Processing 35 to 45 grants a year might seem like a lot to Cindy Norton’s boss, but that’s just the tip of the paper iceberg.
“I’ve done as many as 60 grants in one year,” said Norton, administrative manger for the department of cellular and integrative physiology at UNMC.
“While this seems like an overwhelming task, at the end of the year it is done efficiently, never having missed a deadline,” Norton’s boss, Irving Zucker, Ph.D., department chairman, writes in nominating her for the Chancellor’s Gold ‘U’ award for exemplary service.
Norton received the award last month, stunned by the recognition and accolades from colleagues.
|
Joined UNMC: 1980 as a secretary in the same department providing administrative support. Responsibilities: Supervising a staff of four support personnel. All administrative duties, including grant submission and administration. One day I’d like to: Take six- to eight-weeks and go RVing across the United States with my husband. We enjoy camping a lot. Greatest personal achievement: Combining my career with raising my three sons. |
Aside from her duties as administrative manager in which she oversees a staff of four support personnel, Norton also is executive director of the Nebraska Physiological Society, an active member of the American Physiological Society, the International Association of Administrative Professionals and the Durham Research Center Management Committee.
“I like to be involved in a lot of the things that faculty in the department are involved in, to support them,” Norton said of her memberships in the local and national physiological societies.
But what Norton likes best about her job is the grant submission process.
That’s where she shines.
“I take a great deal of pride in helping the principal investigators,” Norton said.
She also takes great care in making sure the finished product is packaged in a way that will get the grant reviewer’s attention.
“You only get one time to impress somebody and I want the reviewers to say, ‘This looks nice.’ I make sure the grant is printed on quality paper, the font is the right size and the space between each line is just right. I like to think of it as my signature on the grants,” Norton said.
And because she has been involved with submitting so many grants over the 26 years she has worked in the department, Norton’s expertise was called upon recently when officials from Sponsored Programs were looking at buying software for electronic grant submission, a new federal requirement that will go into effect Feb. 1, 2007.