Veronica Wald joined the staff of NORC as Deputy Director of Academic Research Centers in 2009. Wald's expertise includes grant proposal development, research administration, and general administration in an academic environment. She brings long experience working with faculty and staff to NORC's business and research relationships with the University of Chicago and other academic institutions.
Wald's career as a research administator started in the Department of Surgery at the University of Chicago where she coordinated clinical trials of pharmaceuticals and diagnostic devices. In 1986 she was appointed Administrative Director of the General Clinical Research Center, a large and complex federally-funded core facility in the Biological Sciences Division of the University. At the GCRC she managed non-patient care operations, including research support activities, educational programs, human resources, and facilities. She oversaw successful grant renewals totalling $33 million; overhauled all fiscal, record-keeping, and administrative functions; developed methods to recover costs of conducting industry-sponsored research that became the national standard, and conceived, designed, and wrote all content for the Center's first Web site.
Her experiences during her 15 year tenure in that role have been particularly valuable in the positions she has held since, including most recently before coming to NORC, Associate Director of the Center for Population Economics a the University's Booth School of Business. While at the CPE, she had major responsibility for shepherding federal grant proposals to successful conclusions, managed four research facilities in two cities, and organized numerous small- and medium-sized academic conferences. Her main achievements included reorganizing the Center's fiscal management, introducing cost controls, overseeing a four-fold increase in funding during her first years in the position, and introducing effective new emphases on progress reporting.
Wald is a member of Society of Research Administrators (SRA) International, serving in 2004 and 2005 as international conference planning committee member and as a presenter at 2005 and 2009 annual meetings. She was also a member of Society of Administrative Managers (General Clinical Research Centers), serving as President in 1997-1998 and President-elect/Secretary-Treasurer in 1996-1997.