Assistant Controller, Contracts & Grants Accounting, UCSF Controller’s Office

What her nominator had to say about her: 

Ellyn McCaffrey is the best Assistant Controller. She provides clear guidance, makes the time to meet when needed, and goes above and beyond to support our department. Even though she's incredibly busy, she takes the time to listen, responds to emails promptly, and is personable in a way that makes for a great working relationship.  

Nomination by: Heidi Frank 

Ellyn’s Bio: 

Ellyn McCaffrey is an accomplished business professional with 15 years of Research Management experience at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) including Contracts & Grants Accounting (CGA) and Office of Sponsored Research positions. Ellyn has held various positions within the post-award management central office including Compliance Manager and Supervisor of Award Set-up and Award Closeout which provided a well-rounded understanding of award terms and conditions to interpret, guide and improve processes and implement controls for Principal Investigators, Research Administration, Pre-award and Post-award staff to consistently and correctly manage extramural awards under many different funding mechanisms. In her current role of Assistant Controller, she is responsible for ensuring our systems support current sponsor guidelines and compliance with those terms. All audits of the UCSF sponsored research enterprise are coordinated through CGA in addition to providing opportunity to keep campus community up to date with new rules, guidelines, and best practices for handling sponsored research from all types of sponsors. Ellyn also oversees all training and development of employees to fully understand the lifecycle of an award and the different roles that pre and post award play to support UCSF research in the best way possible. 

Can you tell us about a significant role model or mentor in your life? 

I have been lucky enough to have many formal and informal mentors and role models throughout my career. I have found that it is so helpful to find someone who I admire at work or in everyday life and pick their brains. A few have given me advice that has stayed with me as I have navigated different roles and changed careers.  One such piece of advice in my first job was pretty basic, “Be on time”. This shows that you value, and consider equal, the collaborator’s time and effort as much as your own. I think this can be applied even further by meeting deadlines and responding to someone as timely as possible or alerting someone to an expected delay in responding.  I live by the spirit of the saying and keep it in mind in all areas. Other mentors have helped me map out the next few stages of my career and really helped me stay focused on what I wanted to accomplish and what skills I needed to develop.  As well as tips on areas of development and how to practice those areas. I do not think that I would be in my current role if it weren’t for wonderful mentors I had along the way. 

What has been an important success in your career? Have you had a breakthrough moment? 

Early in my career at UCSF I took a new position that was not necessarily seen as furthering my career. In hindsight, it was pivotal to how my career has progressed since then.  I have never hesitated to take on something new, be it a project, a position or extra roles. It is truly how I learned as much as I have in the very complex world of sponsored research administration.  Taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves has opened other doors for me. This even included taking a lateral position, in a completely different area with less pay. It ultimately taught me more than I could have imagined, helped me identify work that I liked better and was a steppingstone to the next career move which then got me the opportunity, a few positions later, to be in my current role.  

My breakthrough moment would have to be when I found myself very unhappy in my job and the way the company that I was working at the time was heading. I took a quick assessment of what I was doing and realized that I was not happy.  I left that role and took on bookkeeping and account cleanup for a friend. This got me back to the basics of accounting which reminded me why I had studied accounting and finance in college and what I enjoyed about piecing together the puzzle of accounting transactions, albeit at a much smaller level of complexity than at UCSF.  A few years later, when a friend mentioned an opportunity at UCSF in an accounting related area, I was ready to explore a new position and field.  If not for my friend mentioning the position, I do not think that I would be at UCSF or even know anything about the sponsored research administration field. 

What is on your reading list? 

I like to read the book before I see the movie, as often as possible.  I just finished The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. I highly recommend the book. Looking forward to seeing the movie. 

What is your ideal weather?  

My ideal weather would be 75 degrees and sunny. Preferably somewhere that I can enjoy the weather on a beach or out on a walk or hike. Growing up in the Midwest, I got my fair share of cold weather, even experienced snow almost up to our second-floor windows during the blizzard of 1978. While I enjoy a few days of skiing every now and again, I will always choose a warm weather locale over cold. 

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