The Pillars

GRANTS AND CONTRACTS
Dr. Andre Green
Associate Dean and Director of Grants and Contracts
GRANTS AND CONTRACTS
The College of Education and Professional Studies (CEPS) had a
record year in externally funded grants and contracts in fiscal
year 2019. Faculty and staff in CEPS generated approximately 10
million dollars to support their research interest from various
agencies across the country. This amount almost doubles the 5.2
million dollars generated last year by faculty in CEPS.
Like the university as a whole, CEPS established a goal of having more faculty engaged in
externally funded research and projects. To support this expectation, over the past year CEPS
provided a 5-part series grant writing workshop lead by nationally renowned grant writing
consultant Dr. David Bauer for its faculty. Over 30 CEPS faculty members, along with 20 faculty
members from various colleges across the university, participated in the workshop series to gain
additional skills to submit competitive proposals for external funding. In addition, individual
coaching was provided by Dr. Bauer to newly formed research teams in the college to assist team
members in refining their ideas. The grant writing workshop consisted of these 5 topics:
1) How to Find and Win Government Grants
2) How to Find and Win Foundation & Corporate Grants
3) Team Building and Quality Circle Seminars
4) Fund-Raising Seminar
5) Grants Coaching Seminar
Faculty are already benefiting from the granting writing series as several won Research and
Scholarly Development Grants from the USA Office of Research and Economic Development
(ORED) in the amount of 25K. Faculty had to write a proposal and go through a rigorous selection
process established by ORED. ORED funded only five proposals from the submissions they
received and CEPS faculty were represented in three of the five projects awarded. Those faculty
members are:
1) Ryon McDermott, assistant professor in Counseling & Instructional Sciences, leads an
interdisciplinary team of researchers to examine how risk and protective factors interact to predict
college student success and persistence.
2) Benterah Morton, assistant professor in Leadership and Teacher Education, is part of an
interdisciplinary team that will develop and evaluate a universal violence prevention program for
ninth grade students.
3) Caitlyn Hauff and Geoffrey Hudson, assistant professors in Health, Kinesiology, & Sport,
and Ryon McDermott, assistant professor in Counseling and Instructional Sciences, are part of
an interdisciplinary team to study the factors contributing to poor health in nursing students, and
facilitate the development of positive health-related behaviors.