Team member Sally Brown

You may have read the recent news about UCSF being the top public recipient of biomedical research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In addition, the UCSF schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy all ranked first in their fields in federal funding for biomedical research and graduate-level training, and our researchers in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences were among the top grant recipients for the School of Pharmacy.

It takes many people working together to create such success. One of them is Sally Brown.

Brown is a research services coordinator (also known as a contracts and grants officer). She provides expert administrative support to all researchers—from pre-award through the complete award process—on all grant mechanisms for federal and nonprofit funding. Her duties include (take a deep breath here!) assisting in identifying funding opportunities, budget development, proposal compilation and submission, subcontracts out, progress reports, no-cost extensions and fund advances, and award review, along with award negotiation and acceptance. She also initiates award setup and award close out, communicates with sponsors, and is familiar with NIH and other sponsor proposal submission processes.

Brown has been at UCSF for over seven years. Prior to coming to here, she was with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for over ten years.

She has assisted Kathy Giacomini, PhD, with the establishment of CERSI; Shuvo Roy, PhD, with various types of funding related to The Kidney Project; Nadav Ahituv, PhD, with his recent ENCODE Award; and Michael Fischbach, PhD, with his HHMI, Packard, and Burroughs Wellcome funding. She has also worked with non-BTS investigators, such as Jeffrey Lotz, PhD, and his NASA funding.

Brown takes tremendous pride and satisfaction in her work. “I love knowing that I help to make a difference,” she said. “Even though it is the PIs and their staff who are doing the research, I contribute in a small way by working to obtain funding.”

In addition to her work for UCSF, Brown enjoys spending time with her family. She has three grown children and seven grandchildren (ages 5 to 13). She recently moved into a house, and now loves gardening. We wish her much happiness in her new home, and we thank her for the valuable service she provides to UCSF.