About Me

I have more than 10 years of experience in the grant development field in various roles. I have written Requests for Proposals, designed internal small-grant programs, and reviewed grant applications for small non-profits. In my most recent employment at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, MN, I had the title of Grant Development Director. At the college, I worked with staff, faculty, and the College Foundation to identify grant sources, define program activities, develop budgets, and write and edit grant applications. I helped the college secure 13 Minnesota Job Skills Partnership grants out of 14 applications. We designed a scholarship program and secured first-time and continued funding through the National Science Foundation's S-STEM opportunity. Normandale was able to establish and grow a four-year elementary education degree on its campus in partnership with Minnesota State University, Mankato. This program has received national recognition and funding support from NSF's Advanced Technical Education directorate because of the program's emphasis on special math and science courses for the future teachers. I worked with the Bookstore staff and faculty on a Department of Education Textbook grant which funded an experiment in providing all students in first-year writing courses with online access to a required handbook. I also assisted TRIO program directors by editing their applications for renewal of funding. The Grant Development Office did not exist when I was hired. I obtained a Council for Resource Development membership for the College and attended regional and national conferences. I also joined Charity Channel. With help from these resources and local people in the grants field, I developed guidelines, forms, and samples that are customized for Normandale's needs and internal processes. My efforts were recognized with a college Achievement Award. My special expertise is in the front-end work -- bringing together project teams, facilitating discussions on goals and objectives, and helping teams bring their ideas from vague thoughts to fundable projects with specific activities, timelines, and measures. This talent also led to my appointment to the Web Strategy Committee as chair, to help its membership plan a journey through a new content management system, decentralized content, and a new redesign. I participated in Brain Traffic's CONFAB 2012 in Minneapolis and am quoted in the second edition of Kristina Halvorson's book, "Content Strategy for the Web." I retired from Normandale Community College in February 2012 to work on my own projects. That includes a book about Minnesota's tuberculosis sanatoriums and articles about Web governance and grant development. I am available as a consultant on grant and web content projects. My specific interest is in National Science Foundation grants, but I have written applications for funding from the Department of Labor, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. I have also written technical manuals and have done first-edits on books and dissertations for friends. Obviously, my passion is for written words and using them to communicate ideas clearly and concisely.