FDP Call for Nominations – Administrative Co-Chair

10/3/23
Nominations Open
10/31/23
Nominations Close
11/13/23
Nominees announced
11/13/23
Voting Opens
11/30/23
Voting Closes
12/6/23
Results Announced

Date: November 12, 2023

Dear FDP Administrative Representatives,

Thank you for submitting your nominations for the FDP Administrative Co-chair. Three people were nominated for the role and were given the opportunity to accept or decline the nomination. We had one candidate accept their nomination. Alex Albinak, who is currently finishing her first term as the Administrative Co-Chair, has agreed to run for a second term.

Only a member institution’s official Administrative Representative can vote in this election and each representative is given one vote. We will be using an electronic ballot (Qualtrics) for our election and all responses are confidential. To view Alex Albinak’s biography and vision for the FDP, please visit our elections webpage. If you have any questions or concerns, please email elections@thefdp.org

The timeline and process for the Administrative Co-chair election is:

Candidate’s statements will be posted on the FDP website on November 13th.
Electronic ballots are sent to each FDP member institution’s official administrative representative on November 13, 2023 and voting opens.
- Voting for the Administrative Co-Chair is limited to the official admin representative from each FDP member institution.
Voting will close at 5:00 m. local time on Thursday, November 30, 2023.
The results will be announced to the Executive Committee in early December 2023 and will be shared with the broader membership via our main listserv.
The Co-chair’s three-year term will take effect in January

The Administrative Co-Chair position requires a significant time commitment and extensive expertise in research administration. This is a significant opportunity to serve our FDP research community and engage with university and federal representatives in an unparalleled

capacity. The Co-Chairs of the FDP are elected for three-year terms. Individuals can serve in these positions for two consecutive terms (up to six years).

The candidate’s role includes the following responsibilities:

Serves as Co-Chair of the Executive Committee
Works closely with the FDP Faculty Co-Chair, the Executive Director, the GUIRR representative, and GUIRR staff, and the FDP Committee Chairs, Subcommittees and Working Groups to further FDP’s goals.
Co-Chairs and attends all FDP
Works with the Faculty Co-Chair, FDP Executive Director, and Executive Committee members on the development of meeting agendas
Participates in Executive Committee conference calls and ad hoc conference calls with various FDP committees.
Participates in the preparation and facilitation of all formal communications and publications of the FDP.
In collaboration with the Faculty Co-Chair provides guidance and oversight to the FDP Executive Director
Serves as an ex officio member of all FDP Committees and Working Groups
Provides guidance and oversight to the FDP Committees and Working Groups
On behalf of the FDP, oversees and endorses (upon approval by the Executive Committee) all formal communications and publications of the FDP.
Represents the FDP at professional, university, and federal agency
Interacts on behalf of the FDP with external groups including, but not limited to, OSTP, OMB, NCURA, SRA, and COGR
Represents the FDP as GUIRR Council Associate, attends GUIRR Council meetings and reports on the status of FDP activities.
Serves on the FDP Foundation Board of Directors

Thank you,

Maria Koszalka, MS, MBA

Executive Director

Federal Demonstration Partnership

mkoszalka@nas.edu

Candidate Bios

Alexandra M. Albinak
Associate Vice Provost for Research Administration
Johns Hopkins University
November 2023

Alexandra M. Albinak (Alex) serves as the Associate Vice Provost for Research Administration at Johns
Hopkins University, supporting the efforts of faculty members across the university in securing and
managing funding for their research endeavors. With over three decades of experience in research
administration, she offers leadership and strategic guidance to the university’s research administration
and compliance functions. Her accomplishments in these roles are marked by a consistent drive to
transform research administration by streamlining and optimizing operations, resulting in significant
improvements including creating a unified and highly functional central office at the university,
implementing a new state‐of‐the‐art pre‐award proposal system, and establishing processes for
international research and educational engagements. In addition to being an integral part of Johns
Hopkins University’s research functions, Alex plays a central role at the national level. She is the Federal
Demonstration Partnership’s (FDP) Administrative Representative for the university and has served as
the FDP Co‐chair since January 2021. Prior to becoming FDP Co‐chair, she served as member of the
Executive Committee and co‐chair of both the Contracts and Research Compliance Committees. She is
also a member of the Research Security and Intellectual Property Committee of the Council on
Governmental Relations (COGR) and has previously been a member of the COGR Board of Directors and
Executive Committee. Alex is past chair of the National Council of University Research Administrators
(NCURA) Region II and has participated in NCURA as workshop faculty, moderator, and speaker.
Previous positions in research administration include Associate Dean for Research Administration at the
Bloomberg School of Public Health within the university and Assistant Vice President for Research
Administration and Advancement at the University of Maryland. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree
from Towson University, a Master of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University, and a Juris
Doctorate from the University of Baltimore. She is also a member of the Maryland State Bar.

Candidate Vision Statement

Alexandra M. Albinak
FDP Co‐chair Vision Statement
11‐6‐2023

Just over three years ago, I submitted a candidate Vision Statement to describe what I believed should
be the top priorities that would strengthen FDP and ensure its enduring and significant impact on the
nation’s research infrastructure would continue. It was in June 2020, only three months into the COVID
pandemic and so much was still unknown about how universities (and the world) would weather this
crisis. At that time, I was witnessing a massive mobilization of the research community that I had never
seen throughout my 30‐year career in research administration. Faculty from all disciplines came
together to solve this existential health crisis, administrators rallied in a new remote environment to
ensure that all critical funding came through and reached the investigators without delay, and federal
agencies challenged the status quo to identify all measures that could be taken to reduce administrative
burden to accelerate the much‐needed groundbreaking discoveries that would end the crisis. It was
through this lens that led me to describe a vision for preserving and strengthening FDP’s role in
streamlining the administration of federally sponsored research. If the research world could mobilize so
quickly, so could FDP!

With a substantial increase in membership, actively engaging participation would be key to maximizing
FDP’s impact. With rapid change, FDP would need to keep abreast of current issues and opportunities
and have mechanisms for disseminating the information. And, with seemingly never‐ending new
compliance requirements, FDP would need to continue to develop tools and resources to be used by
membership. The future was unknown and attempting to anticipate the needs and opportunities of a
newly expanded membership organization at first seemed a bit daunting. However, I was confident that
embracing this change while focusing on the fundamental strengths of FDP would be effective in
furthering FDP objectives.

FDP has entered a new era but is well equipped to handle the unknowns…Over the next several
years under my leadership, the FDP will continue to reexamine and redesign so that we can
effectively address and discover together academic, administrative, and technical best practices
within the U.S. research infrastructure.

Reexamine and redesign is exactly what we did.
Unable to travel and convene in person, FDP was forced to move to virtual meetings for 2 ½ years, only
just having our first in‐person meeting in three years this past May. The virtual meetings were made
from necessity, but ultimately proved to be instrumental in our ability to engage our members more
broadly, with meetings growing from approximately 300 to over 700 this past September. We formed a
working group, Reimagining FDP Meetings, that examined what works and what we should anticipate
for future meetings. Recognizing that participation of its member is vital to the success of FDP, virtual
meetings and in person meetings will continue. We will continue to hold a minimum of two meetings
virtually to ensure all who wish to attend are able to do so, regardless of travel budget. We will also
hold off‐cycle virtual webinars on topics and projects of interest and explore opportunities for additional
in‐person working meetings.

When the Executive Director position became vacant, we took the opportunity to reexamine what an
organization of 217 members and 10 federal agencies needed, which led to the recruitment of our new
Executive Director, Maria Koszalka. Under Maria’s leadership, FDP is poised to expand federal
participation, streamline operations, and strongly support the volunteers in effectively implementing
demonstrations. Transformative changes are taking place, and if re‐elected, I would look forward to
ensuring the success of these changes.

Early in my tenure, we formed a working group to explore how best to find and engage volunteers. The
communications committee successfully unveiled a new interactive website that allows committees to
post for volunteer openings, and volunteers can explore and submit their candidacy. In addition, a new
membership engagement platform system will be implemented in the next few months that will further
enhance membership information and communications.

Ensuring the FDP message is widely communicated is a key ingredient to ensuring the success of Phase
VII. As a result, a comprehensive communications plan was developed that has led to a brand new and
improved website, and new resources are being developed that will ensure that our successes are
broadly publicized. Improved communications will also serve to further expand federal participation ‐
we have identified a new Prime Federal Agency Representative, who is actively working with federal
agencies, both members and non‐members, to identify opportunities for engagement with FDP. We are
also convening virtual and in‐person federal agency meetings to discuss their questions, concerns, and
ideas for FDP demonstrations.

As mentioned, keeping abreast of current issues and opportunities is extremely important. We have
formed a strong program committee with expansive expertise in all facets of research. Members
develop relevant and engaging meeting agendas, covering everything from the threat to science from
the war in Ukraine, to exploring the latest improvements to Research.gov. In addition, increased
national attention to issues of science and security are readily being addressed by focusing on relevant
hot topics, convening listening sessions with our federal partners, and identifying or developing tools
and strategies that will minimize the burden associated with staying compliant. As the requirements for
NSPM‐33 compliance become clear, FDP will continue to engage with key federal stakeholders and is
poised to serve as a vital partner in testing and implementing the standards. Finally, over the last year
FDP has had the opportunity to engage with NIH to pilot the implementation of the new Data
Management and Sharing policy. Through a collaborative effort of research institutions and the
National Institutes of Health, FDP is serving as a test bed for evaluating sample DMSP templates and will
be entering into the Phase II costing considerations pilot soon. It is hoped that the outcome will lead to
fewer variations to the NIH DMSP requirements and effective costing practices.
These are just some examples of the positive change and progress we have made in the past three
years. Soon, FDP will be releasing an evaluation report on the FDP’s impact for the first half of Phase VII.
This will serve as a base line so that moving forward, the impact of activities will be measured and
communicated broadly to the research community. If elected, I would spend the next three years
working with colleagues from across the organization to further strengthen volunteerism and
engagement and in executing and measuring demonstrations to ensure great success is accomplished
and documented for Phase VII.

I have been an active participant in FDP for over two decades and continue to strongly believe in the
FDP mission and vision. Working in this important role has confirmed my belief that the strength of the
partnership can only be achieved through the collective effort of hundreds of volunteers. Each
volunteer is key to moving FDP closer to the goal of researchers doing research, not administration. It
would be an honor to continue to lead FDP as Co‐chair, working with exceptional colleagues from across
the country to shape the US research enterprise.
Thank you for considering me for this opportunity.

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FDP Call for Nominations – Administrative Co-Chair

10/3/23

10/31/23

11/13/23

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11/30/23

12/6/23

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