Ginny Pellam

Innovation lies at the heart of our mission to make an impact on our community, nation and world. As a member of the team that helps our researchers reach for the stars, Ginny Pellam guides our faculty through the maze of grants and contracts to help support their research. For her unwavering commitment to excellence, she has been awarded the Employee of the Semester award for Summer 2023.

Pellam’s journey to UCF began 12 years ago when she was looking into relocating to Florida. A friend’s sister, who was a faculty member at the university, loved teaching on campus and recommended that Pellam consider working at UCF.

The recommendation turned out to be a good one. Pellam started her career at UCF at the Office of Research and Commercialization in 2002.

“It felt like the right place to be from my first interview,” she says.

Pellam worked at ORC, as well as for CECS and the Nanoscience Technology Center, until ORC decentralized in 2016. At that point, she worked exclusively for the college. As the associate director for research, Pellam works closely with faculty in developing proposals and facilitating their submissions.

She says the most gratifying aspect of her position at CECS is the opportunity to play a role in sharing faculty research.

“I feel that the research our faculty does has the ability to improve our world,” Pellam says. “I love that by assisting with their proposals, I’m also contributing in a small way to that improvement.”

Her role at UCF has allowed her to see the determination and resilience of our faculty as they share their work. One of Pellam’s favorite memories is of a junior faculty member who had submitted numerous proposals that were all rejected.

“He said to me, ‘If you fail this much as something, you start to wonder if it’s the right path,’” she says. “Finally, ‘the one’ was awarded, and I remember seeing the happiness on his face when he shared the good news with me.”

Pellam also has fond memories of two UCF events: The first football game each fall, where she’s learned to appreciate a good tailgate, and ice skating at Light Up UCF.

“Being from up north, it’s nice to have a little taste of winter without all of the shoveling.”