The Office of Research and Creative Activity welcomes Amanda Wilkinson, McKenna Tysdal, and Josh Babicz to the team. Amanda will serve as the NDSU research integrity and compliance administrator and McKenna is the new Business Development and Licensing Administrator. Josh has been working as a summer intern on the research informatics team.

Amanda has worked at NDSU since 2013 and served most recently as a research specialist in plant sciences. She earned a BS in forensics with a minor in chemistry at University of Central Florida and then worked at the University of Michigan’s biochemistry lab as research assistant and manager. In her new role, Amanda will be responsible for the institutional biosafety committee (IBC) operations and conflict of interest (COI) reviews at NDSU.

McKenna is the new business development and licensing administrator. Previously, she worked with the RCA research integrity and compliance group while earning her BS in business administration at NDSU. Most recently, McKenna has worked in contract administration and licensing/permitting in the hospitality industry. In her role, McKenna will be responsible for receipt and recording of invention disclosures, federal compliance for reporting, and tracking of inventions developed with federal funds.

Originally from Barrington, Illinois, Josh is a management information systems student at NDSU. As a starting tight end for the Bison football team, Josh received the Missouri Valley Football Conference Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award in 2018 and was on the MVFC Honor Roll for 2017 and 2018. He plans to begin his MBA this fall and then hopes to either continue his football career or pursue a career in data analytics or IT.

During his internship this summer, Josh has worked on the PowerBI reports shared by RCA. RCA research informatics analyst Christy Gallagher-Lein, commented, “Josh has been a huge asset. His fresh, innovative ideas and up-to-date knowledge are proving to be invaluable.”