July 13th: Critical Components of a Successful Program Coordinator

Click here to view the July 13th INTEREACH webinar, featuring NRT Program Coordinators Nicole Scott (Iowa State University), Sara Mata (Oklahoma University), Jyothi Kumar (Michigan State University), Toccara Houston (Georgia Tech University) and Kristin Brethova (Indiana University). This webinar provides an overview of the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) as a program designed to encourage innovation and interdisciplinary, sustainable graduate programs. Our speakers describe the characteristics and roles filled by a Program Coordinator, and highlight that despite the uniquity of this job title in academia, the role rarely matches the job description. Program Coordinators are responsible for a wide variety of tasks that require them to “change hats” throughout the day and throughout the lifecycle of the program. This confluence of factors drove our speakers to come up with three distinct components to achieving success in their roles, namely: creativity, change agent, and community building. The speakers end by highlighting some challenges that a Program Coordinator may encounter, which members of our INTEREACH CoP may resonate with. Learn more about the work of our speakers in their affiliated NRT’s at @CNS-NRT; @nrt_impacts; @GT_RoboARMS; @aero_eco; @p3iastate.