Sharif

Managed the full lifecycle of complex federal, international, and philanthropic grants and contracts, institutionalizing rigorous internal controls to ensure complete financial integrity, optimal fund utilization, and strict alignment with donor intent and legal frameworks.

Led the strategic preparation and cross-functional submission of high-stakes funding proposals to federal (DOJ, NSF, NIH, DHS) and international agencies, guaranteeing 100% adherence to technical specifications and compliance policies.

Engineered and institutionalized START's comprehensive account reconciliation framework, establishing a centralized, scalable system for tracking payroll, burn rates, and financial activity across a portfolio of over 40 accounts (including 25+ active accounts).

Developed predictive, Excel-based forecasting tools and sophisticated financial models to project grant expenditures, salary coverage, fringe benefits, and indirect costs, equipping administrative leadership with high-accuracy tools for long-term fiscal planning.

Executed biweekly payroll allocations and labor distribution verifications across grant accounts, ensuring Level of Effort (LoE) accurately aligns with project deliverables, federal disclosure regulations, and uniform audit standards, contributing to 100% audit readiness.

Formulated and deployed advanced allocation models to calculate and distribute facilities charges by employee, account type, and office tier, significantly increasing internal cost-recovery precision and institutional transparency.

Championed enterprise knowledge-sharing by leveraging deep Workday financial reporting expertise to provide technical guidance and account management tools to external university departments, strengthening financial oversight campus-wide.

Transformed manual, fragmented pre-award and post-award processes into standardized tools, reusable budget templates, and repeatable workflows, accelerating submission timelines and reducing proposal preparation time.

Spearheaded end-to-end closeout protocols for expiring awards, meticulously reconciling final expenditures and archiving historical project data to ensure 100% compliance with sponsor-mandated data retention policies.

Served on strategic search committees for center-wide hires, designing objective, matrixed evaluation criteria to enforce equity, compliance, and transparency throughout the talent acquisition lifecycle.

Facilitated biweekly governance meetings with senior research personnel and monthly organization-wide forums to drive strategic alignment, remove operational silos, and cross-pollinate departmental initiatives.

Monitored and audited the financial performance of multiple research projects, cross-referencing ledger transactions and producing reconciliation reports to eliminate discrepancies between disparate university financial systems.

Produced and certified quarterly and annual financial statements in strict compliance with federal reporting mandates and sponsor stipulations.

Translated complex research concept papers into structured administrative architecture, developing detailed budgets, schedules, and technical justifications in complete alignment with university policy.

Directed the contract onboarding and recruitment lifecycle for incoming project personnel, safeguarding that all salary allocations and hiring actions remained within approved grant budget thresholds.

Managed end-to-end payroll operations for a highly diversified national client portfolio consisting of 1,300+ employees, overseeing complex weekly, bi-weekly, and semi-monthly processing cycles without error.

Generated comprehensive monthly and quarterly labor cost and tax liability intelligence reports, delivering data-driven insights to client executives to optimize benefit allocations and fiscal decision-making.

Acted as primary corporate technical advisor to corporate clients, optimizing data-submission workflows and mitigating compliance risks regarding federal/state tax codes and garnishment laws.

Compiled and modeled commodity market data on stock levels and price fluctuations for essential household goods to advise on domestic food security.

Drafted high-level briefing reports for the National Cabinet of The Gambia, proposing data-driven policy interventions and domestic market substitutions to optimize national foreign exchange reserves.

Synthesized trade metrics to build flow charts and historical price trend tables for the 2016 Official Trade Statistics publication to track re-export behaviors to neighboring nations.

Co-led grassroots development and economic empowerment workshops for women and youth entrepreneurs, aligning local initiatives with broader national trade strategies.