{"id":194945,"date":"2021-04-15T05:05:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T09:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=194945"},"modified":"2021-11-04T12:22:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T16:22:57","slug":"staff-members-creativity-and-problem-solving-proved-invaluable","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2021\/staff-members-creativity-and-problem-solving-proved-invaluable\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Member&#8217;s &#8216;Creativity and Problem-Solving Proved Invaluable&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin is-style-default has-media-focus-right-bottom\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">staff profile<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStaff Member&#8217;s &#8216;Creativity and Problem-Solving Proved Invaluable&#8217;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Bradford Francis, director of administration for the Department of Biostatistics, has developed new financial systems and workflows since joining SPH in December 2019.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">April 15, 2021<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/corinne-steinbrenner\/\">Corinne Steinbrenner<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>In December 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/bradford-francis\/\">Bradford Francis<\/a> joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/about\/departments\/biostatistics\/\">Department of Biostatistics<\/a> at the School of Public Health as its new administrative director, tasked with managing the department\u2019s $2.8 million operating budget and overseeing 40 researchers and their grant portfolios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within months, the COVID pandemic upended work in the department, putting Francis\u2019 administrative skills to the&nbsp;test.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"362\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2021\/04\/brad-francis-headshot.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-194941\"\/><figcaption>Bradford Francis<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBrad\u2019s&nbsp;creativity and problem-solving skills proved invaluable, making it possible for us to switch to remote work seamlessly,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/josee-dupuis\/\">Jos\u00e9e\u202fDupuis<\/a>, professor and chair of biostatistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Francis brings to SPH experience in grant and financial management\u2014and considerable talent with spreadsheets\u2014after serving in posts at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Soon after he arrived, he developed new systems and workflows for tracking salary distributions and grant portfolios in the department.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As department chair, Dupuis says the new systems are incredibly useful, especially when trying to identify faculty members with the bandwidth to take on new research projects or teaching assignments. As a principal investigator herself, she has used the tools to make projections that helped her decide how to allocate her own time and research funding. \u201cThe up-to-date portfolio information has allowed me to investigate multiple scenarios to weather the pandemic,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making his colleagues lives easier by thinking a step ahead is a skill Francis honed early in his professional life. As his first job out of college, he staffed the front desk at Boston\u2019s Ritz-Carlton hotel. The customer-service training drilled into him the importance of trying to anticipate people\u2019s needs\u2014whether they\u2019re guests of a high-end hotel or faculty members at a research University.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Francis is now turning his attention to the academic side of the department, looking for ways to streamline work for the department\u2019s academic staff. \u201cIt will be a unique challenge because I don\u2019t know much about that side of the house,\u201d he says. But he says he\u2019s always happy to learn, and looks forward to combining his staff\u2019s academic expertise with his own management skills to see what efficiencies they can create.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to revamping systems and processes within the department\u2014and lending a hand in the Department of Epidemiology while it was understaffed\u2014Francis has reorganized the department\u2019s shared server to make files easier for everyone to find and use. He has also made it a priority to create growth opportunities for his direct reports, encouraging them to learn new responsibilities and take ownership of new tasks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, Francis says, his goal is to make administrative tasks as seamless as possible for students, researchers, and faculty, \u201cso that they can do the best job that they can\u2014and focus on what they\u2019re here to focus on.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In December 2019, Bradford Francis joined the Department of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health as its new administrative director, tasked with managing the department\u2019s $2.8 million operating budget and overseeing 40 researchers and their grant portfolios. Within months, the COVID pandemic upended work in the department, putting Francis\u2019 administrative skills to the&nbsp;test.&nbsp; \u201cBrad\u2019s&nbsp;creativity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":194941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"staff profile","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[3638,503,3620],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3770],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[3769],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/194945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194945"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/194945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194956,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/194945\/revisions\/194956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194945"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=194945"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=194945"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=194945"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=194945"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=194945"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=194945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}