University Administration
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Chief Research Officer
Served as UNLV’s central liaison in working with Nevada's Congressional Delegation, and with Washington-based lobbying firms. Developed internal university communications and working relationships with Congressional Members and staff to significantly increase Congressionally directed appropriations.
Working with faculty, chairs and deans, more than tripled externally sponsored funding.
Created the University Research Council, designed with standing committees on research infrastructure; on the formation and evaluation of research centers and institutes; on intellectual property and technology transfer; and on honors, awards and publicity for research and creative accomplishments.
Initiated the UNLV Research Foundation, and served as its founding Executive Director. Subsequently served as a member of the Board of Directors.
Developed policies and procedures to support faculty and students in creative activity, scholarship and research. Served as the university official for the Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), and other research-compliance entities.
Conceptualized the National Institute for Advanced Technology (NIAT). Served as Team Leader and Principal Investigator on $30 million DOE sponsored program, envisioned as growing to become the ‘anchor tenant’ for the Harry Reid Research & Technology Park.
Developed partnerships with the Nevada Development Authority (NDA), the Nevada Test Site Development Corporation (NTSDC), and several municipal entities in southern Nevada. Served on the NDA Governmental Liaison Committee.
With the Graduate College, initiated an assistantship program to provide summer support for full time graduate students.
Established several new internal programs to stimulate research and creative activity for both junior faculty (New Investigator awards) and senior faculty (Stimulation, Implementation, Transition and Enhancement grants).
Initiated a program to involve undergraduate students in research and creative activity, working under the supervision of faculty mentors.
With colleagues, established policy for periodic review of university research centers and institutes, and facilitated the development of several new units, including the Nevada Institute for Children, the High Pressure Science and Engineering Center, the Women's Research Institute, the Lake Mead/Lake Mojave Research Institute, the Nevada Manufacturing Research Center, the Center for Workforce Development and Occupational Research, the Cancer Institute, the Center for Education Policy Studies, the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution, the Center for Asian Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Biotechnology Center, and the Center for Health Promotion.
With colleagues, established UNLV’s Office of Technology Transfer, and set up associated working relationships within and external to the university.
Enhanced outreach activities, including publications describing research and creative activity, with targeted distribution to legislators, regents, community leaders and governmental stakeholders. Created internal newsletters, making transparent the research and creative awards of faculty across all academic units.
Developed outreach to national laboratories (including Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Sandia) and industries (including Bechtel, BSC, QinetiQ-NA, SAIC, IBM, Qualcomm, Sun Microsystems, Prophet Enterprises) with business foci in Nevada and the southwest.
Established effective working relationships with federal agencies having active programs in southern Nevada, including DOE, NNSA, EPA, and NOAA. Worked both to secure and to maintain cooperative agreements.
Represented UNLV research interests within the Research Affairs Council of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). Discovered significant inequities in statewide funding and achieved a more equitable distribution of federal EPSCOR awards.
Within UNLV, created equitable distribution of indirect costs across all colleges and schools.
Initiated planning for UNLV research parks. With leadership from Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, worked with Senator Harry Reid to obtain 115 acres, then valued at 40 million dollars, for the research and technology park that later would bear his name.
Managed university level units (with more than 100 employees) including the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies, the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History, Laboratory Animal Care Services, the National Supercomputing Center, the Office of Sponsored Programs, the Office for the Protection of Research Subjects, the American Indian Research and Education Center, and the Nevada Institute for Children.
University of Central Florida
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
Served as UCF representative on statewide working group to define assessment measures for performance based budgeting for the State University System (SUS) of Florida.
Coordinated UCF response to Legislative mandates on the General Education Program, on "excess credit hours" beyond the baccalaureate degree requirement, and on “leveling” pre-requisites within all programs across the state university and community college systems.
Served as UCF representative on statewide working group to define outcomes of faculty scholarship. Developed matrix of outcome measures and "success stories" for each of UCF’s academic departments.
Served on UCF Budget Committee, and developed an institutional report format to capture faculty activity in areas of teaching, research and public/professional service, for use in databases which allow efficient retrieval and presentation of information.
Initiated and directed Central Florida Manufacturing Technology Center. Served as statewide coordinator for program quality and evaluation for all Florida centers.
Created research experiences for undergraduates, with emphasis on women and minority students. Served as mentor for minority engineering students.
To support faculty researchers, built college staff team to provide internal accounting, proposal development, and computer-support services.
Developed easily updated promotional materials on faculty research accomplishments for use with outreach, and associated databases on faculty research interests, grants and contracts.
Successfully promoted the college’s procedures to serve as the model for university-wide systems for sharing of research overhead between faculty researchers, departments, colleges and centers/institutes.
Developed procedures for allocation of office and laboratory space, and coordinated the planning for a new Engineering Research Laboratory Building.
Established international partnerships with engineering colleges in several countries. Created an International Committee to monitor and expand such relationships for the College.
Chaired the University-level committee to create UCF's Space Education and Research Center.
Initiated and directed Co-operative Agreement with NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Initiated a support program for new faculty on their research development.
University of Central Florida
Department of Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering
Chair
Added baccalaureate program in aerospace engineering and achieved accreditation at the earliest possible date. Program grew to enroll roughly 50% of the department's undergraduate majors.
Initiated planning for undergraduate program in materials, and for graduate programs in aerospace and materials.
Worked with Kennedy Space Center to win contract for hosting NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellow Program in partnership with UCF.
With faculty colleagues, developed and implemented procedures for the department’s then-new doctoral programs, including Qualifying and Candidacy Examinations.
Initiated and formed an External Departmental Advisory Committee, and established a strategic plan for outreach and development.
Created a departmental committee structure to address areas needing faculty oversight. Areas included undergraduate and graduate curricula, faculty recruitment, computer and laboratory management, and in-unit governance.
Developed improved procedures for evaluation of faculty, with emphases on departmental goals and workload options.
