OVPR Leadership
Allen Levine
Vice President for Research
(612) 624-5054, aslevine@umn.edu
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Allen Levine was appointed vice president for research of the University of Minnesota in October 2017 after serving as interim vice president since the previous January. In this position he oversees the University’s $900 million research enterprise across all its campuses and facilities, including the administration of sponsored projects, research compliance and regulatory offices, and units dedicated to economic development and technology commercialization.
Dr. Levine previously served as vice provost for faculty and academic affairs; dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences; department head of Food Science and Nutrition; and associate director of research; and senior career scientist at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
Dr. Levine is a professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition and holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Psychiatry. In addition, he is a member of the Food Science and Nutrition Graduate Programs.
Dr. Levine’s research focus for the past 35 years has been on the neural regulation of food intake. He and his colleagues have published extensively on the brain circuitry involved in the rewarding properties of foods.
He has published over 300 scientific papers and over 100 review articles, editorials, and book reviews, and his current career h-index in Google Scholar is 82. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Nutrition, and the American Psychological Association. He is president of the Obesity Society, a 2,500-member national organization of health professionals, where he is also a fellow.
He has received several awards for his research efforts, including the Mead Johnson Award from the American Institute of Nutrition and the Grace A. Goldsmith Award from the American College of Nutrition.
Leadership Team
Fernando Bucaro
Finance Director
(612) 626-8284, buca0004@umn.edu
Fernando provides financial leadership and direction for all OVPR units, centers, and programs, with responsibility for budgeting, financial planning and analysis, reporting, forecasting, policy compliance, supervision of staff, and financial operations oversight. Fernando joined OVPR administration in 2017 after working briefly in OVPR’s Office for Technology Commercialization. Before that, he worked for more than 20 years in finance and administration for large multinational companies, including in budgeting, forecasting, auditing, and strategic planning as well as administrative areas of information technology, human resources, and facilities management. He has degrees from Oxford University, University of St. Thomas, and St. Cloud State University.
Maura Donovan
Executive Director, Strategic Partnerships
(612) 625-1927, mdonovan@umn.edu
Maura leads University-wide economic development activities, including promoting public-private partnerships, and working with statewide and regional economic development partners. Maura spent more than 20 years at Medtronic and was the vice president of R&D in the Ventures and New Therapies Division. She served as the chief technology officer for the Decade of Discovery, a joint initiative of the U of M and the Mayo Clinic. She was a postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry at the University of Minnesota and holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Washington in addition to a B.A. in chemistry and Russian from Macalester College.
Dan Gilchrist
Communications Director
(612) 624-2609, dang@umn.edu
Dan leads OVPR’s communications department, which plans, coordinates, and implements communications strategies that highlight the importance of the U of M’s research enterprise and the its role as a partner in economic development and technological advancements. He advises the vice president for research and his executive leadership on communications and government relations and assists with issue management related to research for OVPR and the University. He previously served the University as a speechwriter to two presidents, federal relations coordinator, and Extension program coordinator. He holds two policy-related degrees from Stanford University.
Frances Lawrenz
Associate Vice President for Research and Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development
(612) 625-2046, lawrenz@umn.edu
Frances oversees the work of the Human Research Protection Program, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the Office of Biotechnology Activities Oversight. She also leads Research Advancement, which supports interdisciplinary initiatives, administers U of M research grant programs, guides research infrastructure planning, and directs research policy and review. She is an award-winning researcher and teacher with a specialization in science and mathematics program evaluation. She has held departmental and college leadership positions and published well over 100 research papers and over 200 evaluation reports in addition to other scholarly work. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. See more.
Claudia Neuhauser
Associate Vice President for Research and Director, Research Computing
(612) 625-9258, neuha001@umn.edu
As director of Research Computing, Claudia oversees crucial resources for compute- and data-intensive research to the University community and external partners, including the University of Minnesota Informatics Institute, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, and U-Spatial. Her own research is at the interface of mathematics and biology, and focuses on the analysis of ecological and evolutionary models and the development of statistical methods in biomedical applications. She received her Diplom in mathematics from the Universität Heidelberg (Germany) in 1988, and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Cornell University in 1990. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). See More.
Jay Schrankler
Associate Vice President for Research
(612) 626-5438, schra223@umn.edu
Jay Schrankler was named associate vice president of technology commercialization and new ventures in March 2017 after nearly a decade as executive director of the Office for Technology Commercialization. Under Jay’s leadership, the University's technology commercialization team has become one of the top in the country. Previously, Jay held key management and executive roles at Honeywell, leading space, automation, and environmental controls divisions there. He studied electrical engineering as an undergraduate at the U of M and holds master’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Wisconsin. He has executive management certifications from Harvard University and UCLA. See more.
Sarah Waldemar
Director, Research Compliance Office
(612) 624-8349, s-wolg@umn.edu
Sarah oversees the Research Compliance Office, an independent office that helps ensure that University of Minnesota research complies with relevant laws, rules, policies, and guidelines. She has served the University for more than 37 years, including as director of research education and oversight; head of the Office of Oversight, Analysis, and Reporting; and administrative director of the Division of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health. She has coordinated multi-center clinical trials and been a leader in the University’s risk recalibration activities. She holds a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and is a graduate of Minnesota Partnership for Executive Leadership Development.
Lisa Warren
Assistant Vice President and Chief of Staff
(612) 625-2042, carls044@umn.edu
As chief of staff, Lisa ensures effective planning and coordination of the research agenda including strategic initiatives, priority setting, and work planning. Lisa manages OVPR's centralized shared services, including communications, information technology, human resources, finance, and the administrative support team. She began her career in accounting positions and expanded her experience to include research administration, information technology, compliance policy, business analysis, strategic planning, and project management in her more than 30 years at the University of Minnesota. Lisa holds a B.S. in accounting from the Carlson School of Management and an MPA from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Pamela A. Webb
Associate Vice President for Research
(612) 624-1648, pwebb@umn.edu
Pamela is responsible for pre-award and post-award nonfinancial services supporting about $790 million in research awards annually, as well as negotiation of facilities and administrative rates, effort reporting, and research policy and education. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota in 2007, Pamela led pre-award and post-award administration at Stanford University, and served in research administration at the UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and Northwestern University. In August 2016, she received her industry’s highest honor, the Outstanding Achievement in Research Administration Award. She is a leader in national research organizations, including the Council on Government Relations, and holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin.