Name: Erin Blackwell
Position: Director, Research Administration Services Team (RAST)
Office: College of Community Innovation and Education
Institution: University of Central Florida (UCF)
What attracted you to this work?
I love working with numbers. Give me a budget to develop, expenses to figure out, I love doing that kind of stuff. The other thing that kept me here is the camaraderie, support from colleagues and the organization. We never feel alone.
What’s your favorite thing about your work?
I like the chaos, but it’s controlled chaos. In my position I’m doing lots of things, from pre-award to post-award, and many other things on any given day.
What’s a handy tool in your tool kit?
For me I always kept how-to guides and compliance information printed out in a book, so I could always refer to and pass on the information on for training purposes. The other thing was all the project budgets I was overseeing, so I always knew where I was at. These days most things are digital, but I find these reference documents helpful.
What’s your wish for improving your work?
I love working outside the box I typically work in, such as in proposal development. It would be nice to get a little more experience and knowledge in that area, and be there on the front-end with PIs, at the ground level, and help take them through the process.
We recently did a survey of faculty and they reported that they don’t feel engaged in the pre-award process. They feel a lack of transparency. Not that they question our competency, but they are just not aware of what we’re doing. So we are considering ways to change some of the things we do to let everyone know how we are supporting them.
How could our organization take steps to improve?
I think the exercise that we did last year with the NSF-funded Team Science program was great. Those are such valuable tools provided by the Alliance. Giving your faculty members the environment and support to think project ideas through, encouraging collaborations and thinking about topics from different perspectives. So I think pushing into that more so, providing members more training, would be a benefit.
What role could you see playing someday in the Florida Alliance?
I love mentoring other colleagues, which I have done previously through NCURA Region 3. To be able to provide that knowledge to those who are new to the industry would be valuable and rewarding, sharing that passion with others. So I could see participating in a future iteration of the Mentoring Program, and also helping other FL-RDA committees with problem solving.