Russell Brewer

Russell Brewer is Associate Vice President of the Office of Research Administration (“ORA”). Reporting jointly to the Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer and the Vice Provost and Dean of Research, Russell leads the central administrative unit of Stanford University that manages the lifecycle of sponsored research from proposal submission through award closeout as well as a number of  units that support the Stanford research enterprise.

The sponsored projects lifecycle can be divided into three primary phases:

1. Pre-award services to Stanford schools, centers, and institutes;
2. Contract negotiation and approval (except non-clinical, industry-sponsored contracts); and
3. Post-award financial services to all Stanford schools, centers, and institutes.

The supporting units manage

1. University facilities and administrative rate development, negotiation and application;
2. Sponsored billing and collection;
3. Property management;
4. Research financial reporting;
5. Service center policy and approval;
6. Audit coordination and resolution; and
7. Research financial compliance policy development in conjunction with the Dean of Research.

In addition to submitting nearly 4,000 new proposals annually, ORA manages more than 5,800 active sponsored projects as well as ensuring the financial compliance that preserves the ongoing viability of Stanford’s $1.3 billion research program. 

Russell’s career in research administration spans 27 years in both public and private university environments.  He joined Stanford in October 2009 as Associate Director of Sponsored Research and was promoted to Associate Vice President in May 2011. Prior to joining Stanford, Russell was Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs at Baylor University. In this role, he managed all externally sponsored programs; oversaw proposal processing, award negotiation and acceptance, and post-award project management; and was responsible for the development of a new electronic routing system for proposals, award acceptance, and management.  Prior to joining Baylor, he spent 18 years at Texas A&M University in a range of research administration roles in both pre- and post-award management.