It is with great excitement that I step into a dynamic leadership role as the Associate Dean for Research. I believe the Office of Research is quintessential in the College of Education’s mission to lead and inspire generative transformations of learning, health, leadership, and well-being by developing new knowledge for an increasingly diverse world. One way to support this mission is to provide a strong research infrastructure that is designed to increase research grants, contracts, and gifts that advance our mission, while increasing our potential to make a collective impact at the local, state, national, and international levels.

Our primary goal is to build an office that provides streamlined pre- and post-award support that is grounded in excellent customer service. This support includes, but is not limited to, creating faculty research development initiatives, administering COE small grants program, developing research promoting policies and procedures, creating sustainable community partnerships, identifying relevant funding opportunities, providing first-rate proposal development and submission services, providing reliable grants management and compliance guidance, and creatively disseminating our scholarship to a broad range of stakeholders. As I work diligently to increase the capacity of our relatively new Office of Research, I look forward to contributing to a research culture that leverages innovative science to make an impactful and sustainable difference in the communities we serve.

Sincerely,

Ezemenari M. Obasi, Ph.D.
Professor & Associate Dean for Research