Research Development Staff

Angela Jordan
Director of Research Development

Angela Jordan has been with the Office of Research and Economic Development since 2016. She supports proposal development, research collaborations, ORED internal competitions, funding opportunity identification, limited submissions, faculty development programming, and research communications.

She joined South in 2013 to do proposal development for USA's School of Computing. In the ensuing years she has worked with faculty and staff from across the university on submissions to a variety of federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation; the departments of Education, Justice, State, and Transportation; the Federal Aviation Administration; Strategic Capabilities Office; NASA; the National Institutes of Health; Health Resources and Services Administration; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Park Service; and Office of Research Integrity.

Angela will graduate in Spring 2025 with a Ph.D. in instructional design from USA's College of Education. She defended her dissertation on faculty training for community engaged team science in Fall 2024. She previously earned ABD status for a PhD in English literature from Indiana University, and has a BA in English with a concentration in fiction writing from Northwestern University. At Indiana University she taught English for five years.

She is an active member of the National Organization of Research Development Professionals and current co-chair of the Mentoring Committee.

Roe Van Derwood
Proposal Editor

Roe Van Derwood is a poet and Mobile native who joined the Office of Research and Economic Development as a graduate assistant in summer 2024. They received their B.A. in English, minoring in Gender Studies, from South in spring 2024 and are now pursuing an M.A. in Creative Writing.

During their bachelor's program, Roe was both a JagPAL for Composition courses and Writing Center consultant. They have performed a variety of roles for Oracle literary magazine- this year, they're Prose Editor. They also led the LGBTQ+ organization, Spectrum, as president; helped create JagWriters, a club for creative writers; and, in their final year, served as president of the Gender Studies honors organization Triota. As a result, much of their academic and professional career has been dedicated to the specific needs of writers and other community members at the University of South Alabama. Their relevant experience elsewhere includes tutoring with Chegg, freelance editing via Upworks, and an editing internship with Negative Capability Press.

Besides writing and editing, they are passionate about animal husbandry and currently accommodate the daily needs of a ball python, plains hognose, uromastyx lizard, a dog (Peruvian Inca Orchid), and a cat (regular). They spend most of their free time visiting various museums with their partner.