IDCRC Admin Profile: Sidnee Young
Sidnee, along with Barbara Walsh, has been with the IDCRC since its earliest stages as one of the lead administrators, supporting all the IDCRC LG units and serving as a liaison to all the VTEUs, during the founding of the IDCRC and through its initial phases of development and implementation.
Sidnee has been with Emory University for over 20 years, starting as a Financial Analyst in the School of Medicine Dean’s Office and then as the Financial Director of the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (Georgia CTSA) at Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Institute.
What is your professional background?
With a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Spelman College, I actually started my career with a brief stint in corporate marketing at the former NationsBank, now Bank of America. Feeling unfulfilled in that role, I took some time to travel and to study the German language while gathering myself. Returning with a laser focus and realizing the corporate world was not for me, I pursued a different career path in research administration while completing a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, Social/Public Policy from Georgetown University. Beginning my next professional career developing proposals for sponsored contracts at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and then moving on to pre- and eventually post-award grants management at Emory University, I now have over 25 years of experience in research administration.
Briefly tell us about your path to the IDCRC.
After spending a few years in pre-award grants management, I developed an interest in working on the project of one of the largest budgets I had helped to create. I was afforded this opportunity with the Georgia CTSA and again with the IDCRC. With the Georgia CTSA, I learned a lot about bridging grants management with grant program outcomes. I was able to hone my financial management and organization skills. I also had close to a year of leadership and supervisory experience as the lead administrator when the senior administrator took a military leave of absence. It was a time of great growth and experience for me.
The unexpected opportunity to join the IDCRC presented itself to me during the initial application phase in early 2019. This spreadsheet-loving, finance and research administration-focused staff member was interested in more project-based work, and I accepted the invitation to take the leap into something new.
What is your role with the IDCRC?
My role with the IDCRC has evolved from being one of the lead administrators to being more focused on the somewhat behind-the-scenes grants management responsibilities. In the last few years, I have been responsible for developing and submitting the LG budgets and grants management materials to NIAID, in the form of the annual RPPR, mid-year funding requests, responses to Just In Time requests, and, as applicable, carryover requests for core, study, and pilot funding needs.
I manage the LG award funding at Emory by reviewing expenditures and forecasting financial projections. I report on expenditures and partner with other institutional departments to prepare and submit the annual FFR, as well as initiate and manage subaward agreements and other financial agreements for the LG partners.
What has been the most impactful or highlight of your IDCRC work?
Having the opportunity to work in the administrative operations of vaccine and therapeutic testing and development while in the midst of a global pandemic was one of the most frightening and invaluable experiences of my life. Being a very small part of that tremendous work has permanently shaped me professionally and personally.