Jessica RowellJessica Rowell—Senior Manager, Proposal Development with the Office of Contracts and Grants—received the 2022 RIO Champion Award. 

Jessica was nominated by:

  • Joan Eaton, Assistant Director, Proposal Development, Office of Contracts and Grants
  • Gary Henry, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research; Director, Office of Contracts and Grants, CU Boulder
  • Emily CoBabe-Ammann, Senior Director, Strategic Projects/NSI

What the nominators said about Jessica

In her role as Manager, and currently as Senior Manager, of the Proposal Development Team in OCG, Jessica has led us through multiple challenges such as staffing changes requiring work redistributions as well as a number of process improvement and documentation projects for the benefit of our Team, OCG, and the campus at large. She meets such challenges confidently with a steady and careful approach that fosters trust and respect. She asks the difficult questions required to target the root of a problem, then is careful to solicit the input of all stakeholders involved in formulating the best possible solutions.

As our Senior Manager, Jessica is the “Head Cheerleader” for our Team, frequently making time in her busy days to provide additional encouragement to the Team and our individual members and she never misses an opportunity to celebrate our Team’s and our individual Analyst’s successes.

As the Proposal Team’s Lead Trainer, Jessica continues to provide a solid foundation of learning and support, not only for all our newly hired Proposal Analysts, but for our campus departmental administrators and PIs as well.

Jessica communicates her standards of and expectations for excellence in our work with positivity, inclusivity, humility, and compassion. She is far more interested in the success of those she leads and serves than in any accolades she herself may personally receive and that’s what ultimately makes her a true Champion.

Examples of projects where Jessica has facilitated and enabled success in the past year include the following:

  • Jessica agreed to serve as the sole Proposal Analyst for all NSI (Ctr. for National Security Initiatives) proposal submissions, has served as our KECK proposal point of contact for many years, and has also served as the key Proposal Analyst to work with critical industry partners such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
  • Jessica is our lead technical support for all CHECRA transactions within OCG, maintains and continually improves the critical PSR (Proposal Submission Request) form and is currently heading up the non-IT aspects of the blossoming InfoEd PD project.
  • Jessica has served as a key participant in the activities of our top professional associations (NCURA and SRAI).
  • Jessica was selected by SRAI as a Future of the Field honoree, recognizing her “noteworthy professional growth and contributions to the research administration profession.” The partnerships and alliances she formed there have fostered knowledge and resource sharing that has not only benefited our sponsored project enterprise, but has assisted our colleagues at other institutions – contributing to our stellar reputation in the field and furthering our strategic initiative of being a national leader in research administration.