Meet the TURAC Team
2025 Conference Leadership
Vincent Borleske
Director of the Engineering Research Administration Services | University of Arizona
Vincent is the Director of the Engineering Research Administration Services (ERAS) office in the University of Arizona College of Engineering. Vincent manages a team that provides preaward support for all faculty in the College of Engineering. Under his leadership, research expenditures for the college have grown from $18 million in FY18 to $45 million in FY24. Vincent also serves as a liaison between the college and centralized services including proposal review and approvals, contract negotiations, and award set up often facilitating resolutions and working with faculty to maintain compliance with federal and university research policy. The College of Engineering also provides preaward support for the College of Law and the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture.
Prior to joining the University of Arizona in 2018, Vincent worked for the State of Wisconsin Department of Administration managing the procurement process for federal grant programs. His duties included writing state issued competitive RFP’s, managing peer review, providing post award support, and conducting program specific audits. He also worked for the University of Wisconsin-Madison central sponsored programs office and spent 9 years serving as the director of the research administration team in the UW-Madison College of Agricultural & Life Sciences.
Vincent has served on the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) board of directors as a regional representative, served on numerous national and regional conference planning committees and most recently co-chaired the NCURA Financial Research Administration (FRA) conference held in Honolulu, Hawaii in March 2024.
Melinda Marino
Research Advancement Manager | Arizona State University
Melinda serves as the Research Advancement Manager at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. There, she is responsible for partnering with Melinda serves as the Research Advancement Manager at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. There, she is responsible for partnering with staff and faculty to strategize and identify external funding, developing budgets and administrative components of proposals, and liaising with the ASU central research office on behalf of the College of Law. Melinda also assists with the administrative management of awarded sponsored projects.
Before joining the College of Law, Melinda served as RAS Team Lead, RAS Advanced Pre-Award Lead, and Research Advancement Administrator on Research Advancement Services (RAS), which is a part of the Knowledge Enterprise’s Research Operations Team.
On the RAS Team, Melinda specialized in support to faculty and staff on the budgetary and administrative aspects of sponsor project support. She also has experience providing some non-financial post-award assistance.
Melinda especially enjoys working on international and large/strategic proposals for funding. In addition to proposal support, Melinda also has had the opportunity to present on a variety of research administration and sponsored project topics around ASU and national conferences.
Prior to joining the RAS Team at ASU, Melinda worked in healthcare for 4 years. She hold the Certified Research Administrator (CRA) certification and has a BS in Psychology and an MEd in Counseling, both from Texas Christian University.
Joelina Peck
Associate Director for Research Operations | Arizona State University
Joelina is the Associate Director for Research Operations at the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. In this role, she leads a dedicated team of both pre-and post-award staff, overseeing the full spectrum of research administration. Joelina serves as a strategic consultant to Fulton Schools of Engineering leadership, providing expert guidance on policies, plans, and objectives related to sponsored projects. She is instrumental in addressing complex technical and operational challenges, ensuring that sponsored projects are managed efficiently and effectively.
Joelina holds a Certification in Research Administration (CRA), awarded by the Research Administrators Certification Council (RACC) in 2009, and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Arizona State University in December 2022.
Her expertise in research administration, combined with her leadership skills, makes her a trusted professional in the field.