Four staff members will be honored for their outstanding research service at a May 22 reception in the Michigan League.
Kate Blakeman and Denise DuPrie will receive the Distinguished Research Administrator Award. Eve Gochis and Patricia Smith will receive the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) Exceptional Service Award.
“The research administration staff have important roles to play in maintaining our very large and very successful operations,” says Stephen Forrest, vice president for research. “These awards are one way we can acknowledge the special contributions of these professionals.”
This year’s awards reception is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. May 22 in the Michigan League’s Vandenberg Room, with the awards presentation at 4 p.m.
The Distinguished Research Administrator Award honors individuals from any unit at the University who have demonstrated distinguished service exemplifying the goals of professional research administration. The Exceptional Service Award honors staff members from OVPR or any of the units that report to it. This award recognizes individuals involved in any area of work who have made outstanding contributions that go beyond the ordinary fulfillment of the position’s duties.
This year’s OVPR award winners are:
• Kate Blakeman, a University employee for 32 years. She has been involved in research administration since 1984 and was one of the first staff members to join the Life Sciences Institute in 2003. As the institute’s business manager, Blakeman has successfully built administrative systems and recruited the personnel for financial and research administration. Blakeman manages the team of grants staff at LSI. In FY07 this team supported the submission of more than 90 grants to external agencies and LSI faculty members unanimously rate their support as the best they have ever received.
• Denise DuPrie, the research process manager/research lab administrator at the Advanced Computer Architecture Laboratory (ACAL) in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). During her 24-year career at the University, DuPrie has participated in new initiatives both within EECS and across campus, including the Research Administrators Instructional Network (RAIN), M-Pathways’ Universitywide panels, the College of Engineering-sponsored Budget Template Team and the Sponsored Projects Advisory Team. Nominators say her proactive and tireless efforts in research administration have enabled ACAL faculty and research assistants to focus on their research and not administrative details.
• Eve Gochis, the business administrator associate at the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Laboratory. Gochis is responsible for the overall financial oversight of fMRI, including pre- and post-award grant management, facilities, seminar/symposium planning, personnel and Institutional Review Board (IRB) compliance. She has taken initiative in several areas and recently created researcher policies for TMS (a complementary imaging modality) in the fMRI, enabling groups interested in this new technology to schedule imaging sessions, thereby creating a solution where she saw a need.
• Patricia Smith, a staff member of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) since 1996. Smith currently serves as the business administrator with oversight responsibilities for all administrative facets of IRWG. Her efforts to improve team development and office climate through guidance and mentoring have been remarkable. Nominators say Smith’s oversight of IRWG grants management has produced a supportive, efficient and responsive administrative structure. She is highly regarded, they say, both within IRWG and across the University, and is frequently consulted about policies and procedures by staff in other units and is often sought out to serve on OVPR, DRDA and Universitywide committees.
The 2008 winners were selected by Forrest with the assistance of an awards advisory committee: Violet Elder, Center for Computational Medicine and Biology; Patricia Fink, Institute for Social Research; Ruth Freedman, Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute; Jane Holland, Microbiology and Immunology; Kathleen Welch, Center for Statistical Consultation and Research; and Peggy Westrick, LSA Research Office.
