Husky Heroes: Recognizing Those Who Serve Above and Beyond To Support Research
By Wilson Mazile, Summer 2023, NU-RESearch Quarterly
Our featured NU-RES Husky Hero for this Summer issue is Anne Magrath! Anne is the Senior Director – CENSSIS-ALERT-SENTRY-PROTECT Centers at the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. She has been working at Northeastern for 38 years and is a dedicated member of the NU-RES community. This section will showcase an interview with Anne and why she is our featured NU-RES Husky Hero for this Summer issue.
What is your background? Where were you before you started working here at Northeastern?
Growing up in East Boston and Winthrop, MA., I started here at Northeastern University in July 1985, and I have been here for 38 years. That is under four University Presidents, I guess I would consider myself as a lifelong employee. I have worked in Accounts Payable, Physics, Chemical Engineering, and have been in Gordon-CENSSIS since 2001 working with Professor Michael Silevitch, Professor Carey Rappaport, Professor Akram Alshawabkeh, Deanna Beirne, Kristin Hicks and so many other wonderful faculty and staff.
Could you briefly describe your current role here at Northeastern University?
Today, I am the Senior Director Finance CENSSIS-ALERT- SENTRY-PROTECT. I manage all the non-scientific aspects of center-related finances, operations, and administration management. I work on pre & post-award for many multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research awards along with other research projects, so I witness the cradle-to-grave lifecycle of grant management.
In 2001, I started working for The Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon- CenSSIS), which now is a graduated multi-university NSF Engineering Research Center. Its mission is to revolutionize the existing technology for detecting and imaging biomedical, environmental, or geophysical objects or conditions that lie under- ground or underwater or are embedded in the human body.
In 2008, the team transitioned to focus on the Emeritus ALERT (Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats) Center. A multi-university, Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence (COE), the ALERT Center seeks to conduct transformational research, develop technology, and provide educational development to improve effective characterization, detection, mitigation, and response to explosives-related threats facing the country and the world.
In 2010, the team was awarded the National Institute of Environmental Health Studies (NIEHS) P42 PROTECT (Puerto Rico Test Site for Exploring Contamination Threats) Center. PROTECT is a multi-project, multi-institution collaboration that involves five primary institutions and five collaborators. The PROTECT Center studies exposure to environmental contamination in Puerto Rico and its contribution to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth (less than 37 completed weeks of gestation). Rates of preterm birth and infant mortality in Puerto Rico are among the highest of all US states and territories.
In 2021, the team transitioned to focus on SENTRY (Soft Target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat Reality), a multi-institution Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence. Led by Northeastern University, SENTRY combines the strengths of three emeritus Centers of Excellence. SENTRY envisions the Virtual Sentry Framework as a real-time decision support system enabling actionable situational awareness leading to more effective threat assessment, preparedness, mitigation, and response for soft targets and crowded places.
I have also worked on pre-award and post-award sides for the Center for Research on Early Childhood Exposure and Development (CRECE), Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO), NSF Engineering PLUS and many other big awards.
Over the years, we still have many of the same team members and have had a wonderful opportunity to see the University grow. Professor Silevitch was the first professor to win an ERC at Northeastern and Professor Akram Alshawabkeh was the first engineering professor to win a NIEHS P42 award. I think much more research has been able to come to the University because of these awards. It is a great honor to work with this amazing group.
Could you briefly describe your typical day-to-day on the job?
That depends, I may have an agenda for the day, but things always seem to pop up to change my plan. Faculty and staff come to me when they need assistance with various tasks. It could be preparing a budget for a proposal, handling a post-award transaction, or many other administrative tasks that may come up and need immediate attention. My days are quite busy multi-tasking on numerous tasks, but I love working on all my projects, so I just rearrange my day to get the work done.
What is something you are proud of, and in what ways do you believe your work tends to go unnoticed by the broader Campus/NU-RES Community?
I feel that my work gets noticed as I am constantly receiving ‘thank yous’ for the work I do. It is a great working relationship and that is why I am still here. When you really enjoy working with an amazing group of people, you feel a sense of camaraderie. We have all been in this together for so long and we are an awesome team. I am incredibly proud of my team and working with them is a great honor. In CenSSIS and PROTECT we are a family, and they will not let you leave. We have excellent working relationships with everyone on the projects. You must make it a community when working on big multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research awards. We work so inclusively within the entire research community that you would not even know which member belongs to which University.
I pride myself in assisting PIs with preparing grant proposals and budgets and working on the post-award side of the awards. They just need to ask me for help, and I always say, “Sure, I can help!” It is about realizing their vision and wanting to help them achieve their goals. That is how I got my position at Gordon-CENSSIS; I was asked to help with their first NSF Site Visit back in 2001 and then I got hired for the Accounting Manager position. I really was not looking for a new position at the time, but I saw an amazing group and wanted to be part of the team.
Before the University started growing, I could park my car in the Hayden parking lot which is now the library. Back then, Northeastern was considered a commuter school, and now it is a Tier 1 and Global institution. I love the growth I have seen over the years and the opportunities it has given to so many people. Northeastern has hired many people over the past years to extend our faculty and administrative capacity. I am constantly amazed at the growth and positive change in our processes.
What does it mean to you to be working at/with NU-RES? How would you describe the overall impact that individual NU-RES entities like yours have brought to the University?
I work with numerous people in NU-RES to make everything come together whether it is pre-award, post-award, sub-award or compliance teams. I feel we have a great relationship; we are all in this together and work for the same team! I always extend invitations to NU-RES when we have on campus events so that they can get a better understand- ing of the Center’s missions. Thirty-plus years ago, we could not offer as much administrative assistance to PIs as we can today. I even remember when OSP now NU-RES was paper driven and encompassed only five employees.
What are hobbies you like to do outside of work?
I have lived in New Hampshire for the past 25 years, now living on the Contoocook River and nearby the mountains and lakes. I enjoy kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding during the summer months, skiing during the winter months, hiking, biking, and playing board games with my family and friends. My two new favorite board games are Skyjo and Splendor. Recently, I have taken up wake surfing on the lake but need a lot more lessons to master the sport. It is especially important to have a work-life balance and I always try to fit some activity into my day.
