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Sam Westcott

Institutional Programs Meet the Reviewers-Advisors Sam Westcott

Sam Westcott

 Number of Years in Research Administration: 32

Institutions: Northwestern University, University of California (UCLA and UC Irvine), Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles, and California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

  

Sam Westcott supports the Office of Research at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She joined the team in the summer of 2022 and serves the leadership teams in all aspects of research administration from training, strategic development, faculty support, proposal submission, award review, financial oversight and supporting the Graduate School in their efforts supporting the entire research enterprise. Prior to coming to UWM, Sam was the Sponsored Research Manager for the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy at Caltech where she led a team of Grant Managers supporting millions in research funding supporting researchers through the entire lifecycle of awards funding and portfolios that included sponsored research, gift, endowment, and general budget funding. She was also responsible for research compliance and policy development and implementation for the Division. Her career includes 10 years at Caltech as a Grant Manager in the Division of Biology. She provided leadership in research administration including the Clinical Trial Administration and Research Compliance teams at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles and worked in research administration leadership at the University of California for both the Irvine and Los Angeles campuses. Her career initiated at Northwestern University where she worked at the department and central levels in research administration. At each institution, she worked extensively and closely with faculty, Chairs, and senior leadership, as well as departmental administrators and administrative offices. She served on numerous university/faculty committees, created/implemented university-wide policies, and engaged in department-central research administrator networking groups. Sam has extensive experience in team building, recruitment, training, and retention in the field.

Sam is consistently sought out and requested as a trainer for content development and delivery in research administration. She has given national, regional, and local presentations and workshops. She has served on numerous national NCURA committees and on the Board of Directors. During her career she served as a NCURA national workshop faculty for Departmental Research Administration, has been the Chair of the Nominating and Leadership Committee, and served on the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force for NCURA. In 2016, Sam received NCURA’s national Award for Distinguished Service in Research Administration in 2016 and the Award for the Region VI Distinguished Service Award. In 2019 Sam was recognized by NCURA as a Distinguished Educator.

Sam has performed an evaluation for the testing of accreditation for research administration and has taught national workshops on multitudes of topics in research administration. She is a published author of multiple articles in NCURA magazine, has led and contributed to multiple webinar sessions and NCURA TV, as well as YouTube Tuesday videos.