Name: Charlene Mitchell
Position: Grants and Research Compliance Coordinator
Office: Office of Research & Sponsored Programs
Institution: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU)
What attracted you to this work?
I have always worked in nonprofits. In my second job working at a nonprofit, I got more involved in grants. A couple years ago I saw my current position open up. I have always had a passion for higher education, so I was interested to see how my past nonprofit and grant experience could transfer to this new setting.
What’s your favorite thing about your work?
It is challenging, but I enjoy how my work activities are constantly changing. It never gets boring.
What’s a handy tool in your tool kit?
The Uniform Guidance Book has been very useful for me in my work with subawards. When I get questions from subawardees, I refer to the compliance guidelines to help answer them.
What’s your wish for improving your work?
I try to stick to a consistent training schedule. Since I am still relatively new, each month I try to continue developing myself in foundational Research Administration topics like reporting, effort certification, and others.
How could our organization take steps to improve?
From what I saw from last year’s annual conference, the topics focused a lot on how to provide support directly to PIs in their development of proposal content. My position at FGCU does not involve me as much with the content of a proposal, so I would benefit from sessions that focus more on how to provide general support from a central office, especially to department-level staff, and how to manage that process. An idea for a future session topic could be “How Can Central Office Workers Build Relationships with and Support Departmental Managers?”
What role could you see playing someday in the Florida Alliance?
Perhaps someday I could serve on the Planning and Outreach Committee to help frame monthly and annual conference topics to benefit others in similar central office positions like me.