Office of Budget, Finance and
Award Management (BFA)

Deputy Director: Joanna Rom

BIOGRAPHY

Ms. Rom has been serving in the Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management (BFA) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the role of Deputy Director since 2000. BFA has responsibility for NSF's key business functions, including financial management, budget development, grant and contract policy and award operations, audit resolution, as well as strategic planning and performance reporting. As Deputy, Ms. Rom is actively involved with the management and oversight of the five divisions that are responsible for these areas. She also represents BFA as its Conflicts Official and as its liaison with the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs.

Within NSF Ms. Rom has a number of duties beyond BFA. These include service, since 1997, as Executive Secretary of the National Science Board's Audit and Oversight Committee (the National Science Board is the Presidentially-appointed policy-making body of the NSF), as well as membership on the Accountability and Performance Integration Council and its working groups. She also serves as NSF's Acquisition Ombudsman, the International Coordinating Committee, as well as working groups including NSF processes in Human Capital planning and other policy issues. She also staffs NSF's representative to the President's Management Council, Deputy Director and NSF Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Kathie Olsen.

Beyond NSF Ms. Rom is active on several key interagency activities. She is currently on the Executive Committee of the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) and its Membership Co-Chair as well as founder of its Emerging Research Institution initiative and serving on the Transition Team implementing Phase V of FDP. She is also an active member of the Research Business Models Subcommittee of the government-wide Committee on Science, a group which seeks to harmonize government research grant practices across agencies.

Since joining the Foundation in 1975, Ms. Rom has served in a variety of roles, including grant and contract officer with unlimited signatory authority, Head of the Grants Policy Office and Director, Division of Grants and Agreements, BFA, (1995-2000). In that last role she oversaw the negotiation, execution and management of tens of thousands of grants and cooperative agreements for research and education in science and engineering. She also was responsible for the design and execution of a new grants system that streamlined grants processing and supported electronic transmission of grant awards to their recipients. She was also a key participant in the working group that developed Fastlane, NSF's pioneering and award winning web-based grants application and management system that was initiated in 1994.

Frequently invited to speak at regional, national and international events, Ms. Rom is known for her broad knowledge of NSF operations and policy and interest in continually improving NSF service to its community. She has also written many articles on grants policy and related topics in professional publications.

Ms. Rom is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and has an MBA from George Washington University, where she was named to the business honorary society, Beta Gamma Sigma.