Office of Sponsored Research Administration (OSRA)

The Office of Research Business Operations (RBO) launched in fall 2017, establishing a parallel leadership structure over the Office of Sponsored Research Administration (OSRA) and the Office of Research Business Management (RBM), led by Director, Aleta R. Gunsul, and Associate Director, Stephen Hunt. Since its inception, this new Department has maximized operational efficiencies across teams, while maintaining unique objectives and services. OSRA continues to provide central support services across WCM, while RBM provides targeted, end-to-end research portfolio management for our Centers, Institutes, and other researchers.

As an organic progression of the demand created by offering additional services, recruiting new research faculty, and expanding opportunities for our existing research faculty, a clear and overwhelming need for a new leadership position within OSRA became evident.

The Department of Research Business Operations (RBO) is delighted to announce the following promotions:

Felicia Sosa – Assistant Director (OSRA)

Felicia Sosa, an integral member of the Office of Sponsored Research Administration since 2010, and Manager - Grants and Contracts, of our over $200 million dollar a year portfolio, for the past three years, is taking on the newly introduced position of Assistant Director. In her new leadership role, Felicia will directly oversee OSRA’s three core teams: Grants, Contracts and Operations, with an emphasis on managing team integration and cross training while maintaining a comprehensive project inventory and measuring key performance metrics. She will continue to serve as a lead advocate for the Weill Research Gateway (WRG), managing project enhancements and implementations. Felicia is recognized for her attention to detail, and her in-depth grant expertise, as well as providing excellent, above and beyond the call of duty, service to WCM’s research faculty. She will continue to foster a high-quality culture founded upon service and excellence.

Latoya Palmer – Manager, Grants and Contracts (OSRA)

Latoya Palmer will succeed Felicia, filling the position of Manager - Grants and Contracts in OSRA. Formerly, Latoya supported the research portfolio of our previous Dean, Dr. Laurie Glimcher. At CUMC, she was the Divisional Administrator for the David Mahoney Center in Neuroscience, providing administrative and financial management for a $20 million dollar research portfolio.  She has over 15 years of experience in research administration, and a well-established history of developing excellent faculty relationships. Since September 2016, Latoya has supported a broad range of research portfolios as a Grants Portfolio Manager in Research Business Management (RBM). In her new role, Latoya will oversee our experienced Grant Specialist unit with a strong focus on fostering team cohesion and support, enhancing performance metrics and WRG advocacy, and providing consistent, high quality service to our research community.

Please join me in congratulating Felicia Sosa and Latoya Palmer.

New Hire: Syeda “Affreen” Jaffery, Senior Contracts Specialist

We are excited to announce that Syeda “Affreen” Jaffery will be joining OSRA as a Senior Contracts Specialist in early April. Affren joins OSRA following her time as a Senior Legal Associate at Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. She brings several years of experience negotiating industry-funded contracts. Her experience in contract negotiation includes analysis of federal and state regulations as well as oversight of 5,000 corporate contracts annually. Prior to her time at Pacira, Affren received her Paralegal Certificate from Pace University in New York.

Jazmin Kirby – Contracts Manager

We are excited to announce the promotion of Jazmin Kirby to Contracts Manager, Office of Sponsored Research Administration. In this role, Jazmin will advance the successful platform established by her predecessor with an emphasis on managing integrated teams for Subawards, Industry Contracts and WCM-Q research management. Jazmin will manage workload throughput via proactive relationship management with our peer institutions, clear identification of our comprehensive pending and active project inventory, and measuring key performance metrics such as agreement execution turnaround times.

Mohammad Mansour – Operations Manager

We are excited to announce the promotion of Mohammad Mansour to Operations Manager, Office of Sponsored Research Administration. In this new role, Mohammad will lead our data management team, oversee institutional reporting and support systems integration. The position will serve as our departmental advocate in the Weill Research Gateway-Sponsored Programs module and be responsible for the oversight of all operations, including award processing, account creation in SAP and annual compliance review. Of primary focus will be enhancing performance metrics, shortening response and turnaround times, and improving community satisfaction.

Please join us in congratulating Jazmin and Mohammad.