DOM Employee of the Month Pam Schaefer, grants administrator in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
DOM’s Employee of the Month, Pam Schaefer, is a grants and contract administrator in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health – and that’s a division with a LOT of grants!
Her supervisor, ID administrator Jim McGowan, comments that Pam performs her role in an exemplary manner and is “never one to define her role narrowly, but to ask, ‘How can I help?’ ”
Jim notes that Pam has been active in professional networks for research administrators, which has helped bring a broad range of expertise to issues associated with grant applications, sponsor requirements and difficult contract issues. She has served as a mentor to those others within the division newer to the role of grants and contracts administrator.”
ID faculty who have worked with her uniformly sing her praises:
Erik Hewlett, MD: “Her role, at the interface between faculty investigators and the grants administration infrastructure at the University and beyond, is critically important in facilitating preparation of grant applications and helping us deal with the important details, which are otherwise overwhelming during the grant-writing process. (I say that based on my recent personal experience of submitting the renewal of my RO1!) She is a model for excellence for administrative and support staff in the Department of Medicine: dedicated, hardworking, organized and effective — and most importantly, always ready to assist others, whether faculty, colleagues, or simply someone who needs help.”
Molly Hughes, MD: “Pam goes way above and beyond in everything she does. She is highly professional at all times and is exceedingly dedicated to helping each of us with our grants, from the pre-submission period and onwards.”
Chris Moore, MD: “Pam has a broad and incisive intellect and insightful ideas on how to trouble-shoot problems or improve grant applications. She is always willing to give her time to any task, no matter how small. I trust her implicitly to carry a project through to its conclusion in a flawless manner. She is an invaluable colleague and a delight to work with.”
Costi Sifri, MD: “The success of ID’s very active and productive research program is in part a reflection of Pam’s high degree of dedication and effort on our behalf. Recently I submitted a complex, multi-institutional NIH grant as the PI (my first multi-institutional grant). In addition to helping me with our portion of the grant, Pam essentially walked the research specialists and grants office at my collaborator’s institution through the process in order to successfully submit their portion of the application.”
Congratulations, Pam, for this well-deserved honor!
Filed Under: News and Notes