Settle Named Associate Vice Chancellor for Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance

Sherrie Settle has been promoted to associate vice chancellor for the Office of Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance Services (SPARCS). 

Settle has served as the director of sponsored programs for NC State University since February 2016. And for the better part of this past spring semester, she also managed the interim responsibilities of director for research compliance during a crucial transition. 

“This promotion reflects Sherrie’s years of dedication to the university, and it comes with added responsibilities that will allow her to continue moving SPARCS — and, in turn, NC State research’s enterprise — forward,” says Mladen Vouk, vice chancellor for research and innovation.

In Settle’s time as director of sponsored programs, the university has seen an average of roughly 3,500 proposals submitted each year — coupled with increases in both the dollar value of those proposals and the amount of funding ultimately awarded. NC State ended fiscal year 2020 with nearly $400 million in sponsored awards, an almost 15% increase from 2016. And as our researchers have continued to pursue more large-scale, complex interdisciplinary projects, last year saw $1.6 billion worth of proposals submitted — up from just over a billion in 2016. Additionally, the university has inked some 60 master research agreements in the past five years, with both public and private sponsors.

This steady growth in NC State’s research enterprise is, in part, thanks to the efforts Settle and her team in SPARCS have made to streamline administrative processes between the central offices and research offices at the college or department level. For example, by establishing expectations for the timely processing of awards, agreements and project accounts; expanding delegated authorities within the college research offices; and, in March 2020, swiftly and seamlessly transitioning to paperless business processes to accommodate the pandemic-induced shift to remote work.

“Research administration is a team sport, and the team at NC State are gold medalists,” Settle says. “I’m grateful and proud that ORI saw fit to select a career research administrator for this opportunity.”

Settle brings 29 years of experience in research administration to her new position, including roles with Virginia Tech, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Settle earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and holds an MHA and MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.