Jorja Kimball, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Jorja Kimball serves as the executive director of Research Development Services (RDS) that is under the vice president for research at Texas A&M. Kimball leads RDS to support the Texas A&M research community in developing competitive proposals to federal funding agencies, along with assisting with special strategic projects.

Kimball is a Regents Fellow, a permanent designation and the highest award for staff made by The Texas A&M University System. It reflects her service of over 30 years in higher education and 25 years contributing to proposal and strategic research development.  Kimball has assisted with securing more than $165 million in federal research funding for Texas institutions of higher education, primarily through the National Science Foundation and in STEM and educational fields.

She has served as principal investigator (PI) on National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA federal grant awards and has been an NSF reviewer. She serves on the editorial review board for the Journal of Research Administration and has prior committee service locally and nationally related to research in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and evidence-based practices.  Kimball attended and worked for almost a decade at a Hispanic Serving Institution.

Kimball earned her Ph.D. in higher education administration from Texas A&M. Her dissertation focused on the retention and progression-to-degree of engineering students. Kimball’s research interests are building collaborations and partnerships for research efforts that are across disciplines and institutions, and developing competitive grant proposals to federal agencies. She holds an MBA and BBA from Texas A&I University, now Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and was born and raised in rural South Texas.