Our featured NU-RES Husky Hero for this Fall 2024 Issue is Juan Carlos Hincapie! Juan is the Director of Pre-Award Administration at the College of Engineering (COE) where he has served the research community for 8 amazing years. Juan is a prime example of a phenomenally dedicated member of the Northeastern University community. This section will showcase an interview with Juan and why he is our featured NU-RES Husky Hero for this fall issue.
What is your background (education, early career journey, field)? Where were you before you started working here at Northeastern?
I grew up in Colombia, in a town near Bogotá in the central region of the country. I came to the U.S. when I was 19 and went through the immigration process, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. Now I have three kids, each enrolled at Northeastern. We first lived in Belmont, and moved to Brookline where we currently live. My three children are all benefiting from Northeastern’s tuition benefit. My oldest son is studying to become a criminal defense attorney, although he couldn’t get into Northeastern’s law school, which he really wanted, so he’s at the New England School of Law in Boston. He’ll graduate next spring. My daughter is also at Northeastern, and she’s set to graduate this spring. My youngest son has a couple more years to go, depending on whether he does co-op or not.
My background is actually in a completely different field. Initially, I wanted to be a teacher or school counselor, so I studied psychology and even started a part-time master’s degree. I didn’t complete my thesis, so I didn’t finish that degree. Later, I began my career at Harvard University, where I worked for about 16 years as well as several of their hospitals—Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston Children’s Hospital. My journey as an administrator really began at Harvard.
I wanted to advance, and it seemed like getting an MBA was the logical next step. So, I completed my MBA in 2009 from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. After that, I continued at Harvard, gradually becoming more of a skillful administrator, working closely with departments and faculty. I started out focusing on finance, accounting, and the post-award side of research. When I joined Northeastern in 2016, I didn’t initially apply for a specific job; I took a temporary position just to explore opportunities. Then, the person handling pre-award support for the Mechanical Engineering department left, and I took on the role, thinking it would be temporary. Eight years later, here I am, still in research administration, focusing exclusively on pre-award work.
Please briefly describe your role(s) here at Northeastern.
For the first six years, I worked exclusively on submitting proposals for the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering departments at COE. I was also the team leader, initially managing a team of four, in support of five departments, so it was quite busy. Over time, I was promoted and eventually became the director. Recently, we added five new members to the team to handle the increasing volume and complexity of proposals and budgets. Now, we are a ten-person team, which allows us to manage our workload better.
Please briefly describe typical day-to-day on the job.
My role involves managing the day-to-day operations, addressing difficult questions, covering overflow work, and assisting the team wherever needed. We recently promoted two team members to supervisors, so now they oversee five of the team members, while four still report directly to me. I also help with process management by creating tools and templates for our work. I use MS Excel extensively, often programming functions within our templates to make them more efficient. I come into the office daily because I live close by—it’s just a 20-minute walk, which I enjoy. My day is typically spent helping the team, putting out fires, and ensuring everyone can take time off when needed.
What is something you are proud of while working at Northeastern? Do you believe your work tends to go unnoticed by the broader Campus/NU-RES Community?
I’ve managed teams for many years, and this is the largest team I’ve led. I’m particularly proud of our low turnover rate, which is rare in high-stress fields like accounting, contracts, and research administration. I make a conscious effort to show my team that I care about them, their stress levels, and their professional development. I believe this has contributed to our team’s stability.
I’m also proud of my contributions to the broader university community, contributing with presentations and the annual research compliance conference we started a couple of years ago. I try to volunteer when I can and make an effort to contribute to the university-level research community. I think I’m more visible within NU-RES and the research community than at COE, primarily because I’m engaged in university-wide initiatives.
What does it mean to you to be working within the Research community? How would you describe the overall impact that individual research entities, including NU-RES, have brought to the University?
I’m most proud of the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years, particularly in both pre-award and post-award research administration. Mentoring and training my team has been incredibly rewarding. We provide essential support to faculty in preparing grant applications, which is critical for the university’s research mission. Our support enables faculty to secure funding, and without that support, it would be challenging for them to conduct world-class research. I’m incredibly proud of my team. They work hard, and now that we’re primarily remote, they’ve shown a lot of honesty and dedication. I’m lucky to have them and am proud of what we’ve accomplished together.
Our team plays a vital role in making sure proposals are compliant and prepared with an eye toward the entire research lifecycle. We don’t just submit proposals; we anticipate and mitigate potential compliance issues that could arise once a grant is awarded. This means we work hand-in-hand with faculty, helping them avoid commitments that could later jeopardize their projects or the university. Ensuring compliance is challenging because Northeastern doesn’t enforce a five-day internal submission policy like other institutions, so we work hard to guide faculty to submit on time despite their busy schedules.
What are hobbies, interests, and interpersonal facts about you outside of work?
I’ve always had an artistic side, although I never studied art formally. I enjoy drawing, painting, wood carving, and even some stone carving. I’ve made many of these pieces as gifts for friends and family, so I don’t actually have much of my own art at home. Making something as a gift gives me an incentive to finish it that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Many of these projects had deadlines, like friends coming to visit, so it motivated me to complete them on time.
I have a friend who’s a master woodcarver, and I’ve had the privilege of working on some projects with him. He’s incredibly talented and can see things in the work that I can’t, which has taught me a lot. I try to visit his studio whenever possible, I recently spent two days working with him and I am close to finish an interesting project of two fish carvings to be used as bookends. I plan to make this project a gift for one of my pre-award team mates during the holiday season in December. It’s something I really enjoy, and it’s a way for me to express my creativity outside of work.