FY 24 Change Management Committee Nominees

Pre-Award Nominee:

Amanda has been in the world of research advancement on the pre-award side for 13 years in a wide variety of positions from non-profit, community college, and ASU. Amanda is an analytical thinker identifying and defining problems by extracting key information from data for potential problems or solutions identified and verify the causes of the problem. She strives to implement strategies for effective changes. Amanda's input and solutions within our ecosystem have been very beneficial.

Post-Award Nominee:

Jayson has been associated with research and sponsored projects since he first participated in an NSF REU as physics undergrad. He has since then worked in industry before returning to ASU where he has spent the last 8 years as a research administrator. He now leads the research operations for the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering. His specialty is post award administration and played a role in helping to initially develop the KE Forecasting Tool. His analytical mindset continues to help solve problems that are faced within FSE and the rest of the university.

Pre-Award Nominees:

As a senior level research administrator with over 30 years of ASU experience at both the Central and College levels, she is uniquely qualified to provide a balanced outlook to the CMC. Her areas of expertise include all aspects of proposal development and submission, as well as non-financial postaward including no cost extensions, re-budgets, contract review, management, etc. Her involvement with NCURA at both the national and regional levels also allows her to bring in perspectives from colleagues around the world. She has enjoyed her role on the CMB tremendously over the years and would love to continue to participate in this important forum.

Echo is a Sr. Proposal Manager in SOLS and a Certified Research Administrator. She joined ASU in November 2022 after working in Research Administration at The University of Georgia and Yale. She has worked in grants since 2003, spending 7 years in the NGO/INGO sector in the U.S., Ethiopia, and Iraq and 6 years in the university sector at the Center, Department, College/Shared Services, and Central Office levels.

Barbara Schay is the Department of Psychology's (in The College) primary pre-award support staff. Barbara has years of experience, a high rate of success, cares deeply about the department's investigators, the research and the university. She is very invested in process improvement and contributing to the success of everyone. Her serving on the committee will be of value to all at ASU.

Post-Award Nominee:

Sarah Montgomery holds a CRA and has 12 years of post-award RA experience at ASU. She co-leads The College RA meetings and RA team lead meetings with Vicki Krell. This gives her the opportunity to share CMC updates with The College RA community and draw feedback for future CMC topics. Her RA colleagues in The College and beyond often reach out for information and advice, and she is always happy to assist. Her areas of expertise include NIH and NSF post-award management, travel including Fly America Act compliance, preparing grants for closeout, and cost share.

Pre-Award (RAS + ROAD)

Post-Award Nominee:

Nellie has over 15 years of post-award management experience. In that time, she has assisted with the implementation of many department level procedure and policy changes. She also has a wide array of knowledge managing Federal; Industry and Foundation based Sponsored Projects.

Pre-Award Nominee:

Christy has more than 16 years of experience in both pre and post award administration in addition to pre award experience at the Central/ORSPA level while with the University of Chicago. She has held a RAM position in two different colleges (CLAS and CHS) since joining ASU in 2019 and has extensive leadership and change management experience, particularly with grant related IT systems. She believes this will allow her to offer valuable insight and feedback to this team.

Post-Award Nominees:

Fernando has nine years of experience in research administration in both pre- and post-award at the college and unit levels of ASU and in the central office at U of A. He also presented at the Grants, Research, and Sponsored Projects (GRASP) conference and was a facilitator for the Tri-University Research Administration Conference (TURAC). Fernando has also completed the SRAI ‘Research Leadership Intensive’ training program. He is an integral part of the post award leadership team, as a RAM in CHS and has valuable insight to offer.

Rachel Hayes has been involved in post-award grants management for over 10 years, she joined MLFTC before the current Director of Research Advancement, and has shown a deep understanding of the strategies, complications, and solutions to post-award accounting. She is soft-spoken, but thoughtful and her opinions are always logical and sensible. Rachel is extremely devoted to ASU and would make an outstanding addition to the CMC.

Pre-Award Nominee:

Melinda has been an RA at ASU for the last 7 years. She started her career in RAS supporting pre-award for a diverse set of units across ASU. There she gained exposure to a wide variety of sponsors. As she progressed in RAS, she became involved with some institutional level support such as RA Seminars, ASU/ASUF determinations and RA support/training for units outside of RAS support. She then transitioned to pre-award support at the College of Law and added pre and post-award support for the McCain Institute. Throughout Melinda's tenure at ASU she has been exposed to a variety of sponsored project scenarios that would make her an excellent candidate for the CMC to better represent some of the non-research intensive units at ASU.

Post-Award Nominees:

Melinda has been an RA at ASU for the last 7 years. She started her career in RAS supporting pre-award for a diverse set of units across ASU. There she gained exposure to a wide variety of sponsors. As she progressed in RAS, she became involved with some institutional level support such as RA Seminars, ASU/ASUF determinations and RA support/training for units outside of RAS support. She then transitioned to pre-award support at the College of Law and added pre and post-award support for the McCain Institute. Throughout Melinda's tenure at ASU she has been exposed to a variety of sponsored project scenarios that would make her an excellent candidate for the CMC to better represent some of the non-research intensive units at ASU.

Samantha, a certified research administrator, has over 18 years of grants, financial and operations management experience in the public sector including 14 years of research administration and financial management at institutions of higher education in Arizona. She spent almost six years with KE Research Operations where she was integral to the implementation of new processes and systems including ERA awards and the cost transfer process.

Communications Lead

Samantha has extensive experience in communications. During her time in research operations she helped manage the post-award posts on the Research Operations News blog, helped support contentment development and updates to the research admin website as well as help develop and maintain work instructions for the RA community. In her current position she continues to manage internal and external communications for research initiatives and DEI.

Committee Secretary