Five U-M staff members will be honored at a May 8 reception under a campus research administration awards program sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR). Three will be honored for their work as research administrators and two for exceptional service.
“I am impressed by all of the dedicated staff who support the complex research enterprise at Michigan,” says Fawwaz Ulaby, vice president for research. “The awardees have demonstrated a real commitment to their units and the University, and I believe it’s vitally important that we recognize these efforts.”
The Distinguished Research Administrator Award honors people from any unit at the University who have demonstrated distinguished service exemplifying the goals of professional research administration. U-M staff members selected to receive the award for 2003 are: Deborah Eadie, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Medical School; Beth Lawson, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering (CoE); and Patricia Schultz, Office of Research, School of Dentistry. Each winner receives an honorarium and an award plaque.
The Exceptional Service Award honors staff members from OVPR or any of the units that report to OVPR. The award recognizes those involved in any area of work who have made outstanding contributions that go beyond the ordinary fulfillment of the position’s duties. Staff members selected to receive the award for 2003 are: Keith Newnham, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Laboratory; and Kate Restrick, Center for Human Growth and Development. Each winner receives an honorarium and an award plaque.
The reception, open to the entire University community, will be held 3:30-5 p.m. May 8 in the Michigan League Ballroom, with the awards presentation at 4 p.m. The award winners were selected by a committee of previous OVPR Staff Award recipients: Dorene Markel, Center for Advancement of Clinical Research, U-M Health System; Virginia Wait, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, CoE; Laurie Staples, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research; Linda Peasley, Department of Human Genetics, Medical School; and Tom Zdeba, Division of Research Development and Administration.
Since 1993, Deborah Eadie has worked in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, where she is the unit’s research administrator. Eadie’s contributions to the department include grant writing, arranging for a leaky piece of equipment to be fixed on a weekend, helping a foreign postdoctoral student find housing and overseeing construction of a complete floor of state-of-the-art laboratories in the Kellogg Eye Center. Colleagues say she performs her duties with “intelligence, efficiency and humor.” During Eadie’s 10-year tenure, the department’s research budget has grown to become the fifth largest in the nation in terms of National Institutes of Health funding. Eadie is “critical to every aspect of our basic clinical research efforts; she’s a real problem-solver,” say her nominators.
Beth Lawson, administrative associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is the research administrator for 20 faculty members in the department’s systems group. Described as a “model citizen” in her department, she is widely known for being able to save the faculty “time, money and frustration, thus enabling them to work more efficiently.” She combines great technical skill, resourcefulness and professionalism with the ability to manage a “never-ending flow” of proposals, grants and contracts involving multi-disciplinary teams of faculty. Lawson has worked in several units at U-M, starting in 1974 in the Department of Chemistry, and including positions at University Stores, Mental Health Research Institute, and the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.
Patricia Schultz joined the School of Dentistry staff in 1995 as the first administrator for the school’s Office of Research. She developed an office that not only supports the research/research training mission of the school, but also encourages individual and collaborative activities across campus. In addition to staffing the Dental School research office, she supports the school’s Center for Craniofacial Regeneration. One nominator characterized Schultz as a “cherished resource in the School of Dentistry who has been essential for the success of our research activities over the past seven years.”
Schultz also has made many contributions to research administration across campus, having served on committees developing electronic administrative systems, as well as working on the development of the Research Administrators Instructional Network.
Keith Newnham is a research associate and chief technologist for the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Laboratory. Newnham initially worked at University Hospital, starting in 2000, then joined the fMRI Lab in Aug. 2001. At the lab, he is the primary interface with essentially every investigator using the MRI facility and every research subject. As such, Newnham has been described as “the cog at the center of the operation and [the one who] keeps the fMRI Lab running smoothly and efficiently.” He has gone well beyond his routine duties to become an invaluable asset to this relatively new laboratory. Newnham is known for his calm professionalism and “unfailing good nature.” As one nominator noted, “Not only does he put subjects at ease, but he also deftly and diplomatically handles all of the many investigators who descend upon him with urgent requests for scan time or protocols not quite ready to run.”
Kate Restrick, program associate in the Center for Human Growth and Development (CHGD), has served as the administrator for the Minority International Research Training Program since 1994. She has been on the staff of CHGD since she moved to Ann Arbor in 1983. Restrick has conducted a range of outreach activities that further the center’s research, training and service missions and bring national and international recognition to CHGD and U-M. These contributions have been made with “great professionalism and unselfish dedication that exemplify the true spirit of service for which this award was created.” Those who nominated her for the award said Restrick is the “key to the success of this very important program” that enhances the undergraduate experience by providing opportunities for minority students to receive research training.
Photos by Paul Jaronski, U-M Photo Services
