Meet the Team

Lucy Deckard

Specializing in Engineering, Physical Science, Math, STEM Education, and Institutional Transformation Proposals as well as Grant Writing training

Consultant Lucy Deckard established Academic Research Funding Strategies, LLC in 2010. She has helped to develop successful proposals to NSF, NIH, the Department of Education, the Department of Defense, and other agencies and foundations, including proposals for large institutional and center-level grants.

Previously, she worked in research development at Texas A&M University for 8 years, most recently serving as Associate Director of the university's Office of Proposal Development.  

In addition, she directed the university's New Faculty Initiative, helping new faculty to jump start their research by helping them to identify funding opportunities, develop a strategy for pursuing funding, understand funding agencies, and learn how to write competitive proposals. 

She also worked with faculty in Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions and Minority Serving Institutions across the Texas A&M System.

Before joining Texas A&M, she worked as a research engineer in industry for 16 years, obtaining funding from DoD, DARPA and the Department of Energy.

You can find more information at her LinkedIn page.

Contact: LDeckard@academicresearchgrants.com

Mike Cronan

Specializing in Large-team and Center-level, Engineering, Agriculture, Sustainability, and Homeland Security Proposals

Consultant Mike Cronan has 23 years of experience developing and writing successful proposals at Texas A&M University.  He was named a Texas A&M University System Regents Fellow (2001-2004) for developing and writing A&M System-wide grants funded at over $100 million by NSF and other research agencies, 1990-2000. 

He developed, staffed, and directed two highly successful proposal development offices at Texas A&M, one in the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (Office of Research Development & Grant Writing, 1994-2004), a state-wide engineering research agency with divisions at 14 universities,  and the second for the Vice President for Research (Office of Proposal Development, 2004-09), working across all academic disciplines in 11 colleges. 

Mike Cronan has undergraduate degrees in civil engineering (University of Michigan), political science (Michigan State University), and a MFA in English (University of California-Irvine).  He is a registered professional engineer in Texas (Texas 063512, inactive). 

Contact: mjcronan@gmail.com 

John Williamson

Specializing in Biomedical Research Proposals to NIH and other Agencies

Dr. Williamson is an emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Mississippi, a former NIH branch chief, and currently a research initiatives coordinator at the University of Dayton.  At NIH he served as a Branch Chief of Basic and Mechanistic Research, maintaining a branch grants and contractsportfolio of approximately $50M/yr.  The portfolio included projects associated with brain neuroscience, bioengineering of opiate pathways, mechanisms associated with chronic pain, brain microbiome connection mechanisms, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics and methodologies associated with bioactive natural products, analgesic cannabinoids, various small business awards, complementary medical approaches, and training programs.  In addition, he was the named program contact on more than 75 published funding opportunity announcements (RFAs & PAs).  Williamson also worked on interagency collaborative programs with the NSF, FDA, USDA, and FTC.

During his tenure as a full professor he garnered millions in extramural funding from: federal agencies including the NIH, NSF, CDC, and DoD; pharmaceutical companies including Merck and Schering-Plough; as well as foundations and societies including the Elsa Pardee Foundation, Sigma Xi, the American Society of Pharmacognosy, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  He is currently associated with the University of Dayton where, as Research Initiatives Coordinator helps faculty and staff in developing and submitting competitive research proposals.

Katherine E. Kelly

Specializing in Humanities Proposals and editing

Katherine E. Kelly, Ph.D., is a retired English professor from Texas A&M University. She is the author of several books and numerous articles and served as a contributing editor for an academic journal for five years.  She provides editorial services for proposals, journal articles, and manuscripts.

Mary Paster

Specializing in Social Science and Humanities Proposals to NSF and Other Agencies

Mary Paster is Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Pomona College and previously served as a Program Director at NSF in the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences division of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences directorate. At NSF, she administered the Linguistics program and Dynamic Language Infrastructure - Documenting Endangered Languages, a collaborative program with NEH. At Pomona College she has served as Associate Dean of the College in charge of internal research grant administration, overseeing the college's Research Committee and IRB. She also served for several years as a journal editor. Her research, which has been funded by the Foundation for Endangered Languages and by a Graves Award from the American Council of Learned Societies, focuses on the theoretically informed description of underdescribed languages and on the documentation and revitalization of endangered languages.

Dr. Paster holds degrees from The Ohio State University (BA, linguistics and anthropology) and University of California, Berkeley (MA and PhD, linguistics).

Contact: Mary.Paster@pomona.edu

Mary Paster