Virginia Clayton, retired business manager in the Department of Computer Science, has received the university’s 2015 Staff Career Achievement Award. Clayton retired from the university in August 2015 after 30 years of service.
Created in 2011 to recognize retiring staff members, the Staff Career Achievement Award is presented annually to as many as five individuals who have distinguished themselves through exemplary performance and service during their university careers. Nominees must have worked a minimum of 10 years at Virginia Tech. Each recipient is awarded $1,000 cash prize.
As business manager for the Department of Computer Science, Clayton used her fiscal expertise to help navigate budget cuts, pay back departmental loans, initiate and design the faculty grant incentives program, as well as to pass both external and internal audits successfully.
The grant incentives program rewards faculty members who received larger research grants, with incentive awards of increasing magnitude for larger grants. As a result, research funding saw an increase from $20 million to $43.4 million in six years. Clayton’s fiscal and facilities responsibilities directly related to her support in an increasingly high caliber of faculty and graduate student research.
Clayton was considered the “go to” person in the department, as well as in the College of Engineering, among other business managers on campus, and the Office of Special Projects. She was known for her ability to solve problems without hesitation.
Alongside her work within the Department of Computer Science, she also served on the Total Quality Management Team and Steering Committee for University Research for more than two years. Clayton was also a member of the Virginia Society of Research Administrators.
