It takes a special understanding of faculty to be an effective leader at a major research university. You have a responsibility to advance the research mission while also taking care of the people who fulfill it. That’s what gets Lara Ferry excited about officially taking on the role of vice president of research at Arizona State University’s Knowledge Enterprise, effective September 2.
Ferry has served in the interim role since April, when the previous vice president of research, Matt Hulver, took on a new role as vice president of KE Initiatives, based in Washington, DC.
Ferry has been at Arizona State University since 2010. She first came onboard as associate professor in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. She has done extensive research in functional morphology, or the study of organism structure and function.
Since then, she has also held roles as school director, associate director and associate dean of research at the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences on ASU’s West campus. In 2022, Matt Hulver recruited her as associate vice president of research in KE.
“I really enjoy helping faculty do the thing they’re passionate about,” Ferry said. “So how do I help them find the resources to do that? I was ready to do that at the next level.”
As ASU approaches $1 billion in research expenditures, Ferry will strategize how to take its research enterprise to the next level, engaging transdisciplinary teams and external partners to tackle complex challenges and make a major impact on the communities we serve.
“We are thrilled to announce Dr. Lara Ferry’s appointment as the Vice President of Research at ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise,” said Sally C. Morton, executive vice president of ASU Knowledge Enterprise. “Dr. Ferry brings a wealth of experience in innovative research and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Her leadership will be instrumental in driving our research initiatives forward.”
One of Ferry’s priorities in this role is to serve the faculty directly so they can focus on conducting great research.
“I love working with new faculty. I love working with really experienced faculty. Everybody brings a different set of challenges, so that’s always exciting,” Ferry said.
Ferry wants research faculty at all levels to feel supported so that they can be successful. Early career faculty may be focused on winning grants related to their research program. As they get promoted, they’re ready to think about how to team up and pursue bigger grants that are more complex and involve more people, more disciplines with more collaborations across the whole university.
“The questions we really want to answer, and the ways we want to contribute to our society as a university, are challenging and complex, and they’re not just in one discipline. So we need the social sciences, and the humanities, and engineering all together to try to figure out solutions to these complex problems,” she said.
Ferry wants to keep elevating our researchers with more interesting opportunities, while helping faculty connect with entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities, because that’s how we take an idea from the lab out into the marketplace.
“How do you convert what you love into something that can affect jobs, that can affect economic upward mobility for people, that can create a solution maybe around health, maybe around sustainability, maybe around conserving and preserving our environment?” she asks.
Ferry said what’s great about being at ASU is that use-inspired research is part of our charter.
“We’re a state university, we owe this to the people. We’re a service organization at our core,” she said. “We want to help you think about your role in translating what we do for the people, so that it has value to them.”
Ferry is particularly excited about the people she’ll be collaborating with. Having worked with Knowledge Enterprise staff in her previous academic roles, she said they were there to help her accomplish the mission of her college. She enjoys being a part of that support system now.
“I am surrounded by the brain trust. I am surrounded by these incredible minds that are supported by incredible hearts,” Ferry said.
She adds that it’s inspiring, in the middle of a long day, to remind herself: ‘“Oh yeah, I’m part of this huge thing that’s really doing good.”