Since the earliest days of my career, I have worked to develop programs to strengthen undergraduate science education. As Director of Faculty Development in Instruction at West Virginia University, I was instrumental in enhancing a new approach to teaching problem-solving. Much of my work at Tulane University involved building a partnership with Xavier to create new interdisciplinary centers including the Center for Bioenvironmental Research. As Chair of Louisiana EPSCoR, I played a key role in forming partnerships between research-intensive universities and predominantly undergraduate institutions to enhance research competitiveness and to engage undergraduate minority students in research. During that time, Louisiana’s per scientist federal funding grew from 38% to 90% of US average. As Senior Vice President for Resource Development at Xavier, I have worked to enhance Xavier’s research capacity as well as funding for the revision of educational programs and I have nurtured professional relationships with intra- and inter-university research administrators and faculty to achieve strategic goals and funding levels. As a direct result of these efforts, Xavier is now ranked among the top 10 HBCUs in the nation in NIH funding.