Contact: Jim Laird

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Eleven Mississippi State staff members are graduates of the fourth-annual professional development program offered by the university’s Office of Sponsored Projects.

A unit of the Office of Research and Economic Development, OSP oversees externally-sponsored programs — the grants, contracts and similar agreements that help fund research at the land-grant institution.

This year’s edition of the Departmental Administrator Working Group — also known as DAWG — involved a nine-month curriculum designed to develop participants’ sponsored-project administration skills and foster networking opportunities with campus peers, according to OSP Director Jennifer Easley.

“DAWG provides a resource to help departmental administrators grow professionally, and it also creates additional connections between departments across campus,” she said.

Honored at a recent campus reception, the 2016 graduates are Holly Coker, Mississippi State Chemical Laboratory; Jeremiah Elliott, School of Human Sciences; Andrew Fox, Institute for Clean Energy Technology; Ellen Harpole, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Casey Moss, Pontotoc Ridge-Flatwoods Branch Experiment Station; Judy Norwood, Delta Research and Extension Center; Janet Petty, Center for Environmental Health Sciences; Madison Poole, International Institute; Carl Smith, High Performance Computing Collaboratory; Natalie Smith, Bagley College of Engineering; and Mary Thomas, Institute for Systems Engineering Research.

Applications for the 2017 class will be made available later this summer, Easley said, explaining that participants are chosen through a competitive nomination and selection process.

During classes meeting for two hours each month, DAWG members are taken through the grant administration process to gain a better understanding of both pre- and post-award functions. Topics include how the different offices work together to prepare budgets, administrate research proposals and conduct post-award management, among other key areas.

Easley said this year’s graduates also gave presentations about themselves and their departments.

“The presentations gave everyone a chance to see the depth of Mississippi State’s work around the state and the world,” she said.

For more about the Office of Sponsored Projects, visit www.osp.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.