The Ph.D. Program in Strategic Leadership and Administrative Studies

FAQ

Marywood University FAQ FAQ ADMISSIONS QUESTIONS What are the admissions requirements? A Master's degree and an Undergraduate degree from regionally accredited colleges or universities. An official graduate transcript from each college, university, and/or professional school attended.  Two (2) letters of recommendat...

Meet Our Student: Heather Messina

Heather is a senior contract and grant specialist at Lehigh University’s College of Health. As the senior contract and grant specialist, Heather is responsible for activities related to the life cycle of sponsored program administration, such as identifying sources of funding, proposal preparation and contract management, as well as providing financial support to faculty, staff, and students. She works closely with Associate Dean for Research, principal investigators and ORSP to manage grants and contracts. She also brings over nine years of institutional knowledge to the college, having made the internal transfer.

Heather has deep pre- and post- award research administration experience and throughout her career has demonstrated leadership by training and mentoring new hires. During her time at ORSP, she was responsible for pre- and post- award tasks, from proposal preparation through grant award for several engineering departments and an interdisciplinary program. She also has contributed to developing and revising administrative processes.

Prior to her work at Lehigh, Heather was a grant specialist for the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, Pa. There, she was responsible for research development and cultivating relationships with agency contacts, industry partners and other key stakeholders in support of medical research.

In addition to being a student at our Ph.D.. program, Heather is also a graduate of Marywood University's Master of Public Administration program (graduated in 2011).

Heather concludes with the following: "I warmly remember my years as an undergraduate (UG '08) and graduate student (G '11) at Marywood University. The influence of lifelong learning and curiosity began early as a student educated by the Sisters of IHM at St. Rose Elementary School and Sacred Heart High School in Carbondale, PA (2004). As a returning scholar, I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the Administration & Leadership at Marywood University. The opportunity to be part of an online, cross-disciplinary Ph.D. program is both rare and exciting. My previous degrees from Marywood have opened the door to a solid career path for me in research administration, and I am hopeful that obtaining this advanced degree will allow me to take my career to the next level as an administrator in higher education."