Snapshot:
Marcia McRae

Title: Administrative Manager, Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences Department (MIND)

Duties: Assisting the chair of the department and helping the department run smoothly, including overseeing department paperwork, helping to hire and guide 14 administrative assistants working for 30 faculty members, and trouble-shooting.

Goal: "To develop a staff that keeps the work flowing and the P.I.s [principal investigators] happy."

Recent Challenge: Helping faculty and staff settle in their new facilities in 3030 Science Park Drive.

Favorite Part of Scripps Research: "I like the people—they're open minded, forward-thinking, and from all over the world."

Started at Scripps Research: 1995 in the Vascular Biology Department, where she was first an administrative assistant, then senior administrative assistant, then administrative manager. Before she assumed her current position in MIND last December, she spent a year working for the institute's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

Background: A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved to San Diego 39 years ago, when "there were only half a million people in the county." Before coming to Scripps Research, she worked in the San Diego office of an environmental consulting firm headquartered in Orange County, helping to prepare environmental impact reports.

Extracurriculars: Gardening (her tomatoes are famed throughout the institute among those lucky enough to have sampled them) and spending time with her family, including seven grandchildren and step-grandchildren, who range from four to ten years old.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

Administrative Manager Marcia McRae helps the Molecular and Integrate Neurosciences Department run smoothly. Photo by Kevin Fung.