Security role that give access to specific departments in reporting

Summary:

Is it possible to create a Security Role that allows a manager to pull REPORTS that have access to their direct reports AND report on people within certain departments? We have a person (also a manager) we want to assist their Director in reporting, person records etc. This employee can see her direct reports in reporting BUT not the additional departments that the Director has (we tried delegating roles - this did not work.)

We understand that we can setup a report that sends to this individual, but we would like to understand how to build a security role that will attain the same results.