UWT Office of Research Staff

Lisa Isozaki has been at UW Tacoma since May 2014. Prior to this, Lisa was the Program Administrator for the Polar Science Center in the UW Applied Physics Laboratory managing over $15M in annual grant funding and she was a Project Manager at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center managing several large NCI funded program/project grants focusing on the early detection of ovarian and breast cancer. At UW Tacoma, Lisa manages all centralized pre and post award operations within the Office of Research. She serves as our primary point person who facilitates communication with offices in Seattle including the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), Grant and Contract Accounting (GCA), and the Seattle Office of Research. Lisa works directly with faculty interested in pursuing funding for a sponsored project helping them through the entire pre-proposal process of understanding complexities and requirements of a given funding announcement, developing components of a proposal including the detailed budget, working through external and internal submission systems, and ensuring compliance with UW submission and deadline policies. She also provides guidance to the Office of Research staff who work directly with faculty and unit administrators on all post award management and compliance issues. Lisa received her Bachelor's in Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a Bachelor's in Science degree from Seattle University.

Marlyn Del Cid has been at the University of Washington for over 10 years. Prior to joining the Office of Research in October 2021, Marlyn provided pre and post-award grant and contract management support to faculty, staff, and graduate students at the School of Environmental and Forest Science at UW Seattle. Before then she worked at UW's central office of Grant and Contact Accounting. 

In her role as Program Operation Specialist, Marlyn supports all sponsored research activities housed at the Center for Urban Waters. She is thrilled to be a part of the CUW team and UW Tacoma. Marlyn graduated from UW with a Bachelors in Anthropology. In her free time, she enjoys exploring her new neighborhood in Tacoma!

Autumn has been a member of the UW Tacoma community since 2016, beginning first as a student before transitioning to various staff roles on campus. Autumn’s primary focus in the Office of Research is managing Project AAPI THRIVE, a multi-million dollar grant funded from the U.S. Department of Education. She brings to this role over five years of student support and community-engaged research experience across the UW Tacoma and Seattle campuses.

Autumn received her BA in Psychology from UW Tacoma and her MA in Communication from UW Seattle. While at the Seattle campus, Autumn taught undergraduate courses in communication and worked on a project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to re-design a virtual postpartum mental health application for Latina mothers. In her free time, Autumn enjoys travelling and spending time with her growing family.

Karen Urlie joined the UW Tacoma Office of Research in January 2023. As a Program Operations Specialist, Karen will support faculty through the research lifecycle from proposal development and submission processes to award acceptance and then post award grants management issues. She is very excited to be supporting the important and impactful work of our faculty.

Prior to coming to UW Tacoma, Karen spent more than 12 years at a national, private foundation in Seattle. In her work there, she was program support manager for the grantmaking and evaluation team and then grants manager for the foundation. The foundation’s mission centered on racial justice and funding the critical work of community organizations in order to shift the balance of power in communities that have been historically excluded from shaping and benefitting from a just economy and true democracy.

Karen trained as a classical soprano and performed for 14 years on the mainstage with the Seattle Opera chorus. She now spends her time outside of work with her son, family and friends - and a pup named Walter.

Kelly Dyer joined the Office of Research in April 2022.  Prior to joining UW Tacoma she previously worked for the City of Bellevue and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.  Kelly works directly with Cheryl Greengrove, AVCR, providing support to the Research Advisory Committee and helping with Faculty Development planning and workshop logistics. She also provides support to campus PIs with transactional needs that are tied to sponsored grants or contracts and with internal UW Tacoma funding such as the Catalyst Research and Scholarship initiative.

Kelly grew up in northwest Montana and received her Bachelor’s degree in Geology and Geography from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.  In her free time she enjoys reading, crafting and adventuring in her RV with her husband and three children.

Kara Luckey, Proposal Development Consultant, provides on-demand support to UW Tacoma faculty across all disciplines with developmental and copy editing of proposal narratives, as well as assistance with articulating project aims, research design, and anticipated impacts. Kara works to develop competitive proposals to a variety of private and public sponsors with investigators coming from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives including the humanities and social sciences, STEM, and practice-based fields. Kara holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado, where she also supported grant-writing efforts, conducted independent and collaborative research, and taught graduate-level courses in research design and analytical methods.

Contact Lisa Isozaki (lisozaki@uw.edu) to learn more about how Kara might support your proposal efforts!