Dear PIs and Project Administrative Staff,

The SDSU Research Foundation’s Sponsored Research Development (SRD) department welcomes new and returning faculty to campus! We hope your semester is off to a good start.

As you know, SRD assists faculty with a variety of services related to the development and submission of proposal applications to sponsor agencies. We have had some staffing changes and want to provide this update.

Staffing

Three of our development specialists left last spring for other opportunities, and two others will be leaving at the end of this month. We have been working hard to recruit and hire new staff and are happy to share this good news:

Promotion of Chelsea Law to Development Specialist: Some of you may have interacted with Chelsea as the analyst in SRD. She was promoted to a development specialist position in mid-spring and has been training in this position throughout the summer. She will be working with several departments in the college of arts and letters, the departments of mechanical engineering, speech, language and hearing sciences, biology, and psychology.

Jessica Lafave, Development Specialist: Jessica previously worked as a development manager for the Living Coast Discovery Center in the South Bay. She is in the middle of her training program with SRD and will be assisting with departments in arts and letters, sciences, and professional studies and fine arts, as well as the school of social work and aerospace and engineering mechanics.

Amber Avery-Luwallen: Amber recently worked as a grant consultant, and previously served as a program specialist with the George Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers, Inc. She will begin working with SRD in early October.

Victoria Carrillo: Victoria will also be joining SRD in early October. Her most recent position was as a post-award grant specialist with the Jewish Family Service of San Diego. She also has experience as a contract compliance officer with the City of San Diego.

Our team will be ably supported by Mercedes Nixon and Valentina Venegas-Hernandez. Mercedes is the SRD analyst and assists with administrative needs of the development specialists when preparing proposal applications. Valentina is our SRD/SRCC technician and is responsible for data entry and updating information in systems, processing activities, and other administrative tasks for the department.

Remote Work

The SRD department is piloting a fully remote work model, providing our staff flexibility and focused work time with less disruption to work on proposal submissions. This fully remote model is being tested this semester. We learned from the pandemic that our work adapts well to a virtual environment, and we heard from many of you that access to your development specialists was even easier. Staff are available to work with you by phone, email or to meet with you via Zoom, which has proved to be a very effective and positive tool in the virtual environment.

Your Help is Needed

As exciting as it is to be able to welcome new members of our team, preparing them for the many responsibilities related to their positions and orientation to the research-active community of SDSU and the research foundation takes some time.

Sponsored research coordinators Alma Flores and Steve Torok lead the two teams of specialists and will work with them during the onboarding and training process. We are aware of many proposals you are already planning, and these are booked on our calendar. Thank you for providing us with early notification of these submissions: a 4-week notification prior to the sponsor deadline is ideal.

Late Proposals

During this transition period, we cannot guarantee that last minute proposals will be submitted on time. Last-minute proposals are those submitted fewer than four days prior to the deadline.

Response Time

Please be aware that some of your submissions require more time and effort than others depending on the sponsor and the program. Time is needed to review guidelines and to work with you on a timeline and action plan.

We ask for your patience and understanding as we assist you with these (and future) applications. Our staff will respond to you within 24-48 hours of receiving your intent to apply.

Workload Assignments

For a more detailed listing of workload assignments in SRD, please see: https://sdsuedu.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/Auxil/RF/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B4453CC05-8C01-4941-B3C2-63D63C86BE1A%7D&file=srd_directory_with_workload_assignments.xlsx&action=default&mobileredirect=true

There are some assignments that note “TBN.” If your department does not have an assigned development specialist, please contact me, Alma, or Steve to determine who will work with you to submit your proposal:

Jennie Amison: jamison@sdsu.edu
Alma Flores: almaflores@sdsu.edu
Steve Torok: steve.torok@sdsu.edu

Several workshops have been scheduled this semester that you may find helpful, and you can register here: https://www.foundation.sdsu.edu/communications_grant_workshops.html.

If you are relatively new to proposal development and are interested in submitting to NIH or NSF, both sponsors are offering virtual conferences for PIs and research administrators. For more information, please see:

NIH: https://grants.nih.gov/2021-nih-virtual-seminar.htm
NSF: https://nsfpolicyoutreach.com/

We look forward to working with you on your proposal submissions! If you have other questions or need more information, please let me know. Thank you again for your patience as we transition to our new team.

Go Aztecs!

Jennie Amison
Director, Sponsored Research Development