Making the World a Better Place - Touro College

Funding Research
Office of Sponsored Programs
Two years ago, Alan Kadish, M.D., president and CEO
of Touro College, took a critical step in moving the
institution one step closer to university
status: in 2010, he established, along with
LaMar Miller, Ph.D., dean of Touro’s
Graduate School of Education, the Office of
Sponsored Programs (OSP).
OSP’s mission is to help advance
research and other sponsored activities
(such as demonstration, training, and public
service projects) across Touro College, as
well as collaboratively across the Touro
College and University System. For OSP’s
first two years, Arnold Spinner, Ph.D.,
associate dean and professor at the
Graduate School of Education, served as its
part-time interim director, working with Dr.
Miller in his role as OSP administrator for the
president.
Since its inception, OSP has been
providing support services to faculty and
staff as they consider, seek and administer
sponsored funding projects. This past fall,
under Dr. Miller’s leadership, Touro hired its
first full-time director of OSP, Glenn Davis,
who comes to Touro with more than 30
years of experience in pre- and post-award
sponsored program administration,
including at Columbia University, Princeton
University and Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia. Prior to becoming the director
of OSP, Davis worked closely with Drs.
Miller and Spinner as a consultant.
Davis’ appointment marked a new
chapter in establishing a “research
enterprise” at Touro, a vision that can be
traced back to founding President Dr.
Bernard Lander. Dr. Miller had approached Dr. Lander about
the importance of having an office of sponsored programs,
particularly in terms of gaining federal funding. Under Dr.
“One of the great
pleasures of working
with faculty is
watching the
pedagogical dynamic.
If you have passion for
teaching, it plays out in
many ways, including
a passion to do
research.”
– Glenn Davis,
Director, Office of
Sponsored Programs
Kadish’s leadership, Touro, historically an instruction-oriented
school, has continued to make strides toward formalizing a
research agenda for the College.
Dr. Miller and Davis are both enthusiastic
about Touro entering this new phase of its
existence. Davis says, “This is a very
formative stage for Touro, as we seek to
move the institution forward with support for
vital and high-quality research endeavors.”
Research can inform classroom
instruction—and vice versa. Davis recalls a
professor once saying to him, “I’m always
amazed at the questions my students ask
that I never thought of myself.” Davis says,
“One of the great pleasures of working with
faculty is watching the pedagogical
dynamic. If you have passion for teaching,
it plays out in many ways, including a
passion to do research.”
To help foster a research climate at
Touro, OSP partners closely with faculty
members as they prepare applications for
grants, offering guidance on sponsor and
institutional guidelines, including such
important matters as budget details and
regulatory compliance issues. OSP also
negotiates awards and provides nonfinancial
advice to principal investigators of
awards, complementing the financial
administrative services supplied by the
Office of the Controller.
Another key function is to oversee an
internal, peer-reviewed faculty research fund,
which provides small grants for the modest
“seed” development of research ideas that
ideally will help leverage additional funding
from outside sources over time. Among the
tools offered to faculty is access to InfoEd, a website that lists
more than 35,000 funding opportunities. Under Spinner’s
earlier guidance, OSP offered workshops on research
12 TOURO LINKS I SPRING 2013