Dr. Susan McDowell, Vice Provost for Research at Ball State University, has been named an Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ (APLU) Council on Research Leader Fellow.
The APLU Council on Research (CoR), which is comprised of senior research officers at the nation’s public research universities, created the fellowship to enable individuals who are new vice presidents, vice chancellors, or vice provosts for research, or aspiring to these positions, to develop critical new knowledge and skills.
Dr. McDowell, who is one of eight new fellows, will join three previous cohorts of fellows that were selected earlier this Summer and introduced at the 2021 CoR Virtual Summer Meeting.
“It is an honor to be selected as a Research Leader Fellow for the APLU,” Dr. McDowell said. “Over the next 12 months, I plan on gaining invaluable experience and fostering connections with CoR’s extensive network of senior research officers that will advance our strategic priorities at Ball State.”
“We are excited to welcome a new cohort of CoR Research Leader Fellows, especially after the program was paused for a year during the pandemic,” said Washington State University Vice President for Research Chris Keane, who serves as Chair of CoR. “The CoR Research Leader Fellowship Program has become a sought-after leadership development opportunity and we are grateful to collegial community of research leaders who sponsor, host, and mentor the fellows throughout the year.”
The CoR Research Leader Fellowship helps rising research leaders develop expertise in areas outside of their current research-related responsibilities. Because many universities have segmented research support organizations, rising research leaders often oversee relatively confined areas such as research administration, research development, research compliance, research communication, economic development, or sponsored programs.
In her role at Ball State, Dr. McDowell provides leadership to the University’s Sponsored Projects Administration and to the Office of Research Integrity. She also manages the Teacher-Scholar Program, which affords opportunities for first- and second-year undergraduates to collaborate with research mentors. Dr. McDowell also serves as the lead for Ball State in the Aspire Alliance, part of the National Science Foundation-funded INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) programming.
Dr. McDowell received baccalaureate degrees in biology and secondary education from Thomas More College, a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and conducted postdoctoral training at Eli Lilly & Co.
“We’re thrilled to welcome our new cohort of fellows,” said APLU Executive Vice President Howard Gobstein, who leads the association’s research policy and STEM education efforts. “We applaud this year’s fellows for their remarkable achievements to date. The CoR Fellows program is designed to help them take their leadership to the next level. The fellowships are a critically important CoR effort, helping to cultivate the next generation of public research university leaders and build institutional capacity.”
The 2021 CoR Research Leader Fellows are:
- Kelly J. Clifton, Interim Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, Portland State University
- Shelome Gooden, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research in the Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Related Fields, University of Pittsburgh
- Todd Hagobian, Associate Vice President of Research, California Polytechnic State University
- Kathleen Halvorsen, Associate Vice President for Research Development, Michigan Technological University
- Susan McDowell, Vice Provost for Research, Ball State University
- Sangita Pawar, Vice President for Research Operations, University of Arizona
- Mark Reed, Interim Associate Vice President of Research Operations, San Diego State University
- W. Matthew Reichert, Assistant Vice President for Research, University of South Alabama