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From Excluded – to Essential

I’m a candidate for SRAI Board of Directors, yet I'm not seeking a position on the Board for personal advancement. I'm seeking it to give back the knowledge and perspective that 24 years with SRAI has given me. I've watched this organization transform from a small professional group into a global leader in research administration.

As we grow, we risk losing sight of our foundation: the individual research administrator facing daily challenges with limited support. I've been that person; facing institutional barriers, budget constraints, and the feeling of being overlooked in professional development decisions.

I wasn't supposed to be here. For years, my prior institution limited professional development to supervisors and managers only. I watched colleagues return from SRAI meetings buzzing with excitement while I stayed behind, wondering what I was missing. When I finally attended my first meeting in Philadelphia in 2002, I felt like an outsider looking in.

But the gentleman who was our Treasurer at the time pulled me aside and said something that changed my career: "Come on, you can do this. You can volunteer." He got me started with room monitoring and registration, the bottom rungs of the SRAI ladder. But those bottom rungs, they're where you learn how the real work gets done.

That's where I found purpose: ensuring that the person at the bottom of the organizational chart, the one facing daily challenges that leadership never sees, has access to the same transformative opportunities that took my career to new heights.

I embraced the call to contribute. I’ve had the pleasure of planning and executing our most recent conference in Puerto Rico. And I’m experienced enough, at this point in my career, to see the value of changing one’s mind.

I say this, because I've fought changes that I later realized were brilliant. When SRAI eliminated chapters, I was extremely disappointed. Chapters provided local, affordable professional development. I spoke up against this decision and listened to the reasoning, but I remained unconvinced.  I was wrong.

Today's online offerings reach people who could never attend chapter meetings. Instead of our Northeast Section's two active chapters serving a select few, we now offer targeted sessions that draw participants from across the globe. A research administrator can spend $195 on a specific skill they need rather than traveling hundreds of miles and taking days off work.

As Spencer Johnson wrote in "Who Moved My Cheese": "If you do not change, you can become extinct." I've learned that admitting you're wrong isn't weakness, it's leadership.

The SRAI board needs voices from every level of our profession, including those who remember what it's like to be told they're “Not senior enough" for training opportunities. We need members who understand that real innovation starts at the ground level. And we need leaders who understand the value of change: the reconsideration of ideas.

I support micro-credentialing that works. I support closing the clinical trials gap. I support our global work and global focus. And I support expanding membership beyond institutional walls, to meet the researcher who toils alone in the non-profit space.

My 40 years in research administration, including over two decades with SRAI, have taught me that our strength lies not in organizational charts, but in our ability to empower every research administrator to grow, contribute, and lead. I'm running for a seat on the Board to ensure that our growth continues, while still empowering the person at the bottom of the rung who just needs someone to say, "Come on, you can do this."

Because that's where transformation begins.

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