09/22/2022
By Anne Maglia

I’m pleased to announce the promotion of Susan Puryear to serve as associate vice chancellor for research administration, integrity and development. In her new position, Susan will continue to oversee the Office of Research Administration (ORA), and will assume oversight of the Office of Research Integrity and the Research Support Services group. She also currently serves in a critical role planning for the future of research at UMass Lowell as co-chair of the Research Growth (R1) Planning Commission.

Susan joined UMass Lowell in 2016 and has most recently served as the assistant vice chancellor for research administration, development and support services. She has been integral in transforming ORA to better support our rapid research growth, including expanding the team into four operational units with an increase of full-time staff by more than half.

Under Susan’s leadership, ORA has developed substantial process improvements and efficiencies, such as reducing the average number of days to set up an award from over a month to under a week. These efficiencies drive an increased capacity for the research administration team to handle the university’s increasing portfolio of award submissions and management. The result is more than $83 million in new awards, a sum which has almost doubled under Susan’s tenure.

Susan has also demonstrated superior leadership in the design and implementation of research development programming to increase research productivity, proposal competitiveness and research collaborations both internally and externally.

Prior to UMass Lowell, Susan served as the director of sponsored programs and research at Clark University where she oversaw sponsored research administration and compliance.

Susan received her J.D. from Stanford Law School, Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and B.A. from Yale University.

Please join me in congratulating Susan on her new role.