Administrative Core

Director: Carolyn J Mattingly
Deputy Director: Detlef Knappe
Research Translation Coordinator: Sue Fenton
Program Manager: Denise Hall

The major functions of the Administrative Core will be to ensure coordination and efficient administrative and fiscal management of the Center to stimulate discovery-based knowledge and to facilitate research translation. Our vision for the Administrative Core is, therefore, that we will serve as enablers and integrators. In our enabling role, we will build on our existing strengths to provide a well coordinated and supportive transdisciplinary research environment to ensure that the research goals of our Center are met – to elucidate critical information about PFAS mechanisms of toxicity, bioaccumulation, human exposure and health effects, and remediation.

State-of-the-art technologies and analytical services in our Analytical Core (Core of Advanced Platform Technologies Used for Remediation and Exploration [CAPTURE]) will coordinate with our Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) to catalyze discoveries and preventive solutions to PFAS exposure. The Research Experience and Training Coordination Core (RETCC) will support high-quality, hands-on transdisciplinary enrichment opportunities that will equip the next generation of environmental scientists with the knowledge needed to address emerging environmental health concerns. A highly effective, multidirectional Community Engagement Core (CEC) will share information with affected communities about this important class of compounds, relationships between exposures and potential human health effects and possible remediation approaches, and empower its members and community partners to implement preventative measures. In our integrating role, we will build an environment that ensures frequent, regular cross talk among Projects and Cores and thus awareness of transdisciplinary research findings that will provide a basis for synthesis and translation of research to government and community stakeholders.

To ensure the success and integration of these components, the Administrative Core will be led by an interdisciplinary team with strong administrative and domain-specific expertise as well as established and substantive connections with government stakeholders. This Core will facilitate communication within and outside of the Center through: a Center website; social media; regular meetings among different constituents of the Center; retreats that include representation from the scientific and public communities interested in and affected by PFAS; targeted efforts to integrate and collaborate with other SRP Centers, local partnerships, and government stakeholders to cultivate sharing of data, methodologies, and technologies; and active leveraging of the many unique scientific, training, and engagement resources at NC State and ECU for data translation and technology transfer.

The Administrative Core will achieve its goals and establish an integrative infrastructure through the following specific aims.

Specific Aim 1: Provide strong leadership.

Provide strong leadership that will ensure efficient and effective administrative and fiscal management of all components of the Center.

Specific Aim 2: Provide systems, processes, and community engagement to improve understanding and information sharing.

Provide systems and processes that foster interaction and integration among research projects, translation initiatives, core usage, and community engagement to improve understanding and information sharing about PFAS exposure, underlying mechanisms of toxicity, bioaccumulation potential, and remediation.

Specific Aim 3. Implement mechanisms that will facilitate translation of discoveries.

Implement mechanisms that will facilitate translation of Center discoveries and broaden the impact of these findings at NC State, ECU, other SRP centers, and local and national stakeholders with the goal of protecting human health and addressing mandates of the broader Superfund program.