Amber K. O'Connor

Currently, I am a Program Director in the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center in charge of pre-award and grant management duties. This includes the administrative work for the P30 ($28M) and a portfolio of other cancer center related awards (~30), including cooperative agreements, foundation awards, and federally sponsored research. I work with the post-award team and the clinical trials office, as needed, on annual reporting, budgeting, and contracting. From 2015 - 2020 I was the Grants Manager and Program Director of the Office of Laboratory Research in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I managed the pre- and post- award processes for four departments in the School of Medicine with the help of four direct reports. My federal award portfolio included multiple R, U, and DOD awards, as well as incoming and outgoing sub-awards totaling to more than $10M annual total dollars. I assisted with submissions, annual reporting, budgeting, subcontracts, amendments, milestone payments, financial statements, AP/AR duties, account management, and closeouts. I was the Effort Reporting Officer for all faculty and staff ensuring compliance and managing labor distributions for the various departments I supported. In addition to Grants Management, I also fulfilled operational duties for the Department of Neurosurgery including equipment inventory, audits and project management, HR and leadership, annual space survey, managing and reaching university and school level goals and metrics, annual and ad-hoc reporting to the Chair, Dean, and other University leaders. I am the founder and leader of a "Grant Managers Working-group" that gathered regularly to guide, assist, and support grant managers on campus (2016-2018) and served on other University level working-groups and committees.