Melinda serves as the Assistant Director of External Funding at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. There, she is responsible for partnering with staff and faculty to strategize and identify external funding, developing budgets and administrative components of proposals, and liaising with the ASU central research office on behalf of the College of Law. Melinda also assists with the administrative management of awarded sponsored projects.
Before joining the College of Law, Melinda served as RAS Team Lead, RAS Advanced Pre-Award Lead, and Research Advancement Administrator in Research Advancement Services (RAS), a part of the Knowledge Enterprise's Research Operations Team. On the RAS Team, Melinda specialized in supporting faculty and staff with budgetary and administrative aspects of sponsor project support. She also has experience providing some non-financial post-award assistance. She also supported the McCain Institute as Research Advancement Manager.
Melinda especially enjoys working on international and large/strategic proposals for funding. In addition to proposal support, Melinda has also had the opportunity to present on a variety of research administration and sponsored project topics at ASU and national conferences.
Prior to joining the RAS Team at ASU, Melinda worked in healthcare for 4 years, supporting children and families in understanding and coping with healthcare experiences.