Buffalo, New York, United States
Accomplished program, product, and grants management professional with over two decades of experience, including driving federal assistance programs, leading product development initiatives, and overseeing compliance across government, private sector, and social enterprise settings. Demonstrates a proven track record negotiating and managing complex federal awards, guiding cross-functional teams in product lifecycle management, and ensuring regulatory compliance while delivering results in both domestic and international environments. Highly skilled at coordinating multidisciplinary teams, integrating financial and product management systems, and navigating the intersection of policy, funding, product strategy, and operational execution. Expert in translating programmatic and product requirements into actionable strategies while maintaining rigorous oversight and accountability.
Detail-oriented and results-driven Grants Management Specialist currently overseeing complex federal assistance agreements. Skilled in award negotiation, compliance, financial oversight, policy implementation, and interagency coordination, supporting the U.S. Department of State's international objectives. Grants Administration: Manage the full lifecycle of federal assistance agreements (grants and cooperative agreements) aligned with U.S. foreign policy objectives. • Serve as a certified Grants Officer with signatory authority in accordance with OMB Circulars and 2 CFR regulations. • Lead the negotiation, drafting, and execution of award documents, conduct cost analyses and institutional evaluations. • Oversee modifications, reprogramming, and de-obligation actions for existing awards. • Evaluate program performance and effectiveness through financial/performance reviews and site visits. • Review financial reports, ensuring alignment with budgets and recommend corrective actions as needed. Policy & Procedure Development: • Develop and implement monitoring tools and procedures to ensure financial accountability and legal compliance. • Resolve account discrepancies across multiple financial systems; collaborate with multiple platform representatives and recipient finance offices. • Maintain accurate records of allotments, and balances in systems such as RFMS, MyGrants, ILMS Advisory & Representation: • Advise applicants and recipients on federal assistance regulations including the 2CFR200 and OMB guidelines. • Provide training and consultation to internal staff and external partners on grants management best practices. • Represent INL in policy discussions and coordinate interagency responses to Congressional inquiries on grants matters. • Serve as the financial systems subject matter expert (GFMS, SAMS, MyGrants, ILMS); approve disbursements and resolve discrepancies with post representatives.
Grant Management activities: Successfully executed the Federal Assistance Lifecycle as Grants Officer Representative, having a Grants Officer Warrant while following the Code of Federal regulations (2 CFR 200), in alignment with the Country Strategy Objectives. Pre-Award: Program Planning, Identifying Problem Statement, Developing Goals and Objectives, Designing M&E metrics, Analyzed Logic Model, Writing Notice of Funding Opportunity. Award: Successfully completed yearly rounds of awards which included: Front Office approval process, Bureau approval process, Financial Management Office approval process. Post-Award: Monitoring & Evaluation, Site visits, Desk Reviews, Reporting Requirements. Close-out: Lead and executed final grant close-out process. Ensuring indicator progress and completion, reporting and financial requirements.
- Expertise in ICT4D implementations across sectors: * Large scale android based implementations. * Community Health Referrals and Counter referrals. * SMS based mHealth projects (Behavior Change, Health Facility Referrals, Performance Based Motivation). * Mobile Money Evaluations. * Health Information Systems (OpenMRS, DHIS2). * Supply Chain Management Mobile Projects * iNGOs support of their mHealth projects. (FHI360, ABT, John Hopkins University, Friends in Global Health, Pathfinder, Malaria Consortium, Ariel Glaser, ICAP) * Seed tracking * Field Yield and Mapping Financing
- Developed, maintained, and improved systems and operating principles for using Social Media tools. - Social Media training and coaching. - Built their Social Media strategy road map. - Developed the foundation for their editorial content calendar (programming and social media team dynamics). - Increased audience base and engagement. - Traffic monitoring and analysis.
Initial job requirements included secretarial functions and serving as a liaison between the English and Spanish speakers. I sought out and acquired additional responsibilities and served in the role of the Administrative Attaché in his absence. Specific responsibilities included IT network management and technical support, infrastructure maintenance, organizing events, HR and accounting tasks and managing service providers. Additionally I provided assistance and training to the staff around social media and web design projects.