You might remember that the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission was transferred to the ADHS last legislative session.  We officially became responsible for the Commission in July of 2011.  My first priorities were to get a clear analysis of the “books” (e.g. the financial records etc.), get a handle on the outstanding research projects that the Commission had been funding, transition the existing staff to our shop, recruit Commissioners (several of the Commissioners were serving in expired appointments), and to find a new Executive Director. 

I’m glad to say that we’ve accomplished each of these objectives (except that we haven’t hired a new Executive Director yet)…  and we’re ready to kick off the activities of the new Commission.  We held our first meeting last week to introduce the old and new Commissioners to the vision of how the new ABRC will work, examine the “books”, discuss the audit we conducted, review the current research projects, discuss the Executive Director position, and strategize about next steps- including setting up a retreat once we have an Executive director on-board.

Thanks to all that have been involved so far making this transition a success- including Alex Percival and Kurt Schulte from Auditing, Jim Humble and John Lake from Finance, Chris Ruth from Procurement, and Julie Smee from HR, and of course Shoana Anderson for filling in as the Interim Executive Director (in addition to her regular duties).