MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NURSING • NURSING.MSU.EDU
NURSING RESEARCH CENTER
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Leading Research with Knowledge, Care, and Experience
Associate Dean for Research Barbara Smith,
PhD, RN, FACSM, FAAN, heads up the NRC.
From three decades of her own research
experience, she knows how important it is
to provide support. As she says, “I would
eventually like to be able to propel the College
to another level of research excellence. In
the meantime, I would like to be able to tell
faculty, ‘You worry about the science, the NRC
will worry about the administrivia related to
your grant.’”
The NRC team brings more than 60 years of
combined experience and a caring, supportive
approach to research efforts at the faculty and
PhD student levels.
Cindy Majeske, BA, supervises research
operations as the NRC Coordinator. In this
role, she provides high quality support and
organizational structure for research faculty.
With 23 years of research experience in the
College, she is adept at problem solving unique
situations during proposal submission and
project implementation.
Majeske serves as the College’s liaison
on all items relating to research proposals.
Under her guidance, researchers receive
assistance in navigating institutional review
board submissions, post-award administration,
study compliance, faculty collaborations,
human subject regulations, and the licensing
of intellectual property.
As the Co-Investigator/Project Director for
an NIH R01 study, Majeske balances what is
needed administratively for good stewardship
of research awards with what is reasonable to
expect from research faculty who are juggling
multiple priorities. In addition, she mentors
other project managers on funded research
projects to ensure they have the necessary
tools to promote efficient function for primary
investigators and their research teams.
Marilou Clary, MA, has been on the job as
the NRC Research Administrator since 2005.
She brings a background and skills in business
administration and project management
to her work. In her role, she supports preaward and post-award activities. Clary
guides development of the grant budget and
identifies areas that can be streamlined to
improve cost effectiveness and efficiency.
When the grant is funded, she finds a great
sense of reward working directly with the
faculty and staff in post-award activities and
research implementation.
The Center is also guided by a Research
Committee of three faculty members and
one doctoral student who assists Dr. Smith in
moving the College research agenda forward
while evaluating what is needed to ensure that
researchers are on track to sustain a career of
scholarly activity.