McRobbie picks new interim VP

Dr. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, passed over for the position of IU president just last March, already has big plans for her new role as interim vice president for research administration. \n“I am incredibly privileged and honored,” Pescovitz said. “I would love to be able to do streamlined infrastructure to help do more productive discoveries within the University (to) greater contribute to help the economy.” \nIU President Michael McRobbie announced Tuesday in an IU press release that Pescovitz will serve the new position in addition to continuing her two current roles of president and chief executive officer of Riley Hospital for Children and as executive associate dean for research affairs at the IU School of Medicine. \nMcRobbie said in the IU press release that he chose Pescovitz for the job because she has been \noverseeing these functions in the IU School of Medicine for seven years and has done an incredible job. \n“As an experienced medical researcher herself, Dr. Pescovitz understands the importance of having an infrastructure that promotes and facilitates research productivity,” McRobbie said in the release. “She recognizes the importance of applying the highest ethical standards to the conduct of research, and she understands how vital rigorous compliance with research rules and regulations is to research universities such as IU.”\nUntil now, responsibility for administration and regulatory compliance has been distributed among several different offices at different campuses. McRobbie said having one vice president for these responsibilities will result in a more efficient and streamlined system of providing high-quality administrative support to faculty members.\nMacIntyre said Pescovitz had several meetings with McRobbie after he was elected president and expressed her desire to do anything to make his presidency successful. \n“She is indeed doing what she can to help,” MacIntyre said.\nPescovitz said she never would have accepted the job if the University did not already have talented faculty to help within the area.\n“I think IU has tremendous potential,” she said, “and McRobbie hit the ground running. I’m flattered and delighted to be a part of it.”\nEven though Pescovitz believes the job will be demanding, especially since it covers all eight campuses, she is not intimidated.\n“It’s a challenging job,” she said, “and I like challenges.”\nAccording to the press release, research administration covers everything from preparing and tracking grant proposals to negotiating awards and contracts with sponsors in private industry and government. Regulatory compliance involves ensuring proper biosafety procedures are in place, monitoring animal care and use, human subject protections and research integrity.\nPescovitz will also oversee the Indiana Genomics Initiative, which was funded by $155 million in grants from the Lilly Endowment.\n“I think if we do our job really well, research productivity in the University will skyrocket, and we’ll be behind the scenes,” she said. \nPescovitz is currently the Edwin Letzter Professor of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. She served as the director of pediatric endocrinology and diabetology at the IU School of Medicine and Riley Hospital from 1990 to 2004 and led an ambitious strategic planning effort to develop Riley Hospital into one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals, according to the release.\nPescovitz has won multiple awards, including the IU School of Medicine’s highest teaching award and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, according to the release.