Staff Award for Excellence - Sue Macfarlane

Sue (left) with three sons and son's girlfriend

Research Administrator, Manager - Division of Nephrology

Nominator, Jason Ceo -  "Sue MacFarlane is Nephrology's treasure chest of financial and institutional knowledge that keeps our faculty's missions alive and well. Our Division's recent success and growth would not be possible without your daily impacts. Thank you." 

 

 

Work Performance

From Heather Ascani - the Business Director of the Kretzler lab:

"Sue is exceptional is so many ways that it is difficult to choose just one example of where she went above and beyond. However, one instance stands out. When Sue saw that I struggled each month with continual reallocation of our large team of 45+ employees’ effort distributed between our 50+ different funding streams, she recognized that I needed help. Without asking, Sue created a complex, yet user-friendly, excel spreadsheet tool that updates automatically and allows me to instantly see by project or by employee all effort allocations and to easily recognize where adjustments must be made. Sue saved me hours (perhaps days) every month thereafter in ensuring that this crucial work was done in the easiest, simplest, and most efficient manner. Her perceptiveness, creativity, work ethic, and flat-out kindness is more appreciated every day (most poignantly on the days where effort-allocation is at the top of my lengthy to-do list)."

Leadership

Over the past year, the Division has been faced with few financial crises, mostly due to Sue's oversight, but in one instance, we had a faculty member with a precarious financial situation who was waiting on the results of a proposal for a major grant. One of her accountants was embroiled in the development of financial projections and difficult conversations regarding his ability to fund his research team. During our weekly finance team meeting, the accountant was recounting what she had accomplished the prior week and the challenges that she had run into and this lead to an emotional moment on the call. Sue stepped in allowed the moment to subside and talked her through resetting so that she could think clearly, move forward, and evaluate some next steps to ensure the financial safety of the division and his team. In this instance, Sue led by using her working relationships with her team to overcome a type of obstacle towards accomplishing our team's goals. I was very proud of her seamless use of both pace and encouragement in a time of need.

Customer Service

From Dr. Laura Mariani:

"Sue's strength is that she is not only excellent at the financial budgeting aspects of her job, but she is also an advocate, problem solver and teacher which makes her an invaluable partner in post-award grant management. She never comes with a problem without several possible solutions and a well thought out rationale for her recommendations. This year, I am reaching the end of my K award with several options for next steps for funding. Sue met with me and we reviewed all options with the pros and cons, even ones I had not considered. That included a beautiful spreadsheet, as usual. She explained the process and next steps for each option, teaching me about the requirements of each one. She draws on her experience of supporting many junior faculty in this transition and really acted as a mentor with my best interest at heart. Every time I meet with her, I feel that I not only address the problem, but also are able to form a plan for the future and also learn about the grant life cycle. I feel immensely grateful to have Sue supporting me during this early and sometimes challenging career stage."

Process Improvement

In response to an issue caused by tracking accounting to-do's, Sue recognized a need to standardize task tracking across her team for transparency and accountability. Sue built a tracking system that her team has access to and they review progress together weekly. The result has been more efficient finance meetings, improved managerial oversight, and more exposure to up-to-date business tools for her effective veteran team.