Kenneth W. Lyles, MD, director of the Medicine Clinical Research Unit, and Laurianne M. Torres, MNM, CRA, director of research administration, share the following news about a reorganization of the research administration team.
Carol Holmes and Anthony Plocharczyk have recently left their posts in the Medicine CRU: After 37 years of invaluable service to Duke University, Carol Holmes retired on June 27, and on June 28, Anthony Plocharczyk became the division administrator in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition. Carol and Anthony will be greatly missed, and we wish them both well.
Their departure presented an opportunity for us to evaluate our processes and look for ways to achieve greater efficiency.
To this end, we are integrating many of the financial/post-award administrative functions and realigning CRU Finance and DoM Research Administration (DoM-RA) staff under the leadership of a new Financial Practices Manager (FPM), Christina Jackson. Christina is a long-term member of the DoM-RA team focusing on Federal post-award administration and a former member of Duke’s internal audit team. Christina will be joined by other members of our DoM-RA team to perform the financial duties of the CRU, reporting to Laurianne Torres (Director of Research Administration).
This streamlining means that:
- We are not replacing certain CRU positions;
- some duties will be decentralized/performed locally in divisions; and
- we will rely on divisional talent to help maintain productivity.