Wright Center’s Elizabeth Fortune joins national faculty training research administrators
A three-year appointment to NCURA places VCU expertise into the national network that trains research administrators across the country.
Elizabeth Fortune, MBA, administrative director of VCU’s C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research, has been appointed to the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) Traveling Workshop Faculty for a three-year term.
The appointment, approved by NCURA’s Board of Directors following a national application and review process by the association’s Professional Development Committee, positions Fortune as a national instructor. Beginning in 2027, she will travel to research institutions across the country to teach NCURA’s Level I: Fundamentals of Sponsored Projects Administration workshop. Her term runs from January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2029.
“I am honored to be selected as a member of NCURA’s Traveling Workshop Faculty because NCURA plays such an important role in strengthening the research administration profession nationally,” Fortune said. “Sponsored projects administration is often invisible to people outside the field, but it is essential to helping investigators move strong ideas into funded research while protecting the institution and maintaining public trust. I look forward to teaching practical, real-world approaches that help research administrators support faculty, manage risk, and keep research moving forward.”
A national forum for a critical profession
NCURA is one of the central professional associations for research administration — the field responsible for managing the business, financial, regulatory, and compliance requirements that make externally funded research possible. Research administrators work at the intersection of research, finance, law, compliance, and institutional operations, helping universities interpret sponsor requirements, support investigators, strengthen institutional controls, and manage the full lifecycle of sponsored research.
For professionals in the field, NCURA provides education, peer networks, and shared standards. Its Traveling Workshop Faculty members do more than attend conferences; they teach the practices that shape how research administration is carried out across institutions.
What Fortune will teach
As faculty for the Level I workshop, Fortune will help research administrators understand how a sponsored research project moves from an investigator’s initial idea to a submitted proposal, then to an award, project management, closeout, and audit readiness.
The workshop gives participants a practical foundation in the business side of research. Topics include how grants and contracts differ, how proposal budgets are developed, how awards are reviewed and accepted, how research funds are managed, what compliance issues institutions must monitor, and what documentation is required to close out a project properly. Each faculty member teaches on average one to three sessions per year, based on institutional workshop requests.
National prominence for the Wright Center
Fortune’s appointment places Wright Center expertise directly into NCURA’s national professional development network — another marker of national prominence for the center and for VCU. Traveling Workshop Faculty members help teach the standards and practices that shape research administration across institutions, extending the reach of the work done at VCU well beyond a single campus.
Fortune’s selection reflects the Wright Center’s growing influence in research workforce development, clinical and translational research operations, and sponsored projects administration. The appointment also connects to broader efforts underway at VCU, including development of the Research Ecosystems undergraduate minor and national presentations on research administration workforce development.
Before teaching her first sessions, Fortune will complete NCURA’s traveling faculty orientation and observe both in-person and virtual workshops during 2026. She joins a faculty drawn from research institutions nationwide.
Please join the Wright Center in congratulating Elizabeth Fortune on this outstanding milestone.
Categories Impact, Mentorship, Staff