Wanda Hutto, CRA
Director
(803) 576-6042
Email

Wanda Hutto is Research Development Director for the University of South Carolina (USC) Office of Research and Graduate Education. Her primary responsibility is to facilitate university-wide collaborative faculty teams to develop multimillion dollar multidisciplinary federal research proposals. As the Director, she has spearheaded efforts to obtain funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Homeland Security, Duke Endowment, and W.M. Keck Foundation totaling more than $400 million dollars.

In addition, she administers USC’s Research Funding Programs, which, overseen by a multi-disciplinary faculty Research Council, are designed to enhance research infrastructure and increase external application competitiveness, faculty collaborations, and undergraduate research. 

Ms. Hutto also directs the University’s response to special funding initiatives. These include the federal economic “stimulus” bill (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA) of February 2009 and the Coastal Resiliency Information Systems Initiative for the Southeast (CRISIS) of August 2005.  For ARRA, she coordinated a series of plenary meetings for administrators and faculty, led the creation and launch of the University’s Stimulus Web page resource, and assisted USC faculty in identifying funding opportunities and submitting proposals to attract an additional $151 million (from sponsoring agencies including NIH, DOE, DOJ, NEA, and the SC Dept. of Public Safety) for large biomedical and behavioral research efforts and campus infrastructure projects.  For CRISIS, she organized a National Summit showcasing USC researchers’ Hurricane Katrina-related investigations (recovery of natural processes and ecosystems; societal changes stemming from relocation of impacted residents and communities’ rebuilding) that attracted federal grants double the University’s investment.

Also, Ms. Hutto designs, implements, and supervises the GRANT (Gamecock Research Administrators Network and Training) certificate program to build competencies in basic research administration among USC faculty and staff.

During her tenure with USC, Ms. Hutto has attended the USC Masters of Business program and earned her national Certified Research Administrator (CRA) from the National Research Administrators Certification Council (NCURA).  Prior to joining USC, she spent nine years with the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) creating a water quality program that earned distinction as a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) national model and administering the Statewide Water Quality Program funded by a $15 million federal grant, which included training grants for sub-recipient management personnel from local and state governments, non-profit organizations, and the private sector. While at DHEC, Hutto completed the Associate Public Manager Program and was recognized as Employee of the Year in 1997.

Before relocating to Columbia, Hutto worked in the Professional Development Office of the College of Charleston after earning her Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1989.

Danielle McElwain, CRA
Training Manager
(803) 777-2885
Email

Danielle McElwain serves as the Research Development Manager for the University of South Carolina (USC), Office of Research and Graduate Education. Her primary responsibility is to facilitate and update the Gamecock Research Administrators Network Training (GRANT) training program which consists of 30 courses. GRANT includes faculty education workshops, hot topic discussion groups, staff education workshops and a comprehensive certificate program.  In her role as manager, Danielle has added e-learning courses to the GRANT curriculum. The first e-learning course, USCERA, was released in January 2007.

Danielle also assists with the facilitation of university-wide collaborative multi-million dollar multidisciplinary federal research proposals. In this role, she assists research teams in the development of collaborative proposals by working with the other members of the Research Development team to facilitates preliminary meetings among research units, assist with the identification of collaborators and development of partnerships, directs the proposal development process by creating timelines, organizing the proposal sections, and coordinating the proposal submission and interacts with sponsors to provide guidance.

During her tenure at USC, Danielle has earned her national Certified Research Administrator Certification (CRA) from the Research Administrators Certificate Council and presented at several national and regional National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) conferences. She has also served on the Planning Committee for the 2009 Region III NCURA meeting and is currently a member of the Evaluation Subcommittee of the Professional Development Committee for NCURA.

Before joining USC, Danielle was employed with Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky where she also earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Masters in Business Administration. During her five-year tenure there in Sponsored Programs, she managed electronic information and databases, searched for funding opportunities, performed pre-award proposal reviews and post award grants management, and held departmental administration responsibilities.

Richard White, CRA
Technical Writer
(803) 777-1568
Email

Richard White is a technical writer for the Office of Research Development. He joined the University of South Carolina after a 20-year career in marketing and public relations in both state government and publicly-held Fortune 500 health care, manufacturing, and distribution corporations. Richard earned his bachelors and masters degrees in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of South Carolina, and his MBA from the University of Memphis. A GRANT program graduate, he is also certified in research administration (CRA) by the national Research Administrators Certification Council, and has served as an adjunct professor in the USC College of Mass Communication and Information Studies.