success in securing these prestigious awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

At the core of UNL OPD’s success lies a team of dedicated individuals with unique expertise and roles positioned within the institution’s central research development (RD) structure. Team members include:

Amanda Bohlin, Proposal Development Coordinator
Jocelyn Bosley, Research Impact Coordinator
Matthew Dwyer, Senior Proposal Development Coordinator
Tisha Gilreath Mullen, Director of Proposal Development
Katie Pelland, Senior Proposal Development Coordinator
Jaclyn Tan, Proposal Development Specialist

In UNL’s NSF CAREER Club, the team employs a three-pronged, integrated approach focusing on programming, personalized proposal development support, and fostering connections among researchers and partners—both internal and external. What started as a one-week program in 2017 has since evolved into a six-month program. Key to innovation is the team’s commitment to constant evaluation and improvement: sessions are evaluated annually and OPD uses data-informed practices to evolve.

Over the years, UNL’s NSF CAREER Club has shifted from didactic-centered interactions to more conversational sessions, assisted networking, one-on-one mentoring, and continued support. Today, programming also emphasizes synergistic networking to catalyze future research through cross-departmental and external collaborations. Through this networking, faculty develop connections across and beyond campus, ultimately increasing the sense of community Principal Investigators (PIs) feel at UNL. OPD offers one-on-one mentoring and safe spaces to create what they call “collateral beauty,” where PIs receive valuable feedback, support on deferment or selecting better fitting mechanisms, or encouragement to submit. These spaces integrate difficult conversations seamlessly into a strategic, positive experience. OPD also developed two new tools to enhance how researchers communicate their vision: a career trajectory graphic that visualizes past, present, and future growth, and a mini poster designed to facilitate virtual conversations with program officers, impact partners, and other stakeholders.

As a testament to their successful innovations, UNL now averages six or more CAREER Award winners per year—a significant increase over the past five years—with a 50% success rate for faculty who complete CAREER Club. Through partnerships with external NSF consultants, UNL OPD demystifies the process, supports their investigators, and ensures PIs acquire the necessary experiences and co-mentorship to achieve their goals.

For institutions wanting to start a similar program, UNL OPD recommends evaluating how programs can work together to maximize impact despite limited resources and bandwidth. Institutions can start by taking inventory of unique assets and strengths, chart them against leadership priorities, then develop objectives and define metrics for success. Consistent messaging and marketing before, during, and after programming is crucial as well.

Additionally, OPD encourages leveraging the wealth of NORDP resources in developing programs. The team conveyed gratitude for the NORDP community’s invaluable expertise and support in catalyzing their innovations from ideation to execution. For example, their mini poster tool was refined based on NORDP members’ input. Many OPD members also applauded the NORDP Mentoring Program as a hub to ideate, problem-solve, and gain resources related to programming. The team praised NORDP’s contributions to the RD field, such as providing a common vocabulary, offering growth frameworks, working toward developing an RD credential program, and creating virtual spaces for engagement. Furthermore, NORDP’s collaboration with other professional organizations, such as ARIS (Advancing Research Impact in Society), has driven the field further. OPD also noted that a former NORDP president now serves as the director of NSF GRANTED, further exemplifying the impact of NORDP involvement.

OPD’s CAREER Club stands as a beacon of innovation and a catalyst for progress. By providing personalized support, fostering connections, and engaging with the NORDP community, the UNL team has propelled researchers to new heights of success. Through constant evaluation and collaboration, they continue to push boundaries and empower researchers to embrace innovation. As institutions seek to innovate, UNL OPD serves as an exemplar that offers tangible steps for success and advocates for the power of networking, resource sharing, and co-innovation within the NORDP community.

Congratulations to the 2023 NORDP Awardees!

NORDP is powered by the excellence and impact of its members. Each year, NORDP Awards celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of members making exemplary contributions to the organization as well as the practice and/or study of research development. NORDP Awards honor the distinctive achievements and contributions of individuals, collaborative groups or work teams, programs or projects, and organizations.

Recipients of 2023 NORDP Awards were recognized during the annual NORDP Conference held May 7 to 10 in Crystal City, VA. In the coming months, you will have a chance to learn more about each awardee through in-depth interviews that will be shared through NORDP News. Congratulations to all of the fantastic awardees for your service to our organization and profession!

Rising Star Award

Jessica Brassard, Director of Research Development and Communication, Michigan Technological University
Katherine Duggan, Associate Director of Research Development, Northeastern University
Erica Pitre, Director of Research Development, Emory University

Leadership Award

Faye Farmer, Executive Director, Research Development, Knowledge Enterprise, Arizona State University
Edel Minogue, Senior Director, Research Strategy & Development, Brown University

Mentoring Award

Carolynn Julien, Executive Director of Grants and Sponsored Projects, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Hilda McMackin, Director, Research Administration Systems and Reporting, Vanderbilt University

NORDP Fellows

Karen Fletcher, Director of Grants Resources & Services, Appalachian State University
Jennifer Lyon Gardner, Deputy Vice President for Research, The University of Texas at Austin

Innovation Award

NSF CAREER Club, Office of Proposal Development (Amanda Bohlin, Matthew Dwyer, Tisha Gilreath Mullen, Katie Pelland, and Jaclyn Tan), University of Nebraska-Lincoln

President’s Commendation

Jessica Brassard, Director of Research Development and Communication, Michigan Technological University
Becca Latimer, Research Program Director, University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center
Jessica Moon, Executive Director, Stanford Aging and Ethnogeriatrics Research Center, Stanford University

Holly Falk-Krzesinski Service Award

Jill Jividen, Senior Director of Research Development, University of Michigan

Learn more about the NORDP Awards program and view past awardees.

2022 Leadership Award: Kathy Partlow

As part of the April 27, 2022 NORDP Awards session, NORDP Fellow Jan Abramson presented the 2022 NORDP Leadership Award with heartfelt emotion to her peer, colleague and friend — Kathy Partlow. The NORDP Leadership Award “honors a member, a group of members or team, an RD unit, or an organization that demonstrates exceptional leadership and/or a deep commitment to volunteerism in ways that advance the profession or field of RD.”

Jan began her recognition of Kathy with a quote from Peter Strople, former director of Dell Computer Corporation — “Legacy is not leaving something for people, it’s leaving something in people. The legacy of leadership begins at the first moment of impact.” Jan’s moment of impact with Kathy began when they worked together on the Mentoring Committee. Whether we know it or not, our NORDP experiences have been touched in some way by Kathy’s quiet, behind-the-scenes leadership.

Jess Brassard from the Communications Working Group interviewed Kathy about her take on leadership.

Who: Kathy Parlow

Where: Remote-working from Oklahoma. Note: Kathy participated in this interview in her personal capacity.

Number of years in research development: 10

Length of NORDP membership: 10

What is leadership to you?

KP: Formally, I am a co-chair of the Mentoring Committee and the lead for the Evaluation & Innovation team. Broadly, I believe leadership is noticing that one is in a position to to bring others up. This can happen from any title or position. Leadership also means having a big-picture, strategic mindset to guide a group of people toward the group’s mission.

How did you learn or develop your style of leadership?

KP: My style of leadership is focused on others. I use the unit’s mission as a meter. My contributions started small and really grew as I became passionate about mentoring. Along the way, other leaders mentored me and helped me “settle in” to the style that best suits me. I was very much mentored into my servant leadership style.

How does your membership in NORDP develop your leadership style?

KP: I came to a point in my career where there was no pathway to leadership in my job and had a mentor that encouraged me to think more broadly about where I could gain leadership experience. I chose to develop my leadership capabilities outside my “day job” through volunteering and community service.

What relationships have you built as a result of NORDP, and how have these relationships influenced your work?

KP: I have connected to amazing colleagues and formed lasting friendships through mentee/mentor relationships and volunteer activities. Their guidance is infused through my work and career journey. I learned to be active and intentional about building relationships. Within the Mentoring Committee, I take it to heart. It’s the foundation of everything the Mentoring Committee does.

What do you wish you would have known when you began your leadership journey within NORDP?

KP: I wish I would have known earlier that leadership is a gentle pathway. It doesn’t need to be a switch that is flipped. I eased into the time commitment. The “rising co-chair model” of the Mentoring Committee and other NORDP committees helps with transitions. I appreciate the co-leadership and support this model enables.

What have you found most rewarding, and most challenging, about leading within NORDP? In your CAREER?

KP: As far as the most challenging — the Mentoring Committee leadership team saw the need to adapt to a growing NORDP. That meant large initiatives were needed to adapt and diversify the resources for mentoring (e.g. peer mentoring groups (PMGs) and implementing Wisdom Share mentoring software ). The reward from this hard work has been the feasibility of supporting record-breaking numbers of NORDP Mentoring Program participants. .

By far, the most rewarding part of NORDP is the people. I love to recognize and celebrate with NORDP volunteers in these accomplishments (and all the mini-milestones throughout).

What advice do you have for others within NORDP who are looking to develop as leaders?

KP: My advice is to choose a measured path. Most NORDP leadership roles allow you to ease into them. Make small contributions at first. Share your time and skills in areas that interest you. Find reward in the volunteer work.