Large-Scale, Collaborative, and Strategic Proposals Mini-Intensive

Melinda serves as the Research Advancement Manager at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. There, she is responsible for partnering with staff and faculty to strategize and identify external funding, developing budgets and administrative components of proposals, and liaising with the ASU central research office on behalf of the College of Law. Melinda also assists with the administrative management of awarded sponsored projects. Before joining the College of Law, Melinda served as RAS Team Lead, RAS Advanced Pre-Award Lead, and Research Advancement Administrator on Research Advancement Services (RAS), which is a part of the Knowledge Enterprise's Research Operations Team.  On the RAS Team, Melinda specialized in support to faculty and staff on the budgetary and administrative aspects of sponsor project support.  She also has experience providing some non-financial post-award assistance. Melinda especially enjoys working on international and large/strategic proposals for funding.  In addition to proposal support, Melinda also has had the opportunity to present on a variety of research administration and sponsored project topics around ASU and national conferences. Prior to joining the RAS Team at ASU, Melinda worked in healthcare for 4 years, where she worked with children and families to help them better understand and cope with healthcare experiences.

A Certified Research Administrator (CRA) with nearly 20 years of experience in research administration and compliance across departmental, central, and institutional roles, Shana currently serves as Director of Sponsored Projects Administration at Portland State University, where she leads pre- and post-award operations, research support services, and institutional efforts to strengthen compliance, consistency, and service delivery across the research lifecycle.

Shana’s expertise includes large-scale, collaborative, and strategic proposals, regulatory interpretation and application, and process and program improvement. She is particularly known for translating complex requirements into practical, actionable approaches that support both researchers and administrators.

She has been educating research administrators on large-scale and complex proposals since 2021 and contributes nationally through her work with the Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI), including service on the Micro-Credential Council and co-development of the Large-Scale, Collaborative, and Strategic Proposal Mini-Intensive.

Kimberly Pratt is currently the Senior Sponsored Programs Manager in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Ohio University. She has more than 15 years of previous research development and administration experience at higher education, medical and educational research institutions, specializing in the pre-award phase. She is also the immediate past president of the Midwest Section and Distinguished Faculty for SRAI. Kimberly earned her B.A. and M.A. in history from Ohio University and is a certified research administrator.