Christina Hansen

Number of Years in Research Administration: 31

Institutions: University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Irvine

Christina Hansen is well known in the Research Administration profession as a progressive manager, mentor and educator. She began her research administration career at the University of California, Los Angeles in central administration supporting proposal and award management for several schools. Later, as Assistant Director for Health Sciences, she strengthened alliances with compliance committees, improved relations with University Advancement, and developed negotiating tools for clinical trials.

In 1988, Chris moved to the University of California Irvine campus as Director of the Office of Contract and Grant Administration where she developed initial campus policies and written procedures supporting proposal and award processes, established an electronic database for the office, and ensured departmental administrators were aware of sponsored research responsibilities. As the campus award totals increased from $50M to $300M, she became Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research and assumed management responsibilities for sponsored projects, human subjects, animal subjects, conflict of interest, export control, ARRA reporting, and awards data management. She collaborated with other offices to implement the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, develop the whistleblowers policy and the campus conflict of interest policy, and coordinate a campus-wide response to export control regulations. She also served as a co-director of the steering committee to implement Kuali electronic research administration programs.

With over 30 years’ experience in research administration, Chris is knowledgeable in a wide range of research administration topics including proposal processing, principles of research, conflict of interest management, gift/grant determination, research ethics, and export controls. She was instrumental in the development of the UCI Research Administration Management Program (RAMP), a certificated program for departmental staff and others on essential proposal and award functions.

Chris has been an active volunteer with NCURA. She served as faculty/moderator for five NCURA videoconferences and as faculty for NCURA’s Fundamentals of Sponsored Projects Administration and the more advanced Sponsored Projects Administration: Level II workshop. She was a co-author of The Role of Research Administration, an NCURA monograph, and was on the Editorial Advisory Board of Sponsored Research Administration: A Guide to Effective Strategies and Recommended Practices. In addition to serving as Workshop Coordinator and member of NCURA National Meeting Program Committees, Chris presented at numerous meetings and conferences for NCURA and other research administration organizations, i.e., Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research, Society of Research Administrators International, Council on Governmental Relations, and the Federal Demonstration Partnership. She was an Invited Panelist at the Conflict of Interest Workshop organized by the National Institutes of Health in 2002 and served on the Board of COGR.

Chris held several positions within the NCURA organization. For the Western Region, she served as the Secretary-Treasurer and as Regional Chair. Chris was NCURA Secretary and a member of the Board of Directors. She served on the Professional Development Committee and the Nominating and Leadership Development Committee (chair, vice-chair) and is an active volunteer on NCURA projects and peer reviews. Chris has served on peer review panels for seven universities. She received the NCURA Distinguished Service Award in 2002 for her sustained and distinctive contributions to the organization and was recognized by Region VI with the Linda W. Patton Emeritus Award in 2016.

NCURA Peer Program engagements are priced as a flat fee, scaled to the sponsored programs total active award dollars in the last fiscal year, regardless of type of Peer Program engagement.