Academic leadership is ultimately resource allocation under constraint. Every decision a chair or dean makes — which programs to grow, which faculty lines to request, which initiatives to seed — is at its core a financial decision, and the quality of those decisions determines whether a unit thrives or merely survives. Across four institutions and more than a decade of department and senior administrative leadership, I have approached budgetary stewardship as a strategic tool rather than a clerical function, using available resources to drive institutional priorities even when — especially when — those resources were limited.
Reallocation as Strategy
The most consequential fiscal decisions I have made have rarely involved new money. They have involved redirecting existing resources toward higher-value uses. At Radford University, I identified discretionary technology funds in the departmental budget that could be shifted to faculty travel support at a moment when university-level budget cuts were eliminating travel funding and threatening junior faculty's ability to remain professionally active. That reallocation cost nothing in net terms but had a direct effect on faculty retention and development. In the same period, I deployed seed funding from the departmental budget to support the Wicked Initiatives program in its early stages, a relatively modest investment that helped the program grow into a 500-plus student university-wide event — and that ultimately leveraged significantly larger internal and external support as the program proved its value.
At the University of West Georgia, I identified an opportunity to reclassify system-level online revenue that had been flowing past the department and successfully led an initiative to redirect those funds into direct faculty support within our budget. I also created the first dedicated standalone budget for the MPA program, which had previously been an undifferentiated line in the departmental ledger. Giving the program its own budget structure improved financial transparency, enabled better planning, and strengthened our position in the NASPAA reaccreditation process by demonstrating professional management of a professionally-accredited program.
At Fort Hays State University, during my tenure as Interim Dean of the Graduate School, I identified savings generated by the transition to the Workday enterprise resource planning system and reallocated them to fund improved onboarding and support processes for adjunct faculty and graduate teaching assistants — turning an efficiency gain into a quality investment rather than simply returning the savings to a central pool.
External Funding
I have consistently pursued external funding as a way to expand what is possible without placing additional demands on institutional budgets. Across my career I have secured or contributed to securing more than $100,000 in external grants and in-kind support for academic and civic engagement initiatives. At the University of West Georgia, I secured more than $40,000 in external funding and in-kind support for civic engagement programming. At Radford, I have built an external funding portfolio that includes voter engagement grants, student space renovation funding, survey research equipment support, and pedagogical innovation awards.
Not every application has succeeded. A $2.1 million Knight Foundation proposal for student civility and democratic engagement was not funded, and a recent internal strategic funding request for the Public Policy and Democracy Lab was denied. I include those outcomes here because fiscal leadership means understanding the full landscape of pursuit and rejection, learning from unsuccessful applications, and maintaining the institutional relationships that make future opportunities possible. The pipeline matters as much as any single award.
I am currently in development on two larger proposals — a Main Street America Hometown Grant for a civic engagement infrastructure project and a Kettering Foundation equipment grant for the Center for Social and Cultural Research — that reflect an ongoing commitment to building external revenue streams that reduce dependence on internal budget allocations.
Budget Advocacy
Securing resources for a unit requires making a compelling institutional case, not simply submitting annual requests. At Radford, I have built multi-year budget advocacy strategies around enrollment data, student-to-faculty ratio analysis, and program demand projections, framing requests for new faculty lines in terms the institution's own strategic planning documents support. That approach reflects an understanding that budget conversations at the dean and provost level are won with institutional arguments, not departmental ones.
At Fort Hays State, I successfully advocated for increased budget allocations to hire additional faculty in the Master of Liberal Studies core, connecting the staffing request directly to enrollment trends and accreditation expectations. I also collaborated with alumni relations and development offices on a proposal to secure naming rights for the Graduate School — an early lesson in the intersection of development work and academic budget strategy that has informed my approach to resource generation ever since.
Financial Transparency and Planning
Good budgetary stewardship also means creating systems that make financial information usable by the people who need it. The standalone MPA budget I created at UWG was not simply an accounting change — it was a planning tool that gave program faculty and staff visibility into their own financial situation. The departmental resource handbooks I have developed at multiple institutions have included budget process guidance so that faculty understand how requests are made, evaluated, and prioritized. Demystifying the budget process builds trust and reduces the kind of low-grade anxiety about resources that can quietly damage departmental culture.
At every level at which I have led, I have operated from the conviction that transparent, strategic, and mission-aligned resource management is among the most important things an academic administrator does — and that doing it well is one of the clearest ways a leader demonstrates that they can be trusted with broader responsibility.
Reallocated internal money to provide early support for the Wicked Initiatives, enhancing the program and leveraging its growth to increase internal and external support
Supported the creation of Mock Trial classes, provided budgetary support for travel for Mock Trial team
Shifted internal budgets from technology to travel to compensate for university-level budget cuts which negatively impacted junior faculty’s ability to travel for research
Led a coalition to provide international travel support for faculty and students for annual presentations at the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education conference
Reallocated resources to provide administrative and research support for the Center for Social and Cultural Research
Negotiated changes in Memoranda of Agreement to allow enhances use of foundation money to support African American Studies
Sought more than $50,000 in internal and external grants
1. Led a department-wide initiative to reclassify system-level online revenue to enhance faculty support within the department budget
2. Created the first dedicated stand-alone budget for the MPA program
3. Successfully secured more than $40,000 in external funding and in-kind support
1. $25,000 for the “Civic Voice Hub”—a small, public‑facing call center with technology upgrades that expand digital inclusion by bringing the conversation to residents without broadband (with Morgan Montanez, in development)
2. $5,500 for furnishing the Black Studies Center
3. $6,600 for outfitting the Situation Room student space
4. $15,000 for outfitting the Center for Social and Cultural Research with CATI equipment for survey research (with Morgan Montanez, under review)
5. $6,700 (Received January 2026 for renovation of student spaces)
6. Campus Vote Project Enhancement Grant - $750 (Received July 2025 for voter engagement)
7. American Political Science Association / Pi Sigma Alpha Support Grant - $250 (Received April 2025 for Virginia Government Simulation support)
8. $12,000 for outfitting Public Policy and Democracy Lab space (Denied August 2025)
9. CourseHero Pedagogical Innovation Grant - $2,000 (Received August 2022 for innovative podcasting pedagogy)
10. Radford CHBS Research Grant $2,300 (Received October 2021 for hiring student data assistants)
11. Knight Foundation Grant Application for Student Civility and Democratic Engagement - $2,100,000 (With Kathleen Barret and Gavin Lee, denied April 2021)
12. Students Learn Students Vote Coalition Fall Mobilization Funding - $4,500 (Received October 2020 for voter engagement)
13. Ask Every Student Voting Registration, Education, and Mobilization Program - $1,000 (Received October 2020 for voter engagement)
14. Collaboratory civic engagement and assessment - $21,250 in-kind support (September 2020)
15. Council on Foreign Relations World 101 grant - $5,700 in-kind support (August 2020)
16. Campus Elections Engagement Fellowship Program - $1,500 (August-November 2020)
17. University System of Georgia. Open Educational Resource Transformation Grant - $5,000 (January 2020)
18. FHSU Red Balloon Initiative. (With James G. Ward and Robert Moody). Secured a $9,000 grant to develop a multi-platform class communication mobile application for smartphones and tablets. Fall 2013-Spring 2014.
19. ”The Changing State Legislative Campaign Finance Project 2006.” Granted $1,810 from the Graduate School of Fort Hays State University.
20. "Campaign Finance Laws in the American States: A Comprehensive Analysis." With Donald M. Gooch. Granted $500 for Winter 2004 by the Graduate School of Fort Hays State University.