Judith Argon, MA, MTS
Communications Specialist/Consultant
Office: (610) 212-5437
Judith Argon provides strategic and tactical support to the NJ ACTS leadership and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Translational Medicine and Science, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. Working with the Program Director and the Component Leads, she creates a ‘voice’ for NJ ACTS through effective communications within the NJ ACTS community and beyond.
Prior to her consulting work on grant and program development, Ms. Argon enjoyed an 30-year career in research administration, most recently serving as the Chief Administrative Officer of Research at Geisinger Health System. Coming at a key transition point for research at Geisinger, Ms. Argon was responsible for establishing key research administration offices, including Sponsored Programs, Compliance, and Technology Transfer, developing and implementing the research strategic plan and managing the growing research infrastructure of centers and institutes. This included expansion of Geisinger’s research from its main Danville campus to its northeast and western hubs. Ms. Argon came to Geisinger following her role as the Vice President of Research Administration at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, addressing the administrative, financial and infrastructure needs of the CHOP community.
She also served as the Director of the Officer of Research Services in the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and Director of Research and Resource Development in the Office of Basic Sciences and Graduate Affairs at The University of Chicago. At the University of Chicago, in addition to grants and contracts and regulatory responsibilities, she oversaw the planning for new research facilities and shared resources, introduced new communications tools for research in the Medical School, and developed guidelines for clinical trial budgeting and billing. She began her career as the Director of Research Support at Duke University, establishing Duke University’s first dedicated pre-award office, and responsible for developing and maintaining research administrative services, establishing policies, and developing programmatic concepts to expand research and research training, including successful proposal writing.
Ms. Argon has been active in professional societies, such as the National Council of University Research Administrators, the Society of Research Administrators, the Health Care Compliance Association, the Council on Governmental Relations and the Federal Demonstration Partnership. As a result of her involvement while at Duke and Chicago in the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), CHOP was admitted as an academic hospital affiliate of U Penn and as a result of past participation in the Federal Demonstration Partnership, Geisinger was admitted as a member of FDP Phases V-VI.
Ms. Argon is a historian by training, having earned master’s degrees from both Harvard University and The Johns Hopkins University in Near Eastern Studies.