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Columns::August 13, 2001
UGA hosts its annual symposium about the future of agriculture
Distinguished professorship in forest finance honors late dean Hargreaves
Dailey will direct Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute
Up in the air
Ledbetter chosen to lead Carl Vinson Institute of Government
Mills is named head of Fanning Institute for Leadership
Faculty research fellowship recipients announced
Campus scenes
Campus News
New associate VP will oversee research grants and contracts
By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
The university has chosen a veteran administrator with a track record for increasing research funding to oversee its process of submitting applications for research grants and contracts.
Regina A. Smith, formerly executive director and assistant vice provost for research at the University of Connecticut, joined UGA at the beginning of the fiscal year as associate vice president for research.
Smith’s main responsibility initially will be managing the office of sponsored programs, says Gordhan Patel, interim vice president for research. That office coordinates the preparation and submission by faculty members and research units of all applications for funds to conduct research activities at UGA.
“Dr. Smith is extremely knowledgeable and energetic, and at every place she’s worked she’s demonstrated the ability to significantly increase funding for research,” Patel says.
In fiscal year 2000, UGA submitted 1,670 grant and contract applications to potential funding sources, including federal and state government agencies, foundations, businesses and other private sources, and received more than $101 million in research awards, contracts and grants. Figures for fiscal year 2001 are now being analyzed. As of the end of March, research funding exceeded $90 million, not including awards from industry.
At the University of Connecticut, Smith managed $67 million in research funding and was responsible for all aspects of research administration, including contract negotiations, resolution of audit findings and federal compliance issues. She restructured the 22-person staff and brought together in one office the functions of preparing applications and managing award funds—operations that had been handled by separate people.
Before working at Connecticut, Smith was associate dean for research at the University of Florida, where she oversaw research initiatives in the College of Medicine. The college’s research portfolio grew from $45 million to $110 million during her seven years there. She also directed the start-up and development of successful interdisciplinary programs in genetics, structural biology and diabetes and immunology.
Smith has also worked in research administration at the University of Alabama, where she was assistant to the director of the office of sponsored programs; at the University of Tennessee as director of proposal development services in the research office; and at Idaho State University as coordinator of the grants and contracts office. She has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, and has worked with a number of educational and private organizations on the development of grant proposals.
She is a past member of the board of directors of the Society of Research Administrators, a former editor of the society’s professional journal, and received the society’s Hartford Nicholsen Award for outstanding contributions to research administration.
Smith received a doctoral degree in educational research from the University of Alabama. She holds a master’s in clinical psychology from Northeast Louisiana University and a bachelor’s in psychology from Troy State University.
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