Research Manager

Israel Soto

*** * **** **, **

New York, NY ***** – 773-***-****

********@*******.***

Employment History

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center January 2012 – Present

Research Fund Manager, Sr. - Promoted

As a self-directed professional, assumes financial control of assigned cost centers and reviews funding expenditures by investigator for allow ability, administrative reasonableness while appropriating fund availability for a research portfolio of 22M.

Establishes management and administrative controls for all grants, contracts and other research mechanisms and advises investigators and serves as an information consultant to department administration about funding availability and potential issues arising from either deficient or surplus award funding.

Ensures rules for grants management, including those regulated federal sources and voluntary agencies, industrial contracts/ clinical trials, philanthropic sources and institutional policies are understood.

Ensures institutional compliance with federal time and effort certification requirements through investigator education and documentation.

Establishes annual budgets for research awards with Principal Investigators.

Explains funding issues to awarding agencies, collaborating institutions and internal departments.

Maintains discretion for confidential information and is able to appropriately handle critical information.

Able to interact with all levels of staff and external contacts and able to work under pressure while maintaining a professional demeanor.

Initiate, review and process purchase requisitions for subcontracts and vendors, internal recharge centers travel reimbursements and check requests.

Experienced in managing federal and non-federal sponsorship with agencies such as the NIH, DOD, AHA, NSF, HRSA, CDC, LLS, Alz including State agencies and various Industrial agencies.

Creates various reports from complex, stand-alone internal systems for reporting purposes.

Submitted an abstract and was selected to present a poster on Cross Departmental- Collaboration at our annual Research Administrators Professional Day.

Provide cost center coverage for research fund management duties when the department is short-staffed.

Train and mentor newly hired research fund managers; formulating agendas, one-on-one meetings and summaries of progress.

As part of a working group, revise and implemented the no-cost extension policy for the Organization.

Participate in IT pilot-testing of new research reports/ systems and recommend enhancements.

Invited to present at our Department Manager Meetings, best practices for managing research awards (federal, philanthropic, industry) and tips for fund closeout.

Invited to present my approach to budget development/ forecasting for the upcoming fiscal year to the Department Managers.

Actively interview prospective candidates for the Research Fund Manager role.

Contributed to the modification of the check request process for the Organization.

Nominated for the 2013 MSK Research Award of Excellence by the Principal Investigators and Chairman for the 1-3 Years of experience category and progressed to the final round.

Nominated for the 2014 MSK Research Award of Excellence and progressed to the final round.

Nominated for the 2015 MSK Research Award of Excellence and progressed to the final round.

Weill Medical College of Cornell University – New York, NY June 2010 – August 2011

Grant & Contract Administrator, Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Responsible for the pre-award and post-award management of research grants, federal contracts and financial oversight of clinical trial research portfolio (post-award) in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology within the Department of Medicine.

Prepare Division annual operating budget with recommendations to balance budget for Division Chief for review/approval to include endowment, recharge, various department operating and clinical research accounts.

Oversee sponsored research portfolio for the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology (FY10 estimate of $14.0 million dollars) which includes:

-Managing all sponsored research grants and contracts post award, analyzing sponsored research spending from initial award to final close out. Establishes and monitors subcontracts.

-Evaluating expenditures for appropriateness under grant/contract terms and conditions, and appropriate federal regulations as applicable (e.g., OMB circulars A-110 and A-21). Verify grant set-ups and modifications in the financial system are accurate, monitor grant/contract budgets and expenditures, initiate or recommend remedial action for erroneous charges, perform monthly variance analysis, and resolve discrepancies.

-Facilitating all financial reporting requirements, including completion of report forms, quarterly project to-date reports, time & effort reports, interim and final financial reports, and other reports as necessary for PIs.

-Submitting requests for re-budgets with proper justifications and approvals; provide budget projections and financial options to PI’s as requested. Review, approve, and process payroll transactions, and non-personnel research expenditures.

-Create financial projections for faculty, review current financial status, forecast future financial scenarios and suggest alternative spending plans for review/consideration of Division Chief.

Utilize centralized shadow system “ETS” to monitor effort and coordinate with the Research Compliance division of RASP on quarterly audits. Establish corrective action(s) to any findings raised by Compliance Office. Coordinate annual time and effort certifications and serve as the Effort Tracking System Administrator for the Division to ensure that ETS is updated and properly.

Weill Medical College of Cornell University – New York, NY November 2008 – June 2010

Grant & Contract Administrator, Department of Public Health

Assists in the Organization and Management of research activities: manage faculty portfolios in the Divisions of Prevention and Health Behavior and Outcomes and Effectiveness Research with all aspects of pre & post award administration representing a budget of 4.2 Million Direct Cost.

Develop and monitor annual capital and operating budget for both Divisions.

Provide financial and administrative support to faculty in the routine submission of grant, contract and consulting proposals to various Federal agencies such as The NIH, CDC, AHRQ and a host of Sponsored Foundations and Corporations.

Initiates, coordinates, and monitors all financial matters for 14 sub-contract awards including Primary and Secondary for both Divisions including monitoring of approved effort.

Formulated and maintain centralized database of all grant applications submitted accounting for research and indirect dollars brought into the Department on any given grant cycle.

Prepare, reviews, approves, and maintains records of grant and divisional accounting.

Manages the Divisional activities for research compliance including time and effort reporting.

Provide support to the Department to centralize specific pre-award and post-award research activities.

Facilitated communications and served as the internal liaison between the external funding agency and the Medical College to resolve and re-budget an NIH conflict of interest.

Demonstrate ownership and continually resolve current-year budget pre-award subcontracts and overdue post award account closeouts.

The University of Chicago – Chicago, IL

Pre & Post Award Administrator, Department of Human Genetics May 2007 – October 2008

Administer grants & contracts for 8 tenured faculty with over 90% effort recovery, including the finances of the Chair.

Assist in the proposal of Federal and Non-federal awards; including recommendations for proposed personnel based on prior reconciliation and budget forecasting.

Expanded my role as a business consultant and formulated a systematic reporting tool based on financial ledgers provided by the Office of the Comptroller and implemented ‘standing’ financial meetings which included grant projections and variance on spending.

Adjusted the effort recovery for one tenured faculty that was currently ‘over-committed’ and allocated the percent effort and properly charged 7 federal awards.

Researched and filed 4 financial status reports for outstanding Federal awards from FY05 that were previously reported as being completely spent.

Currently manage the research portfolios of 8 tenured faculty totaling 3.4 million

Formulate and project 8 federal subcontract awards including monitoring of invoices to ensure all costs are allowable and no co-mingling of dates and approved budgets both Primary and Secondary.

Currently manage an International Training grant with two subcontract awards.

Submitted timely grant year-end and interim reports to the Office of the Comptroller for review and approval to file various Financial Status Reports to Sponsors.

Carefully review federal and non-federal awards and ensure research protocols are in compliance to sync research with the respective IRB, Vertebrate, Bio-Hazard and DNA research protocols.

Devised a ‘shadow system’ to monitor the monthly grant expenses to ensure no co-mingling of funds amongst assigned faculty.

Selected by the Office of the Biological Sciences Dean to take part in bi-weekly pre & post award re-engineering meetings.

Recently selected by the Biological Sciences Division to work with, and present suggestions to external consultants to reorganize and streamline our proposal development process.

The University of Chicago – Chicago, IL

Financial Administrator, Department of Medicine August 2006 – May 2007

Provide comprehensive grants managements for the sections of Hematology/Oncology, Emergency and Genetic Medicine.

Create receivables, reviewed and reconciled expenditures on all restricted, non-restricted funds and clinical trials for the Department of Medicine.

Advised Associate Director, Section Administrator and investigators of problem pattern spending including both under and over spending, and propose solutions to discovered problems in accord with University policy and procedure.

Managed all section operating, faculty salaries, capital purchase and lab research operations accounts for 3 Medical/Clinical sections.

Served as the chief financial liaison for grant and subcontract negotiations between University and external agencies as well as services between the Office of the Comptroller and University Research Administration.

The University of Chicago – Chicago, IL

Faculty Service Representative, Center for Neurobiology March 2004 – August 2006

Assumed all responsibility for pre and post award function for 7 tenured faculty at the Knapp Center with over 100 grant accounts.

Created receivables based on notices of awards and re-budgeted according to Sponsor guidelines.

Manage the research portfolio of 7 tenured faculty totaling 2.8 million.

Monitored and budget all federal and non-federal awards per UC Financial system.

Supervised/trained an Operations Assistant and coordinate daily workflow.

Administered daily operational needs; personnel/travel and petty cash reimbursements reports of money received, online purchasing.

Approved all purchase orders and monitor procurement expenditures for the Center for Neurobiology.

Conduct monthly detailed financial statements to PI’s and consult on payroll and other variance situations/financial projections.

Submitted timely grant year-end and interim reports to the Office of the Comptroller for review and approval to file various Financial Status Reports to Sponsors.

Reconciled unrestricted accounts for year-end close, monitor cost share accounts and effort reporting.

Formulated and executed a 14-month financial plan with an Associate Professor to alleviate debt without reducing lab personnel.

Contribute to the team concept by advising upper management of potential problems or trends.

Rush University Medical Center – Chicago, IL

Patient Access Supervisor, Finance Department March 2003 – March 2004

Supervised 9 patient registers in the patient finance department.

Trained and oriented 2 new hires.

Presented bi-weekly reports to the director of finance on secured accounts.

Assigned and delegated daily workflow.

Built 2 business relationships with internal clinics that were interested in utilizing staff.

Education

Loyola University Chicago – 1997-2001

Bachelor of Arts- Organizational Management/ Communication, January 2001

Relevant Coursework: Economics, Accounting, Rhetoric, Organizational Management, Business Law & Ethics, Interpersonal Communication, Public Policy and Labor Relations Management.

Continued Professional Education – 2012 -2016

HIPPA Compliance.

Patient confidentiality and data safety.

Core Compliance Concepts.

Code of Conduct.

Privacy Basics.

Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

Professional Affiliations

National Council for University Research Administrators (NCURA), 2005 – 2008.

Society for Research Administrators (SRA), 2005 – 2008.

Attributes & Skills

-Proficient use in PC, MS Office, and Windows platform.

-Proficient user of Federal electronic portal grant submissions including Grants.gov (NIH & AHRQ), FastLane, FedBizOpps, HRSA, and various other Sponsored Foundation Portals.

-Experienced user of Online Financial Accounting Systems (FAS, Legacy, FRS, SAP), ACCTS (Account Create Transfer System), PETS (Payroll Expense Transfer System), POPS (Procurement Order Purchasing System), SciQuest, Quickbase, Buysite, COF (Change of Funding), ETS (Effort Tracking System) and Payroll Distribution Editor, IBM Cognos online & TM1.

-Excellent public speaker, extremely diligent and organized proficient writing ability.

-American Red Cross Lifeguard Certified.

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