Carolyn Kesner

During my tenure at National 4-H Council as Project Director for the 4-H National Mentoring Programs, I served as the primary post award administrator for the $16.3 million grant funded program from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. My duties included having responsibility of the full life cycle of these four grant programs, from Request for Proposals development for prospective sub-recipients, monitoring of sub-awardee budgets and performance evaluation monitoring. Additionally, I created program promotional materials and other related collateral for dissemination either online or in print. This grant portfolio included up to 52 sub-recipients. My collaborative relationships included working with university department directors, federal agency managers, subcontractors and sub-recipient Principal Investigators. I also oversaw the coordination of the annual National Conference.

While at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) as Director of Grants and Development, I oversaw the grants activities related to SfN professional development, public outreach and education initiatives. I coordinated the grant application in response to the National Science Foundation’s Pathways program under the 2009 Stimulus Funding Initiative, and several grant renewal applications with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Over the eight years with the American Statistical Association (ASA), I gained additional experience in the development and grants administration field. I worked with numerous ASA committees in the preparation of grant proposals for research programs, workshops and conferences. Through these efforts, I was successful in receiving funding from several funding awards, not only from federal agencies but from private foundations, such as Exxon Mobil, Pew Charitable Trust, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. My grants management oversight responsibilities included oversight of several national research fellowship programs, with a total amount of approximately $2.6 million during that tenure. This management responsibility included the full range of a grant award, from proposal preparation, program implementation and administration, to grant close-out of numerous federal grant awards. My additional duties included overseeing the grant administration of numerous grant awards from the National Science Foundation, NIH, Agency for Health Quality and Research, and other federal agencies.