Becky Musselman

Helping researchers and research support staff navigate the sponsored funding process is Becky Musselman’s goal as the director of the Office of Sponsored Programs Administration (OSPA). She leads the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) unit that approves Iowa State researchers’ project proposals prior to submission to sponsors and negotiates and accepts new externally funded awards and amendments.

Since 1993, Becky has been involved with keeping the numbers straight at Iowa State in a variety of positions, most of them in research administration. She’s held the positions of internal auditor, sponsored programs accountant, business manager at the Institute for Physical Research and Technology, manager of sponsored programs, and associate controller prior to taking her current position as OSPA director in 2014. She also worked as a revenue agent for the IRS Exempt Organizations division.

Although she knows numbers, what Becky really likes is working with people. She enjoys finding answers to researchers’ questions and solutions to the challenges they encounter in the world of sponsored funding. Becky is always looking for ways to improve processes and information systems, and she sees the most important parts of her job as improving the research infrastructure, reducing burdens, and implementing efficiencies for researchers and research support staff at Iowa State.

What piece of Iowa State research instrumentation would you most like to spend the day using?

“I’d like to spend a day in the Virtual Reality Applications Center seeing behind the scenes, observing how they take such large amounts of data and make it come to ‘virtual’ life!”

Becky can help with: Any questions about sponsored programs, including policies, procedures, and operations for submitting proposals, negotiating awards, and accepting awards.