Dr. Pybus provides strategic proposal development services on behalf of the office of the Vice President for Research at Oklahoma State University.  She is also a longtime instructor of a PhD seminar course on Grantsmanship and an associate member of the History Department’s graduate faculty at OSU.  Dr. Pybus received her B.A. Magna Cum Laude, in Linguistics (with Distinction), from the University of Rochester in 1979 and an M.A. in English from Oklahoma State University in 1986. She received her Ph.D. in History (U.S. West) at Oklahoma State University in 2009. Dr. Pybus is also a Certified Research Administrator.
 
Previously, Dr. Pybus was a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Department of State. She served overseas in postings across the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Europe and has received multiple Meritorious and Superior Honor awards.  Dr. Pybus has worked as a professional proposal writer for more than 20 years and has served as a Principal Investigator on a USAID-funded project delivering educational programming in Iraq.
 
Dr. Pybus’s historical research focus encompasses the history and origins of severe weather research in the U.S. West, along with extensive study of ancient tornado mythology and iconography across the world, including a comprehensive survey of Native American sources.  In 2017, Dr. Pybus received the Muriel H. Wright Award from the Oklahoma Historical Society for her article entitled “Cyclone Jones: Dr. Herbert L. Jones and The Origins of Tornado Research in Oklahoma” (The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Spring 2016).       
 
Dr. Pybus is a member of the American Foreign Service Association; Diplomatic & Consular Officers, Retired (DACOR); the Society of Research Administrators, International (SRAi) and the Oklahoma Historical Society, among others. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Research Administration, an SRA peer-reviewed publication. Dr. Pybus also serves on the board of World Neighbors, headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, one of the oldest international development organizations in the United States.