We are very pleased to tell you about two promotions in the Office of Research and Project Administration.

First, longstanding ORPA staff member Maria Hartstein has been promoted to Subcontracts Manager. Maria has overseen a 50% growth in subcontracts volume over the last five years, driven by the University’s progressive success winning larger-scale, multi-institutional awards as the lead institution. Additionally, Princeton is increasingly subcontracting to a diverse array of collaborators, including startup companies, Fortune 500 companies, international entities and academic medical centers and hospitals. Over the last couple of years, in partnership with representatives in Finance & Treasury, Maria has overseen a significant project at the University focused on streamlining paying subrecipients. In terms of work at the national level, Maria has been active in a subcontracts-focused committee of her peers working to streamline and enhance tools related to subaward issuance within the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP). In 2020, Maria led the successful implementation of subcontracts business processes in Princeton ERA. This helped the ORPA subcontracts team to be more efficient transactionally as well as data and metrics driven. Also of note, Princeton has had no subcontracts-related audit findings for several years. I look forward to continuing work with Maria to make investments in subcontracts operations that help us manage the growing volume and complexity in this space.

Second, Francine Taylor has been promoted to Assistant Director. As a result of recent growth in volume and complexity in the research enterprise, ORPA was fortunate to receive approval from the Provost’s Office to add a second Assistant Director position. This is a new position that will help strengthen ORPA in a time of growth. Another longstanding ORPA staff member, Francine has strong breadth and depth of knowledge in research administration, including experience managing sponsored programs at the department level. She has overseen a number of strategic and compliance-related projects for ORPA over the last years, including projects related to e-Verify and RCR. Additionally, Francine formally represents Princeton as the Administrative Representative to the Federal Demonstration Partnership, a national association of federal agencies, academic research institutions and research policy organizations that work to streamline the administration of federally sponsored research. In 2020, Francine helped ORPA become a more technology and data driven organization through her lead functional role in Princeton ERA implementation. Francine is also currently helping to lead adoption of ORCID and SciENcv in the Princeton research community, which adoption is critical to reducing administrative burden in our community over the short and long term. Francine’s previous SGCA position was posted last week.

Please join us in thanking these extremely committed and knowledgeable colleagues for their longstanding service to ORPA and the Princeton research community, and congratulating them on these well-deserved promotions.