Meet The Region IV Faculty

I do it all, or at least it feels like I do. This is what I love about sponsored reach. Every day seems to be different and working through a complex challenge gives me a rewarding sense of accomplishment. My main responsibility is to lead a group of outstanding RAs (that truly are the experts) that do research development, preaward, postaward, compliance, and training. My first love and expertise I feel is postaward compliance. I learned everything I know because of cost transfers. To know if a cost transfer was allowed, I read lots of award terms and conditions and asked a lot of questions. Learning all the 'it depends' was rewarding, fun, and challenging. As a instructor I want to pass on that feeling to others by making session engaging and fun.

Katherine Durben, MSW, is the Executive Director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Marquette University.  She began her career writing proposals for a non-profit organization and now has over 30 years of research administration experience. Kathy’s current responsibilities include management of pre-award and post-award activities as well as other compliance issues such as conflicts of interest and responsible and ethical conduct of research. Her true passion is taking an idea, getting it funded, and watching it grow. 

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Roger Wareham has been the director of the Office of Grants and Research at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay since August 2019. He has been in research administration since Nov. 2000, primarily at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs). During 2014-15, he served an Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignment as a Grant Policy Specialist in the Policy Office at the National Science Foundation. Roger’s focus is on the full Research Administration lifecycle. He is a 2025 recipient of NCURA’s Julia Jacobson Distinguished Service Award, a graduate of the NCURA Executive Leadership Program and serves as an NCURA Peer Reviewer. 

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As a PhD trained Research Administrator my areas of interest revolve around full life cycle at the department level.  My expertise lies in the college of medicine and clinically based departments.  I have NIH and DOD federal experience as well as foundational research grants.  I’m learning more within my current role about clinical research and industry sponsored clinical trials.

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I am the Grant & Contracts Manager for the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota. I have over 18 years of research administration experience in the department doing cradle-to-grave service and in a central sponsored projects office role. I like being a traveling faculty for the basics workshop because I get to help ease the transition for newer research administrators.

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She has responsibilities that include overseeing proposal compliance, training in research administration pre- and post-award, serving on project lead teams for improvements in the research administration processes, crafting school policy, serving on governance of the university electronic system, and leading the initiative to develop research metrics within the school.  At the school level, she serves as the main liaison with the departments for research administration situations that go beyond the ordinary and require creative solutions. Her favorite answer is always "It depends."

Heather began attending NCURA in 1995 and since has been active in both region and national activities. She has been a regular workshop and session presenter at many NCURA conferences. Her presentations span pre-award, post-award, research metrics, staff hiring/training issues, and professional development.  She has also had the privilege of supporting several international universities in their research administration capacity building.