Committee Updates

The Professional Development Committee is finalizing a mentoring program and a new employee on boarding program. Details will be shared in the next issue.

The Organizational Communications Committee has launched this newsletter, featuring information important to staff.

The Staff Engagement Committee has organized the Staff Picnic on April 22 and have other events in the planning process.

The Vision and Mission Committee has delivered a new REDKE vision and mission and has concluded its mandate.

University Excellence Nominees

Arya Singh, director of Research Computing and Business Intelligence, and Dr. Jerome Keating, Peter T. Flawn Professor of Management Science and Statistics in the Alvarez College of Business, were nominated for The Team Spirit Award. Part of The University Excellence Staff Awards, this particular award recognizes an employee who goes above and beyond to contribute to the success of UTSA through their outstanding contributions at work. 

This dynamic duo was nominated for their collaboration in successfully replicating the Carnegie model in a dynamic dashboard environment, which allowed the REDKE team to make projections and take timely actions regarding UTSA’s progress in moving towards Carnegie R1. 

The use of the developed model required making multiple predictions and course corrections over a two-year period about the performance of other institutions based on historical data to create realistic “what-if” scenarios and to compare UTSA against others. Throughout this sequential phase, especially over the last 12-months, Arya and Dr. Keating went through eight iterations of the model. The patience and focus it takes to stay connected as a staff/faculty team for such ­­a long time while informing executive leadership team with actionable information is another key success factor to recognize and appreciate. 

Thanks to the continuous pursuit of excellence by the Research Computing and Business Intelligence team and Dr. Jerome Keating, their impactful work ensured UTSA’s success in achieving Carnegie R1 status. 

The University Excellence Staff Awards recognizes extraordinary leadership, service and contributions by UTSA staff, the awards provide an opportunity to acknowledge employees whose dedication to the university has gone above and beyond. 

The 2022 awards ceremony will be held virtually on April 26^th from 4-5 pm, and the winners will be announced live during the event.

Quarterly Staff Excellence Award

The Office of the Vice President for Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise recognizes the hard and selfless work of our people who pursue excellence, facilitate growth, and enable productivity with its quarterly “REDKE Staff Excellence".

This quarter's awardees are Silvia Cano (UTSA Institute for Economic Development) and Tammy Lopez (Research Office).

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Silvia Cano is the Senior Director of Finance & Administration for the UTSA Institute for Economic Development. Silvia, and her team she directs, develop timely, reliable, and accurate materials for grant proposals, greatly aiding the institute’s efforts to pursue new research opportunities. Her work is invaluable to the success of the UTSA Institute for Economic Development and the research dollars her work makes possible. 

Silvia is great to work with on a variety of projects. Silvia is highly competent and a pleasure to work with. She is a significant asset to IED's overall efforts. 

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Tammy Lopez, J.D., C.I.P., Senior Research Compliance Coordinator, was recently honored with the REDKE quarterly staff excellence award in March 2022.

Tammy interacts with approximately 300 faculty and student researchers during the course of a year, and serves as an outstanding technical guide for completing protocols related to the protection of human research participants. Dedicated to serving researchers and explaining human research requirements in a very supportive rather than punitive manner, she is highly professional yet personable and approachable.

Tammy leads the office in adjusting practices to accommodate changes such as different types of research, volume of research applications, training needs, and IRB board member changes. The type of human research conducted at UTSA has significantly changed in the eight years Tammy has been part of the Roadrunner team (e.g., large data repositories, clinical research, public health) and she researches best practices and regulatory requirements to find the right changes needed for UTSA. She is eager to try out new ideas and adjust operations as needed.

Tammy inspires others. First, she guides graduate students who are typically conducting their very first research project and may lack knowledge and confidence to complete their protocol. She consistently receives positive feedback, including acknowledgements in student theses, about the impact she has made on their project. Second, she inspires her colleagues in the Office of Research Integrity to focus on outstanding customer service and quality of reviews. This includes members of the IRB who look to Tammy for guidance in balancing risk to subjects with decisions about research design.

Tammy has extensive knowledge and experience supporting the Research Enterprise. As a J.D., she is also skilled at reviewing and interpreting regulatory language and standards. Tammy has been a tremendous driver for the office by embracing changes that happened and continuously finding new areas to improve. She suggested solutions to improve our online submission process and forms and moved forward with implementation. We trust her judgment and appreciate her willingness to take responsibility for the success of the office without fear of moving forward.

Congratulations Tammy and Silvia!

Volunteer Opportunity

• The 8^th Annual SURF (SAMHS and Universities Research Forum) conference will take place Thursday, June 16, 2022, in the H-E-B Ballroom on campus. There are volunteer opportunities so please register on the SURF site. If you have questions, please contact Tammy Ramos.

• TAMEST – The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas – will hold their annual conference in San Antonio this year, June 20–22, 2022, at The Westin Riverwalk. REDKE will have a display table. If you would like to volunteer for a shift (2-4 hours), please contact Sarah Hada.

Celebrating R1 Designation

Staff, faculty, and leadership were invited to a special R1 event as we celebrated UTSA ’s recent Carnegie R1 research designation. A big thank you to all made this exciting accomplishment possible! We want to thank our research community here on campus.

This includes:

• Our dedicated Research staff, supporting our active faculty researchers and their labs in their innovation and discovery;
• The Institute for Economic Development staff for their community engagement and partnership;
• The 32 research directors and their staff; and
• Our Research cores staff in the colleges.

We'd also like to highlight our campus partners:

Ambika Mathur and the Graduate School staff for their collaborative partnership on NRUF and other projects. Veronica Salazar and the VPBA staff who are great partners to REDKE with facility and lab support and the construction of new downtown tech corridor. Special shout-out to Dr. Jerome Keating in the Alvarez College of Business and Arya Singh in Research Computing and Business Intelligence who reversed engineered the Carnegie ranking!