Center for Applied Isotope Studies Director Carla Hadden has stepped into a new role as the University of Georgia Office of Research’s inaugural executive director of core facilities.
“This new role was created to provide our core facility directors and managers with a dedicated point of contact in the Office of Research, and Carla is exceptionally well suited to it,” said Chris King, interim vice president for research. “As the longtime director of one of UGA’s most successful core research facilities and a former Office of Research Faculty Fellow, she brings both firsthand experience managing a core and a broad understanding of UGA’s research enterprise.”
Hadden’s involvement with core facilities dates all the way back to her time as a graduate student in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of anthropology, when CAIS played a big role in her radiocarbon dating research. She later became a postdoctoral researcher, then a research scientist, before becoming the center’s director in 2021.
In 2024, Hadden joined the Office of Research Faculty Fellows program, which gives faculty members an opportunity to work alongside senior leaders on projects related to research administration. Through the program, faculty members gain a better understanding of university operations while developing leadership skills and contributing to the Office of Research’s mission.
Hadden’s fellowship focused on core operations, where she learned about the business side of operations with Shelly Terrazas, director of finance and human resources; Eric Ferreira, interim associate vice president for facilities and infrastructure; and Carl Bergmann, former associate vice president in the Office of Research and associate of the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center.
“That was really a good opportunity to get to know how other cores are operating at UGA, what some of their problems are, what some of their strengths are, and [how to take] different approaches to different problems,” Hadden said.
The fellowship served as a direct line to her new role, Hadden said, giving her a meaningful opportunity to influence institutional decisions. As the inaugural executive director of core facilities, Hadden plans to create more connections between core directors that often operate independently of each other.
“We all have these different areas of specialization in core facilities, but we’re trying to break down those silos and get more communication and more camaraderie,” she said.
Hadden’s new responsibilities also include troubleshooting the challenges that core facilities face. She believes that by creating more communication between cores, directors can reach out and help each other with common problems.
She emphasized that her new position is intended to support core directors, not supervise them.
“I don’t direct or manage,” she said. “I serve the cores and try to figure out how I can help them in whatever it is that they need and meet them where they are.”
She plans to hold regular meetings for core directors, potentially expanding to include other UGA shared resources. Hadden also wants to develop a unified marketing strategy for UGA’s core facilities, targeting both campus researchers and external clients.
“Any opportunity for more efficient use of resources, for sharing resources, getting the most bang for our buck, is going to be really important going forward,” Hadden said. “Cores are one of the most powerful tools we have for getting the most mileage out of limited resources.”