Administrative Core

The Administrative Core of the Center for MusculoSkeletal Research (Center) will be responsible for administrative and fiscal management of the Core Facilities, the Funding Initiatives and the Enrichment Program. Ms. Melissa Machado, as Administrator and Fiscal Officer, will support Dr. Liu (Director) and Dr. Divieti Pajevic (Associate Director). They will meet monthly with the Center Leadership Council composed of the PIs, Core Directors and Associate Directors. They will meet twice a year with an Advisory Committee made up of distinguished scientists from within and outside the Center. This Advisory committee will review the educational, enrichment, career development initiatives in addition to Core service usage and innovation. Their mandate will be to provide advice about Center management, Core services, innovations and initiatives, including educational, mentoring, funding initiatives. The overall philosophy of Center leadership is that the Core services and enrichment activities must be constantly reevaluated to ensure that they incorporate new scientific advances and serve the growing and changing needs of the large scientific community served by the Center. In addition to quarterly feedback solicited from Center investigators, the input of 5 Committees composed of Center investigators is designed to routinely evaluate the effectiveness of current services and to identify new initiatives/services which will increase the scientific impact of research conducted by Center investigators, promote collaborative research, support investigations of Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) and expand our community by outreach efforts including fostering musculoskeletal research by those from other disciplines. Sustainability is based on leveraging institutional resources whenever possible and designing user fees to cover supply costs of the Core services, with significant subsidies provided to early stage investigators (ESIs) who have not yet obtained independent R01-type grant support. An emphasis on mentoring, collaboration, career development and education will permeate all Center activities, with a special focus on ESIs, who are members in training. The underlying goal of all the services and enrichment activities is to continue to expand the number and diversity of musculoskeletal investigators and to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative research that leads to a deeper understanding of musculoskeletal science, in a way promotes new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. *