Understanding the Impact of Indirect Cost Rates on University Planning and Budgeting

Elizabeth (Missy) Peloso is the Sr. Associate Vice President/ Vice Provost for Research at the University of Pennsylvania. She has oversight responsibility for the export compliance and research security program, pre-award activities related to federally and non-profit sponsored research, post-award activities for all sponsored projects, academic material transfer agreements, research reporting, and costing. Additionally, she served as a Principal Investigator on the NSF Research Security Training Module 3, Managing Risk and will be on the leadership team implementing the coming Research Security Program requirements at Penn. Missy is a board member of COGR , serving on the Research Security and Intellectual Property Committee. She is a past chair and current member of AUECO, served on the National Academies Confucius Institute Study, serves as a co ¬Chair of the FDP contracts subcommittee, .and is a current NCURA Peer Reviewer. Missy is a graduate of Duke University, holds a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University, and an MBA from the University of Delaware.

Sarah Spreitzer represents ACE and its members on matters related to research policy and funding, federal policy, international students, immigration, and legislative issues.

Before joining ACE, Spreitzer held senior positions in higher education advocacy at the University of Missouri System, Lewis-Burke Associates LLC, and the University of Washington’s Office of Federal Relations. At the University of Missouri System, she served as the director of federal relations, working to connect system and campus leadership, as well as faculty and staff, with congressional offices and key science and education agencies to influence federal policy, inform the university of federal opportunities, and position the university within emerging federal initiatives. At Lewis-Burke, she represented an array of public and private institutions of higher education before Congress and the federal agencies, including the University of Illinois System, the University of Southern California, the University of Virginia, and the University of Cincinnati. Before coming to Lewis-Burke, Spreitzer served as the assistant director of the University of Washington’s Office of Federal Relations, where she focused on federal student aid policy and funding, and advocacy efforts with federal science agencies.

Spreitzer has held leadership positions within the higher education community, including chairing working groups on higher education for the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU. In addition, she has served as the vice chair of the AAU Council on Federal Relations steering committee and the co-chair of the APLU Council of Government Affairs.

Spreitzer received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Beloit College in Wisconsin and a master’s degree in medieval studies from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is a founding board member of the Creative Minds International Public Charter School, a growing charter school in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Sue Menditto is NACUBO’s expert on financial accounting and reporting, managerial analysis, and financial viability. She is charged with fulfilling higher education advocacy needs with the GASB, FASB, AICPA, and Department of Education. She was appointed to the IPEDS Finance Survey Workgroup in August 2023 as one of its financial reporting experts. She has also represented higher education on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (2006–2012), AICPA’s Revenue Recognition Task Force (2016–2017), and the Department of Education’s financial responsibility subcommittee (2017–2018).

Menditto informs the association’s research efforts on accounting issues, endowment management, and tuition discounting; writes member communications: news, advisories, accounting tutorials, and articles; and supports members’ professional development needs by providing subject matter guidance. She has also co-authored chapters of publications addressing accounting, public health, and analytics and regularly speaks on accounting and financial management topics at conferences.

Menditto began her career in public accounting, was a CFO and Controller for a not-for-profit organization, and a vice president for Bank of America where she specialized in change management and accounting policy. She holds degrees in psychology and accounting and is a certified public accountant.