COM employee of the month

Name: Rob Hansen

Title: Research Grants Administrator II

Hometown: Mondamin, Iowa

Talk about your job and what you like best about it: My position is fairly new in the college. I spent nearly 10 years in the Office of Sponsored Programs Administration. A few years ago, it was determined there was a need for someone within the UNMC College of Medicine who could serve as a centralized resource to assist faculty and staff across departments and divisions who don’t manage a large volume of research grants, which seemed like a perfect fit for me. I provide support and answer questions on anything within the grant life cycle from proposal preparation to close out. Eventually, the need exceeded what one person could handle, so my office has expanded to a team of three research administrators (including myself) and one research accountant. What I love about my position is I am given opportunities to learn about and work on a wide range of issues across campus that have a direct impact on growing research and improving processes.

List three things people may not know about you:

• In 2020 I retired as a Captain in the Iowa Army National Guard. I enlisted while I was in high school as an infantryman and eventually served in Iraq. When I returned home I was asked by my battalion commander to fill a shortage of Fire Support Officers for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan so I accepted a direct commission and spent the next year training to become a Field Artillery officer before being deployed to a small combat outpost on the Pakistan border.
• I love to travel. I caught the bug through my military service and have always been fascinated by other cultures. The most memorable place I have visited is Uganda where I whitewater rafted the Nile River, trekked through rainforests to see mountain gorillas and visited remote national parks to see animals I watched on Wild Kingdom as a kid. I also walked 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago pilgrims trail from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
• I earned my sailing license a few years ago in Greece but unfortunately it doesn’t get used much living in the Midwest.