Karin Scarpinato, Ph.D., senior associate vice president for Research at Florida Atlantic

Karin Scarpinato, Ph.D., senior associate vice president for Research at Florida Atlantic, oversees the strategic planning and operations of the central Division of Research. In addition, Scarpinato, also an affiliate faculty in the department of biology, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, oversees the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at FAU. She is a national APLU Council on Research Leadership Fellow, appointed in their 2018-2020 cohort. Scarpinato is the founding past president of the Florida Research Development Alliance, which aims to improve state-wide collaborations and best practices related to research development. She is also the founder of a Women in Research networking group of nationwide women associate and vice presidents for research that discusses best practices in their field.

Prior to joining FAU, Scarpinato was assistant provost for Research at the University of Miami. In Miami, she was charged with increasing and supporting research campus-wide, including attracting extramural support, internal and external collaborations and improving the research support infrastructures.

Prior to coming to Florida in 2014, Scarpinato was associate dean for Faculty and Research in the College of Science and Mathematics, and associate dean for Research “in Residence” in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Georgia Southern University. She was also tenured associate professor in the department of biology, conducting cancer research and teaching cancer-related courses. Her tasks included improving faculty-led research, improving research infrastructure and supporting undergraduate student research.

Prior to her tenure at Georgia Southern University, Scarpinato was an associate professor at Wake Forest University, and scientific advisor to the director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center. She co-directed one of the basic research programs within the Comprehensive Cancer Center, providing research and grant support and forging strategic collaborations. She also co-directed NCI T32-funded graduate education programs, which included student recruitment, mentoring, obtaining extramural funding through training grants; she was instrumental in the reorganization of the graduate school into an interdisciplinary first year curriculum. Scarpinato has since pivoted her research interests to studying research administrative and metrics-related outcomes and is published in this field.

In addition to her academic roles, she is the co-founder of Research Ingenuity, a start-up company focused on providing hands-on strategies for administrative offices to improve teamwork, collaboration and communication. Scarpinato is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified and working forward her Black Belt, a methodology that uses metrics and statistics to implement process improvements.