The Office of Research and Graduate Education (OR&GE) is pleased to announce the realignment of HSC Pre-Award grants administration services

The Office of Research and Graduate Education (OR&GE) is pleased to announce the realignment of Pre-Award grants administration services provided within the Health Sciences Center.  This realignment is coincident with Valerie Lemasters transitioning to a part-time status on July 1st.  Val has served as the Director for Pre-Award services at the HSC for the past 30+ years.  We are beyond grateful to Val for her years of dedication and direct leadership behind building the strong support system we have in place for pre-award services at the HSC. 

The new leaders moving into this support role share the same goals for providing an infrastructure with strong pre-award support.  The services provided by the OR&GE will not diminish in any way but will continue to grow under the new leadership to benefit the HSC community.  

Lana Yoho will serve as the Director of HSC Pre-and Post-Award Grants Administration.  Lana has a long history of providing both pre- and post-award administrative services in the HSC, and most recently serves as the Director of HSC Post-Award Grants Administration.  During her time in this role, she has also managed a variety of pre-award services including training of grant support staff HSC-wide on pre-award functions. 

Renee Lewis serves as Associate Director of HSC Pre-Award Grants Administration.  Renee joined the OR&GE in 2016 and serves as the lead approver for all HSC pre-award requests.  Prior to this position, Renee served as a Sponsored Programs Administrator in the Office of Sponsored Programs for 15 years.   Beginning July 1, Lana and Renee are the HSC contacts for all pre-award inquiries.  Both employees bring years of knowledge and service to the HSC to aide in their roles.  

Moving forward Lana will direct a team of grant administrators to expand support of pre- and post-award needs of our faculty, staff and students.  In preparation for these transitions, the OR&GE office has expanded its grant support staff to handle pre- and post-award service requests.  Our office has four Grant Administrator positions in addition to our leadership, and more recently hired a Grant Resource Associate to manage the workload. The OR&GE grant support team will continue to work with HSC departments and serve as the HSC liaison to the WVU Offices of Sponsored Programs and Sponsored Projects and Property Administration to facilitate HSC compliance with university, state and agency driven practices for applying for and administering sponsored projects.  The focus will remain providing education and regulatory guidance related to pre- and post-award administration of sponsored projects in the HSC.

Lana and Renee’s offices are located on the ground floor of Erma Byrd in rooms G-112 (Lana) and G-104 (Renee).  For questions regarding guidance on pre-award grants management, please contact Lana at ljyoho@hsc.wvu.edu or Renee at renee.lewis@hsc.wvu.edu.

Please join us in welcoming them into their expanded roles! 

The Office of Research and Graduate Education