Congratulations to Glinda Davidson, the 2017 recipient of the LPL Outstanding Staff Award!

Glinda is a longtime member of the LPL administrative staff, with nearly 30 years of service to the department.  She began her career at LPL in 1988 as a Business Office Clerk, advancing to Associate Accountant in 1990. From 1997-2008, Glinda supported the Boynton group and other faculty as an Administrative Associate. She continued supporting faculty as a Senior Program Coordinator before becoming an Administrative Supervisor and Budget Analyst in 2013, and then moving into the role of Grants and Contracts Manager with the LPL Business Office soon after. Her many responsibilities include review and approval of grant submissions, budget changes, no-cost extensions, and grant correspondence, as well as pre-award and post-award compliance. Glinda performs cost projections and meets regularly with the faculty and principal investigators to avoid project deficits and resolve problems. Her work extends beyond preparing and managing budgets—she helps to ensure funding continuity for students, post-doctoral researchers, faculty, and staff. Despite the frustrations that Glinda might encounter in a day she is unfailingly courteous and cooperative. She overcomes the obstacles with a smile every day.

In addition to her responsibilities as the Grants Manager, Glinda also supervises several administrative associates and two members of the business office staff. She is recognized as an outstanding supervisor and a great mentor and coach. Glinda always makes herself available to the staff regardless of other pending priorities.

In the words of one faculty member, "I don't know what my group would do without her...She enables me to be successful." Another faculty member summarizes Glinda's work in this way: "With Glinda, it is not just about balancing the books, it is about helping people and ensuring that they are well taken care of and secure in their lives. That is a tremendous responsibility and she goes out of her way to identify potential issues well in advance to make sure that everything works out for our academic ‘family’."

Glinda's outstanding work previously earned her the staff award in 2000.