Grant Administrators
Alyssa Gonzalez
Grants Administrator/Project Manager
Alyssa Gonzalez, MPA, provides support for both applications and award management, including tracking contract renewals, updating budgets, and coordinating progress reports. Before joining Ochsner in 2022, she spent four years as Grant Program Manager at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and three years as Finance and Program Manager at the LSU Research and Technology Foundation. She holds a BA in Political Science (2015) and a Master of Public Administration (2017), both from Louisiana State University.
Cari Fowler, MHS, CRA
Project Manager/Grants Administrator
Cari Fowler, MHS, CRA, provides comprehensive support for grant application development, submission, and award management. She brings over ten years of experience in research administration in academic medicine to Ochsner, having held leadership positions at both the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she served as Senior Director of Research Operations. Cari has also served leadership roles in national and statewide nonprofits with a focus on grant writing, marketing, and community relations. A graduate of Millsaps College, she also holds a Master of Health Sciences in Administration from the University of Mississippi. She has been a Certified Research Administrator (CRA) since 2015, reflecting her longstanding commitment to excellence in research administration and compliance.
Andre Duhe, CPA
Post-Award Senior Financial Analyst
Andre Duhe, CPA, provides a range of grant services, including financial reporting; account set-up, monitoring, and forecasting; invoicing; and leading quarterly budget reviews. She serves as the initial point of contract for grant purchases, reviewing cost allowability and offering guidance as needed. Her 20 years of experience includes appointments as Senior Auditor and Audit Manager for public accounting firms and as Director of Finance for CrescentCare, where she oversaw the fiscal management of NIH, CDC, HRSA, and other federal grants. She earned her accounting degree from The University of New Orleans.
Teresa Krentel, CPA
Post-Award Senior Financial Analyst
Teresa Krentel, CPA/CFF, MBA, provides pre- and post-award services, including invoicing, account monitoring and forecasting, and Just-in-Time reporting. A former Manager of Litigation Consulting and Forensic Accounting, she applies two decades of professional experience toward ensuring that grant finances are managed in compliance with federal regulations, award terms, and institutional policy. She holds an MBA from the University of New Orleans and a BS in Finance and Business Administration from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette; serves on the financial literacy and career awareness committees at the Institute of Certified Public Accountants; and belongs to the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants. Her community service includes volunteering as Commissioner/Treasurer for the Lake Terrace Crime Prevention District.
Grant Writers
Sarah Boyd, PhD
Senior Grants Writer
Sarah Boyd, PhD is a Senior Grants Writer for Research and innovationOchsner (iO). She has more than 10 years of successful grant writing experience to a broad range of funding agencies including SAMHSA, HRSA, HUD, DOJ, CDC, NIH, DoEd, and more. She enjoys working on multidisciplinary projects, data visualization challenges, and modernizing science communication. Dr. Boyd’s PhD is in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Her dissertation research involved the creation and large-scale production of a novel flagellin monomer and antigen co-expression platform for increased vaccine efficacy. Dr. Boyd lives in the Northern suburbs of Atlanta, GA. In her free time, she enjoys baking and the slow art of traditional flower pressing.
Priya Pai, PhD
Grants Writer
Priya received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where she studied the molecular underpinnings of gastrointestinal cancers. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she served as a Scientific Consultant and Grant Writing Specialist at Eva Garland Consulting, LLC. Her experience spans the fields of Biotechnology, Diagnostics/Assays, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Medical Devices, having worked on over 70 grants and contracts submitted to federal and private funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DoD), Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), and National Science Foundation (NSF). Outside of work, she enjoys hiking and birdwatching.
Please complete this form.
If the application involves research, work with the research grants team.
Contact the research grants team to secure funding; work with your Research Manager/Director to develop the research project and ensure feasibility.
- A PI has ultimate responsibility for a sponsored research project. For multi-PI projects, this responsibility is shared equally among a set of PIs. Defense agencies and NSF refer to each such leader as a co-PI, but NIH and other DHHS agencies do not recognize this term. The first PI listed on the application manages communication with the agency and is referred to as the “Contact PI” (not to be confused with Contract or Site PI).
- A Contract PI (or Site PI) is the key person ultimately responsible for a subaward. In the case of a multi-PI application, the Contract PI may also serve as the PI for the overall project, but this not always the case.
- The terms co-I and Collaborator are often used interchangeably for contributors playing an active role in the research. There are no cut and dry rules, but according to NIH, the role of co-I is often used for an investigator who shares the same areas of expertise as the PI while that of Collaborator is used for a researcher with complementary expertise. Co-Is are always key; Collaborators are usually key, depending on the use of the term.
- At NIH and other HHS agencies, Other Significant Contributor means someone who contributes to scientific development but does not commit a specific amount of time to a project. For these non-key persons, effort is indicated as “zero person months" or "as needed."
A Collaborator is a salaried employee of an institution participating in a sponsored project and usually a key person. Consultants provide advice or services and may participate significantly in the research, but are not salaried. They are usually compensated by the hour or day. Consultants are key only if they contribute substantively and measurably to the scientific development or execution of the project.
Although often used interchangeably, cost sharing refers to the general situation in which a grantee or third party bears some project costs, and the more specific term cost matching refers sponsor-mandated cost sharing. In-kind means a cost share comprised of other than cash or contributed by a third-party. Cost sharing increases audit risk, and in-kind cost shares can be especially challenging to quantify. Generally, Ochsner should not commit to cost share a project unless required by the sponsor—and no such commitment should be made without institutional approval secured through the grants team.
Letters of Intent and pre-applications should be submitted through the grants team. In terms of other documents, if they contain financial information—including the total amount being requested or a list of current and pending awards—they must be submitted through the grants team as well. When in doubt, ask!
