Presenters

Mary Bauer, Senior Post-Award Administrator at the UW-Carbone Cancer Center

Mary is a CPA having worked for the State of Wisconsin for 30+ years. She enjoys looking for ways to improve processes and how best to discuss and disseminate financial and regulatory information for better award management. Mary has experience at both the department and central campus level. While at RSP, Mary was an accountant on the DHHS Post-Award Team and then managed the Non-Federal Post-Award Team. She has been on several Administrative Process Redesign committees on the UW-Madison campus working on improvements to travel reimbursement and award setup as a couple of examples. Mary also co-chaired the Cost Transfer Policy team. She is currently the Senior Sponsored Post-Award Administrator for the Carbone Cancer Center providing guidance and oversight from award implementation to closeout. For Mary, this stuff just makes sense.

Jenny Dahlberg, Administrative Program Specialist in the School of Veterinary Medicine

Jenny is a Senior Research Administrative Program Specialist in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s (SVM) Dean’s office with over 16 years of experience in NIH training grant (T32) and fellowship administration. She currently oversees preaward administration within the SVM, and acts as the primary administrator for all NIH T32s, Ks and F awards within the school. Jenny has provided training grant and NRSA/fellowship guidance to faculty, applicants and administrators on campus, as well as presented at regional National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) meetings for training grants. She has assisted faculty with over a dozen competitive training grant submissions, and over sixty individual NRSA fellowship submissions. She holds a B.S. in Natural Sciences and M.S. from the Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (both UW-Madison).

Shelly Earl, Accountant Advanced in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Shelly is an Advanced Accountant on the RSP Nonfederal Post Award team. She has been a part of the team since 2004. She has worked with many campus collaborators on unique multi-disciplinary awards. Her work portfolio has included a wide variety of sponsored project, fund 133, awards. In addition to her regular work, she also provides oversight for the Residual Balance Process and RSP’s electronic Post Award document retention system. She has also presented at NCURA regionals and at the national FRA conference on various Post Award topics.

Steve Flaherty, Research Administrator in the College of Engineering

Steve is a Research Administrator with the College of Engineering. In his current role, he supports the CoE research enterprise in a variety of ways, including as the pre-award administrator for CoE’s large-scale proposal team. Prior to his current role, Steve worked in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as a pre-award research administrator, and at the University of Washington’s Information School as a pre- and post-award research administrator.

Sandy Fowler, Lead Accountant at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Sandy loves grant management and loves to share what she knows about it. Sandy started with the UW in 1997 at University Housing as a program assistant. In 1999, she moved to the Department of Forest Ecology and Management and became a financial specialist. She was managing grants and not even knowing it. Her time in the department prepped her for a move to the CALS Research Division in 2006. Here she spent a solid two years reviewing salary and non-salary cost transfers and assisting RSP and CALS departments with sponsored project closeouts. Her post award role moved to CALS Business Services where she now serves as a lead accountant providing guidance on cost share, effort, grant closeout, travel, and purchasing questions. Sandy has a B.S. in Accounting and hopes to be designated as a Certified Research Administrator (CRA) in the near future.

Bob Gratzl, Interim Assistant Director of Contracts in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Bob is the Manager of the RSP Contracts Team and the Interim Assistant Director for Contracts. He joined the University in 2011 as a Grant and Contract Specialist for the RSP Contracts Team. He and his staff are responsible for the negotiation and execution of sponsored research agreements with sponsors ranging from federal to non-profit to clinical trial affiliated pharmaceutical companies. As part of RSP, he and his staff are also responsible for the new issuance of subawards to UW’s partners. Bob has presented at both regional and national meetings on a wide range of research topics. Bob has a B.S. in History and Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a J.D. from Marquette University Law School.

Jenny Hackel, Assistant Director in the Space Science and Engineering Center

Jenny is the Assistant Director for Administration at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC). She started at SSEC in 2002 as a research administrator and developed into her present role in 2012. She oversees all aspects of proposals, awards, service activities, and audit at the departmental level for more than 40 multi-disciplinary PIs and a wide variety of sponsors including federal, private sector, and international. Jenny has a B.S. in Business Administration from University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and embraces the problem solving aspects of research administration.

Kristin Harmon, Intellectual Property Disclosure Specialist in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Kristin, Intellectual Property Disclosure Specialist, has been a research administrator for nearly 20 years. She began her career in post-award administration at Indiana University, and came to UW-Madison as a Grants & Contracts Specialist at RSP. She spent eight years as grant manager at the Primate Research Center and the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, taking responsibility for all aspects of pre-award, as well as non-financial post-award, research administration. In her current role, she works closely with WARF and UW-Madison schools and colleges to determine assignment of intellectual property rights to inventions based on agreements with federal and non-federal sponsors. Kristin is a strong believer in communication and collaboration, and has presented both on campus, and at regional and national seminars and conferences on a variety of topics.

Melanie Hebl, Education Coordinator in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Melanie is the Education Coordinator in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP). She joined the university in 2007 as a Grant and Contract Specialist working in RSP preaward services. Prior to joining RSP, Melanie was a grant administrator for the WI DNR and an educator for the University of Georgia Extension. Melanie has presented educational sessions at local, regional, and national meetings on a variety of research administration topics. She has professional training in Online Education, Instruction and Instructional Design. She is currently in the process of developing RSP’s RED Program to expand educational opportunities for all UW research administrators.

Dawn Herrick, Senior Research Administrator in the College of Engineering

Dawn is a Pre-Award Research Administrator in the College of Engineering, Office of Research. She has been a research administrator at the UW since 2000. She started her career as a Grant and Contract Specialist at RSP and, after 6 years there, joined the College of Engineering. Dawn primarily works with pre-award administration and is responsible for proposal review and submission, compliance and contract negotiations. She enjoys the challenges and problem solving that happens on an everyday basis in research administration.

Susan Horein, Revenue Management Accountant in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Susan has been an Accountant on the Revenue Management Team in Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) for four years. She primarily works on aged Accounts Receivables, focusing on past-due payments from sponsors with a polite tenacity. Prior to RSP, Susan worked at UW’s Arts Institute and the Wisconsin Film Festival, and before that, she was a product manager and software developer at Chemical Abstracts Service.

Amber Jensen, Research Administrator in the College of Engineering

Amber is a Pre-Award Research Administrator in the College of Engineering Research Services Office. She joined the UW in 2002 and over the past 16 years has had a variety of pre and post award responsibilities before transitioning to all pre award in 2014. In her current role, Amber is responsible for advising and supporting pre-award activities for faculty and staff in CoE, including proposal review and approval and electronic grant submission guidance and assistance. She also serves on several college and campus committees related to Research Administration. Amber has a M.S. in Rehabilitation Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Angie Johnson, Advanced Accountant in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Angie is an Advanced Accountant and team Lead of the Non-Federal Post Award Team and the Intern Supervisor at UW-Madison’s Research and Sponsored Programs Office. She joined the UW in 2009 after working for a printer company in the private sector for 10 years in Accounts Receivable. In addition to her grant portfolio, she supervises students that do a variety of tasks that support the accountants of RSP, provides training for new employees and campus, has served on several process improvement committees, and oversees the award closeout process and aspects of the subward process. Angie has a B.A. in Accounting and Business from Lakeland University.

Dorothy Johnson, Post-Award Managing Officer in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Dorothy is the Manager of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) team in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Prior to joining the University in May 2018, she gained extensive university research administration experience through her positions at Macalester College, Bucknell University, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her numerous certifications include Certified Research Administrator, Certified Financial Research Administrator, and Certified Public Accountant. Dorothy has a Master of Science in Research Administration from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She has presented at both regional and national meetings on a wide range of research topics.

Mandi Kilcoyne, Accountant in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Mandi is an Accountant on the RSP Federal Post Award team. She has been part of the team since 2017. Mandi started working on campus 10 years ago as a student hourly and spent 8 years working in post award, managing both sponsored and non-sponsored awards in the Civil & Environmental Engineering department. She brings her knowledge of campus policies and grant administration, as well as a department operation/function/administration perspective to RSP. Her current work portfolio includes National Science Foundation and Department of Energy sponsored funds.

Emily Konkol, Post-Award Managing Officer in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Emily is the Manager of the NSF/DOE/DOJ Postaward Team in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP). Prior to working at RSP, Emily worked at the UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health within the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, where she held various research administration roles including Grants Manager, Research Accountant, and Research Administrator. Earlier in her career, she worked at Baker Tilly’s Madison office. Emily holds a Master’s Degree in Accounting from Edgewood College.

Tammy Kuhn Martin, Assistant Dean in the College of Engineering

Tammy is the Assistant Dean for Research Administration in the College of Engineering. Tammy got her start in Research Administration in 2001 when she took a student hourly position as an Accountant Intern at Research & Sponsored Programs. She has a wealth of experience and expertise across all aspects of research administration spanning full-life-cycle grants, contract management and research compliance. She serves on a number of campus committees, is a member of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), and has presented at their regional meetings. Tammy has a B.S. in Human Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sarah Marcotte, Research Administrator/Supervisor at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Sarah has worked at UW-Madison since 2002 in a variety of roles including clinical research coordination at the Carbone Cancer Center (9 years) and currently as the Supervisor of the preaward team within the Research Division in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS). When not working to support the research enterprise at UW-Madison, Sarah enjoys trail running, reimagining her youth on the soccer and ultimate Frisbee fields, and futzing around with an acoustic guitar.

Dana Maya, Research and Faculty Development Advisor at the Department of Surgery

Dana is a Research and Faculty Development Advisor in the UW Department of Surgery. She has 25 years of experience advising faculty from a wide array of disciplines, including helping develop 100+ competitive grants, many of them multi-investigator and multi-institutional. In her current role, she assists surgeon-scientists with the development, writing, and revision of basic science, clinical, and translational research proposals. Previously, she worked as a writing instructor and writing consultant for scholars, corporate entities such as adidas, and community organizations. In all this work, her role has been to assist clients in translating specialized and often technical language to a specific targeted audience.

Debbie Meltzer, Assistant Dean in the School of Medicine and Public Health

Debbie believes the magic of Research Administration happens when you have good people, who are well led, well trained, rewarded, and have challenging roles. Debbie graduated from the University of Wisconsin and went on to do research in the Cancer Center prior to becoming Assistant Dean. She stays current with grant policies/regulations as a member of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) and campus committees, using that information to inform Research Administrators in 17 Clinical Departments, 10 Basic Science Departments, and 23 Institutes and Centers.

Mallory Musolf, Student Services Coordinator in the Neuroscience Training Program

Mallory is the Program Coordinator for the Neuroscience Training Program, an interdisciplinary program with a robust and diverse representation of graduate students and faculty trainers. Her roles include graduate student services, professional development and academic advising, fiscal and human resources management and research administration. Mallory has 6 years’ experience working with NIH Training Grants and individual pre-doctoral fellowships (HHMI, NIH and NSF). She has co-presented on NIH T32 and F awards on campus and with the National Council of University Research Administrators. Mallory holds a B.A. and M.A. in Modern European and Global History from Marquette University.

Nick Novak, Assistant Vice Chancellor in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Nick has primary responsibility for the administration of research activities for the OVCR research centers including acting as the Vice Chancellor’s representative for activities related to submission of grant proposals, pre and post award grant administration, effort, conflict-of-interest and acceptance of gifts. He previously served as manager of the proposal team at Research and Sponsored Programs and as a grants manager for several non-profit organizations.

Jeff Nytes, Effort Program Administrator in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Jeff is the Effort Administrator in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at UW-Madison. He has a long history of research administration, policy, and compliance work at UW. Jeff has worked with the campus research and laboratory safety programs, animal care and use, and biosafety programs (ACUC and IBC), and with the human research protection program (IRB). Currently he provides oversight and guidance for payroll, compensation and commitments through management of the campus Effort Program and ECRT. Jeff holds a master’s degree in Public Policy; and prior to coming to UW, worked as an account manager with a consulting firm and instructor with Madison College and Concordia College.

Jennifer Rodis, Policy Analyst in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Jennifer is a Policy & Planning Analyst in UW-Madison’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, where she has worked since 2006. As a Grant & Contract Specialist, she submitted proposals, set up awards, and negotiated contracts. From January 2012 to January 2014, she served on an IPA assignment as a Policy Specialist in the National Science Foundation’s Policy Office. Since returning to RSP, she has worked on policy analysis and implementation related to research administration. She is active in the Federal Demonstration Partnership and is a member of the National Council of University Research Administrators, currently serving as the lead of the Publications Subcommittee of NCURA’s Professional Development Committee.

Amy Rognsvoog, Financial Program Manager in Accounting Services at the Division of Business Services

Amy is a CPA who has worked in the financial/accounting industry for 15 years. After 7 years in public accounting with SVA Franchise Services/AJ Restaurant Accounting, she accepted a position with the State of Wisconsin, Department of Natural Resources. As a Senior Accountant at the DNR, she focused on internal rate calculations and GAAP accounting for the Department. For the past two years, Amy has served as the Manager for UW Madison capital equipment. She leads a team of five Property Accountants in assisting campus with associated policies and procedures. Her team facilitates capital equipment transfers, loans, federal reporting, physical inventories, audits, financial reporting, campus capital equipment training and the maintenance of the asset management system.

Catherine Shults, Research Administrator in the Department of Mechanical Engineering

Catherine is a Research Administrator for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She specializes in both pre- and post-award management, and her award portfolio currently includes NSF, DOE, DOD, and various industry partners. She also has broad knowledge of general financial and operational aspects of the department gained in previously held roles.

Laurie Silverberg, PhD., Administrative Director at the Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research Program (WISOR)

Laurie is responsible for program development and research growth at WISOR. Before coming to WiSOR, she was the Officer for Research Funding and Ethics at the Berlin Social Science Center, where she developed one of Germany’s first social science Research Ethics Commissions and assisted faculty grant submissions. She also served for nearly five years as the Associate Director of the UW-Madison Center for Jewish Studies. Laurie holds a PhD in music history and has published widely on East German music, cold war politics, and postwar modernism.

Lori Uttech-Hanson, Administrative Program Specialist in the School of Medicine and Public Health

Lori, B.S., MA. Ed., leads the medRAMP Office (Research AdMinistration & Proposal Development Office) in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health housed in the Dean's Office of Basic Research, Biotechnology and Graduate Studies. In this role, she serves as a Research Administrator, Grant Writer, and Project Manager. The medRAMP Office primarily provides full-scale support and assistance on all components of research grant proposal development ranging from individual research grants to large, complex, interdisciplinary, and/or multi-investigator proposals. She also conducts funding research, provides review and editing services, and offers a wealth of resources for investigators to help develop high quality, successful grant proposals. She has been involved in all aspects of pre- and post-award management, including needs assessments, strategic planning, grant writing, partnership development, fiscal management, and project implementation, directorship, and evaluation for over 25 years. While most of her career has been in the educational arena (K-16), she also worked for the State of Wisconsin as a Statewide Grants Coordinator. Over the years, her career has involved forming strong, collaborative relationships and partnerships with many different types of individuals and organizations. She is a member of NCURA and is currently working on a second Master’s Degree in Public Health Administration.

John Varda, Post-Award Managing Officer in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

John has been the manager of RSP’s Nonfederal Post-Award Team since March 2016. His team of accountants manage the 133- awards for campus. With 25 years of experience at the UW at the departmental, divisional, and central level, John has insight into UW policies and procedures from multiple points of view. John is active in RSP’s RED (Research Education Development) program, helping to create and co-present the post-award overview course. He also has experience with formal process improvement as a participant and leader of APR teams 2010-2013.

Betty Weiss, Director of Research Services in the Department of Medicine

Betty is the Director of Research Services for the Department of Medicine within the School of Medicine and Public Health. She started her career in the lab as a basic science researcher for 17 years, then after completion of her MBA turned into research administration. She has over 25 years of successful leadership experience in positions with management/decision-making responsibilities, staff supervision, fiscal administration, and both pre and post award research administration. Experienced in budget development and management including reconciliations and projections. Successful track-record of multi-tasking with accountability for setting goals, organizing and implementing new programs such as SWIFT and DOM Research Day. Completed or assisted 150 PIs in DOM with hundreds of grants with no administrative returns and effort coordinator for Department of Medicine for 12 years.

Molly Wesling, PhD., Research and Faculty Development Advisory in the Department of Surgery

Molly assists surgeon-scientists with the development, writing, and revision of basic science, clinical, and translational research grant proposals. Previously, Molly spent a decade at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research as the Program Coordinator for a federally funded predoctoral research training grant (the Interdisciplinary Training Program in the Education Sciences), and 15 years as a freelance academic editor. She holds a BA from Barnard College of Columbia University, and a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UC Berkeley.

Kedren Witkowski, Research Administrator in the College of Engineering

Kedren is a Pre-Award Research Administrator in the College of Engineering Research Services Office. Kedren started her career at UW in 2009 and has worked in several roles spanning from graduate recruiting and admissions, financial specialist activities, research administration, and academic department management. In 2017, Kedren transitioned to her current position where she assists faculty and staff with research proposal and agreement preparation and submission. She also participates in training and outreach activities in CoE and across campus.

Kelsey Wolter, Accountant in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Kelsey is an Accountant on the NSF/DOE/DOJ Post-Award Team at Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP). She manages National Science Foundation awards. Prior to joining RSP, she worked at UW’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences within the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, where she was the Grants and Accounts Manager. She was responsible for both pre-award and post-award activities for the Department, Center for Dairy Profitability, and Center for Cooperatives. She holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Shari Zeldin, IRB Compliance Officer in the Department of Medicine

Shari currently serves as the Clinical Research Compliance Officer for the Department of Medicine. She has over 30 years of clinical research experience covering the spectrum from all aspects of clinical research coordination to regulatory and compliance oversight. Over the years, Shari has developed comprehensive clinical research training and education opportunities for PIs and clinical research staff. Through her trainings, here on campus as well as at national conferences and meetings, Shari has earned herself a reputation as a passionate, enthusiastic and highly relatable speaker.

Bonniejean Zitske, Assistant Director of Research Financial Services in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Bonniejean is the Assistant Director for Research Financial Services at the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. She has been an active member of the UW-Madison community for twenty years and a research administrator for 10 years, working in a department and dean’s office before taking on a leadership role in the central office. She is Chair of NCURA Region IV, which is a professional organization for research administrators. She is also working on a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.

Research and Sponsored Programs

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Announcements

3rd Annual Symposium for Research Administrators

September 26th, 2018 - Gordon Event Center