The objective of the Administrative Core will be to provide management, coordination, and support of CSCC activities, including oversight and travel costs for internal and external advisory committees, travel costs for CSCC staff, and support for key personnel such as the Center Director and an administrative assistant. The Center Director, Dr. Victor Gordeuk, will have overall responsibility for the scientific and fiscal implementation of the proposed program. He will chair the Internal Advisory Committee of the Center. Each of the Center's Individual project investigators will answer fiscally and administratively to the Center director. In accordance to Howard University policy and as an official at a department head level, the director will review, authorize and sign all requests for services and purchases, as well as requests for budgetary transfers relating to Center grant funds. The Internal Advisory Committee will facilitate internal governance and operations, and oversee collaborative arrangements among Center investigators. It shall consist of the Washington Area CSCC Center Director plus the Principal Investigators of the inter-Center clinical study, the intra-Center clinical study, the patient outcomes and the transnational research studies, as well as the Clinical - and the Patient Outcomes Cores. There will be two external advisory bodies: the External Advisory Committee and a Community Advisory Council. The External Advisory Committee will be composed of three completely independent SCD investigators selected because of their nationally recognized expertise and will review the Center program at least once a year. The Community Advisory Council, will have Washington area residents knowledgeable of the needs of patients with SCD. The goals of the Advisory Council will be to provide advice and counsel to the Center's director and administrative staff for (a) maintaining good communications with the communities served by our collaborating institutions, (b) stimulating research activities into problems that are a perceived need of the patients and communities, (c) improving patient care and consideration of the perspectives of patients and families, and (d) coordinating community education and counseling programs. Additional components in this Core are support for a Center web site and for a sickle cell summer science program for high school students.
