Nancy Clinton Receives 2022 Perkins Service Award

Headshot of Nancy Clinton
Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Nancy Clinton, the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute administrative manager, is one of three longtime BU staffers to be honored this year with the John F. Perkins Award for Distinguished Service. Each awardee will receive $500 at the annual ceremony, which returns to being held in person after being virtual for the past two years. The awards—created in 1981 and administered annually by Boston University’s Faculty Council—are funded by an endowment from the estate of John S. Perkins, a former BU trustee, administrator, and faculty member.

Clinton was recruited to the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute in 1994 after completing an MBA in healthcare administration at Northeastern University. Since then, she has held a number of different positions at the School of Medicine. Today, as the institute’s administrative director, she is responsible for managing the complex funding needs and requirements of more than 50 investigators, many with multimillion-dollar portfolios. Her colleagues express appreciation for her ability to keep them up-to-date on their funding, flagging impending funding shortages, and suggesting ways to save resources and grant money. They also note that during the pandemic, Clinton took on tasks beyond her job description, ranging from making sure that lab supplies arrived on time to helping junior faculty find childcare.

In her letter nominating Clinton for a 2022 Perkins Award, Katya Ravid, the Barbara E. Corkey Professor of Medicine in Cardiovascular Medicine, wrote that Clinton is so good at her job that she has been called many times by investigators and administrators across campus for advice on how to handle special cases and manage complex training grants, and she does so with a smile. “Always willing to do more and do it well has been Nancy’s trademark,” Ravid wrote.

Clinton says her favorite part of the job is seeing the researchers’ work come full circle. “I start at the beginning with them when they apply for grants, and try to make sure they aren’t hassled with anything that isn’t science,” she says. “I deal with everything behind the scenes.”

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