roxanne vergaraMeet the newest member of the Schmid Team – Roxanne Vergara, our Sponsored Projects Analyst!

Roxanne primarily supports our Schmid College faculty with grant proposal projects. She is also available to any graduate students or postdocs that will be applying for grants or fellowships. We chatted with Roxanne to learn more about her and ways she can support our faculty.

Q&A with Roxanne:

SC: What was your previous role?

RV: I was previously a Fund Manager at UCLA for the Integrative Biology and Physiology Department within the Life Sciences. There, I worked closely with our Extramural Fund Management office and the Office of Contracts and Grants to submit proposals and closeout grants for Principal Investigators (faculty, graduate students, and postdocs) in our department. Most of my portfolio consisted of NIH grants.

SC: What does a Sponsored Project Analyst do?

RV: I am here to provide grant support in both the pre-award and post-award stages – from proposal preparation and submission, preparing financial reports and projections, to project close-out. As an extension of the Office of Research, I can help facilitate communication between Schmid and the Research Administration team.

SC: Who do you support and how can you help them?

RV: I primarily will be supporting faculty but will also be available to any graduate students or postdocs that will be applying for grants or fellowships. I can help get them started on the internal processes of submitting a grant and getting it to the right individuals to review and submit to the sponsor. If awarded a grant, I can help with managing the expenses and help submit any special requests to the sponsor (i.e. no-cost extensions, supplemental materials).

SC: What is the best way for faculty to connect with you?

RV: I would prefer to connect through email. This way, if faculty have any specific questions I may not know from the top of my head, I can look into it and provide an answer. It’d be helpful to coordinate any meetings or phone conversations through email as well. Though, if it is urgent – they are free to call!

SC: Is there anything faculty should prepare before meeting with you? Any special instructions or advice?

RV: For new proposals, it’s always helpful for me if faculty already know most of their budget and if they plan to collaborate with any other faculty or schools. I really appreciate timelines! Since I will be the point of contact for all of Schmid faculty, it’d be great to know when I should expect documents or proposals to be submitted. Ultimately, I love to be kept updated on everything. If we’re meeting about an award we already have, a heads up of what they want to discuss would be appreciated.

SC: Anything else that is important to note about your role that would be important for people to know?

RV: The faculty at Schmid have a much more diverse grants portfolio than what I’m used to at UCLA. I may need some time to learn and for things to come naturally to me – but I’m thrilled to be at Chapman! I think the research that faculty do is very important, and I want to be as supportive as I can so we can all come out successful!

Roxanne is looking forward to holding office hours and getting to know faculty better. Once she gets more acclimated to this position (and to Chapman), she will be sure to announce when those times will be.

You can reach Roxanne at rvergara@chapman.edu or by phone at (714) 628-7218.