About ORD
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The goal of the Office of Research Development (ORD) is to sustain and grow research, scholarly, and creative excellence at MSU. ORD leads strategic initiatives, locates and disseminates funding opportunities, supports proposal development, organizes capacity-building trainings and events, and fosters collaboration and innovation across campus.
We are a central unit within the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, and available to partner with every department, college, center, institute, and unit seeking to strengthen and fund scholarly pursuits at MSU.
We help Bobcats more effectively develop their research ideas and visions, advocate for their scholarship, form collaborations and tap into existing resources, and ultimately rise to the top of increasingly complex and competitive funding environments. We can partner as much or as little as needed, from a project’s inception to getting a proposal over the finish line.
We are a highly qualified team specializing in team science and interdisciplinarity, science communication and research impact, and budget development, to name a few. We have extensive expertise working with federal sponsors, including NSF and NIH, and we leverage our educational training in geographical and social sciences, biology, and public administration to add systems-thinking, mixed methods, bench science, policy, and institutional expertise as appropriate.
Meet the Team
Liz Shanahan
Associate Vice President for Research Development
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Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Shanahan is the Associate Vice President for Research Development as well as a Professor in the Department of Political Science. As a public policy scholar, her research centers on how policy narratives influence public opinion and policy decisions. She is a co-architect of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), a popular and internationally renowned policy process theory. Her current application of the NPF is centered on risk communication, specifically the development of a narrative risk communication framework that situates scientific risk information in story form. Her research crosses multiple policy domains—zoonotic spillovers, natural hazards, human-wildlife conflict, and cyber security. She has been awarded over $6.5 million in research from National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies and foundations. She enjoys skiing and hiking in the mountains of Montana.
Nicole Motzer
Director
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Dr. Nicole Motzer is the Director of the Office of Research Development at Montana State University. Prior to this role, she served as the Assistant Director for Interdisciplinary Science at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). Trained in geographical sciences, Nicole now specializes in team science and interdisciplinary research. She has been awarded over $1 million in research grants from private and federal funders, and is driven to help others realize their own research goals through the support, training, and programming she provides.
Tracy Gatlin
Assistant Director
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Tracy Gatlin is the Assistant Director for the Office of Research Development at Montana State University. Tracy has approximately 10 years of proposal development experience as a prior Fiscal Manager for the Office of Sponsored Programs, and a Grant Administrator for the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. Additionally, Tracy is currently working towards a Master of Public Administration at Montana State University and serves as a voting member on the Institutional Review Board. She specializes in proposal budget preparation, NIH grants, and early career proposal development including training programs and fellowships.
Helaina Stergas
Research Development Specialist
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Dr. Helaina Stergas is a research development specialist in the Office of Research Development at Montana State University. She received her PhD in Biology at the University of Vermont, studying cellular neurodevelopment and biochemistry. During her education, she applied for and secured several institutional grants. She also helped develop multiple community engagement and science communication outreach platforms. Helaina’s passion lies in helping faculty and graduate students from diverse backgrounds successfully secure funding, ensuring an equal opportunity across MSU’s research enterprises.