PULLMAN – The Washington State University’s Sponsored Program Administrators Awards Committee has named the awardees for the 2006 Grant and Contracts Administration Awards.
The two awards in the Service category went to Margaret (Peggy) Bowe, WSU Vancouver, and Cathleen Fabich, Fiscal Specialist at the College of Engineering and Architecture. The Contribution Awards were given to Marilyn Burns, College of Education, and John Tarnai, director of the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center.
John Brabb, finance and budget manager at Crop and Soil Sciences, and Gayle Landeen, administrative manager at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, received Honorable Mentions for Service during the award ceremony.
WSU Vice Provost for Research Jim Petersen and Assistant Vice President for Business and Finance Barry Johnston presented the awards during the “Sponsored Program Administrators Conference” luncheon at the Pullman campus Feb. 7.
This is the first time that WSU staff is presented with the awards. “We were pleased with the number of nominations and the quality of the nominees,” said Nancy Shrope, OGRD assistant director. “We wanted to recognize the people in the university who are involved in grant contracts, and the four awardees really deserved to be recognized for their contributions.”
Plaques with the names of the awardees will be on display at Petersen’s office in the Office for Research in French Ad. 324.
The Service Award is given to WSU current or former employees who had performed their grant and contract administration responsibilities above and beyond the expected or required performance. The Contribution Award recognizes an individual or group whose efforts have made a difference with far-reaching impact on the WSU system locally, regionally, nationally or internationally in the field of grant and contract administration.
The nominator for Bowe said that she “combines experience, interpersonal skills, flexibility and a strong work ethic to be successful” in her position. Bowe has worked for WSU since 1991 and in Vancouver since 2004.
Fabich’s nominators highlighted her initiative, customer service skills, effective communication, multitasking abilities, positive attitude, collegiality, work ethic and her continuing training, among many other qualities. They wrote, “Cathleen has added a new dimension to the service level of the college of Engineering and Architecture’s central administration. She has added a needed dimension to both the service level of the dean’s area and support to CEA research faculty in compiling their sponsored project submittals.”
Burns was described in her nomination as “the catalyst, the instigator” and the one who provided the “electricity” that created several changes at WSU, such as the initiative to join the Federal Demonstration Project and the rewriting of some WSU Business Policies and Procedures.
Tarnai nominator mentioned his “vision and leadership” to set in motion the growth of the Social and Economics Sciences Research Center, in which he started working as a part-time graduate student and now directs. “John was ahead of the times and most administrators at WSU in understanding the implications and meaning of the term ’self-sustaining’ in connection with contracts,” his nominator said.
