Focus on Staff With Deena Watson

Deena Watson has been a grant administrator in the UC Department of Environmental Health for six years. Here, she answers questions about her job and reveals why she'd make a good bodyguard.

What is a typical day for you?

A typical day for me is anything but typical. My responsibilities are very diverse, and no two days are ever the same. However, I would say a somewhat typical day would be completing and updating budgets for grant applications to be submitted, or progress reports that are due or coming due. Completing grant account setup requests, reviewing grant balances and expenses that are nearing the end of a budget period or project period. Preparing those grants for the closeout process by estimating projections and updating balance spreadsheets. Processing Cost Transfer Requests and effort allocation requests that are received from faculty.  Reviewing and verifying all Travel Expense Reports and Request for Payments for the department and processing them for approval before sending to Accounts Payable for processing, and I reply to a multitude of various email requests for information,  requests for budgets and typical follow-up requests from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and other institutions.

What do you enjoy about your job?

I enjoy almost everything about my job. I really like the people I work with and I enjoy what I do. I enjoy the attention to detail that my job takes and thrive on the challenges. Because I am involved in my grants from beginning to end, I really enjoy the sense of ownership.

Before you came to UC, what was your background?

Before coming to UC, I wore a couple of different hats in the education field. I was a high school/upper school administrative assistant at a local private school, and before that I was an education assistant at a local state chartered, non-public, independent school for children with special educational needs.

Do you have any hobbies?

My hobbies include playing soccer, sand volleyball and beating my family members in games like Ruzzle! 

Tell us something people may not know about you.

I am a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.