{"id":34,"date":"2025-12-17T21:33:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T21:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/?page_id=34"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:23:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:23:37","slug":"rao-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/rao-team\/","title":{"rendered":"RAO Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dinaida Egan, RAO Director<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phone: (970) 491-2448
Email: Dinaida.Lopez@colostate.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinaida Egan leads the overall direction and support for all integrated Research Acceleration Office (RAO) activities, including complex and strategic proposal development, limited submissions, interdisciplinary team or strategic research initiatives, research capacity development, competitive intelligence, business development and alliance management, and external affairs support. She has advanced research development and project management expertise in support of complex, strategic, interdisciplinary, or capacity-building, programs, partnerships, and proposals. In this role, she supports research growth and alignment of CSU\u2019s research strengths with federal and other public\/private agency need priorities, utilizing proactive and strategic extramural research development approaches. Her background in scientific research and research program management includes 14 years in the CSU Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, where she studied gene regulation, chromatin structure and function, biophysical characterization and purification of protein\/DNA complexes, and leukemogenesis utilizing the Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus 1 (HTLV-1) model system, served as the administrative core director and technical liaison for a complex NIH Program of Projects, and served as research program manager for the interdisciplinary Institute for Genome Architecture and Function. She has dual degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology (MCDB), with emphasis in Leadership, Sociology, and Women\u2019s Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Trisha Miller, PhD, Research & Proposal Development Manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phone: (970) 491-4589
Email: Trisha.Miller@colostate.edu<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trisha Miller is responsible for supporting CSU faculty, leadership, and other R&D partners in identifying funding opportunities, nurturing partnerships, and developing proposals that further the goals of CSU\u2019s research enterprise. As a Research and Proposal Development Manager, Trisha will help ensure that proposals highlight the strengths of the team and the institution, clearly communicate the innovation and impact of the proposed research, and are responsive to the sponsor needs and requirements. Her background is in bioinorganic chemistry with a BS in Chemistry from Creighton University and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of California Berkeley. After graduate school, she was a National Security Analyst at Sandia National Laboratories where she led several analysis projects for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Energy (DOE) focused on chemical security, critical infrastructure risk, emergency management, and cyber deterrence and resilience. Before joining CSU, Trisha was on the leadership team at a data science and data visualization startup where she led a division focused on partnering with National Laboratories to help translate R&D into practice. Trisha has also served on two committees for the National Research Council focused on the destruction of chemical weapons and was an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Augsburg College from 2012-2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Natasha Stavros, PhD, Research & Proposal Development Manager <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phone: (970) 628-0547
Email: Natasha.Stavros@colostate.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natasha Stavros developed the WKID Innovation framework to generalize processes for innovation using leadership techniques and NASA system engineering. Dr. Stavros is a social facilitator specializing in changing systems through holistic approaches. Her background has primarily focused on environmental resilience. Dr. Stavros has a Bachelors in Mathematics and minor in Computer Science from University of Colorado Boulder (2008), a Masters of Science in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh (2009), and a Ph.D. in Forest and Fire Ecology from the University of Washington Seattle (2013). Her experience spans applied sciences, technology transfer, facilitating collaborations across disciplines, business development, project system engineering, and portfolio and project management.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Lynn Bruning, MFA, Proposal & Partnership Development Coordinator<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phone: (970) 491-1525
Email: Lynn.Bruning@colostate.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynn Bruning provides proposal development support for complex research proposals and assists RAO in the growth of internal and external partnerships, liaising between stakeholders and coordinating interactions and collaborations to promote the success of CSU\u2019s research enterprise. Lynn supports strategic research programming, working closely with CSU\u2019s limited submission and internal funding programs, early career and NSF CAREER programs, and faculty development and capacity building programs. Before joining CSU, she supported the pre-award research activities of the director\u2019s laboratory in the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital. Lynn received a BA and MSE from Harding University, where she studied English literature, and she graduated from Simmons University with an MFA in Writing for Children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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April Shelhon, Research Development Coordinator<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phone: (970) 491-9244
Email: April.Shelhon@colostate.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a research development coordinator, April supports the development of CSU research within RAO. Her background is diverse, with a focus on land stewardship and science translation. She has conducted wildlife and agricultural research, as well as data analysis, for the US Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Land Management, and other organizations. She has managed several diversified farms in Colorado and Missouri, taught small-acreage farming, and served as the horticulturist, outreach manager, and content creator for a national seed company. April joined CSU as an internal communicator, serving the Vice President of Research, and transitioned to RAO in 2025. Her strengths lie in project management, strategic communication, science translation, problem-solving, and collaboration. She holds an associate\u2019s degree in environmental science, a bachelor\u2019s degree from Colorado State University in wildlife biology and is currently pursuing a master\u2019s degree in ecosystem science and sustainability at CSU.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Office Location:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

University Services Center
2nd<\/sup> Floor, Suite 208
601 S Howes St
Fort Collins, CO, 80521<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dinaida Egan, RAO Director Phone: (970) 491-2448Email: Dinaida.Lopez@colostate.edu Dinaida Egan leads the overall direction and support for all integrated Research Acceleration Office (RAO) activities, including complex and strategic proposal development, limited submissions, interdisciplinary team or strategic research initiatives, research capacity development, competitive intelligence, business development and alliance management, and external affairs support. She has advanced research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"microsite":[],"class_list":["post-34","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"microsite","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.research.colostate.edu\/rao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/microsite?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}