As team leader and principal investigator, I collaborated with other faculty and staff at Bellarmine University on a grant from the Institute for Interfaith Excellence to enhance interfaith imagery across campus and fund faculty development. The title of our proposal was “Reflecting the Rays of Truth by Embracing Religious Diversity.”

Through the generosity of the Louisville Institute’s Sabbatical Grant for Researchers program, I interviewed siblings growing up in families affected by serious mental illness. This research continues to inform my teaching and writing and is included in Dutiful Love.

Co-authoring with Dr. Melanie-Prejean Sullivan a grant from the Council of Independent Colleges in 2014 allowed Bellarmine University’s Department of Theology and Campus Ministry to collaborate in creating “The Little Way Learning Community.” This learning community based upon the teachings of Thérèse of Lisieux, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton worked together for two years to prepare faculty and students across a wide variety of disciplines to reflect on vocation.

In 2010, I successfully applied for a Kentucky Heritage Council Historic Rehabilitation tax credit program to renovate a Prairie-style Arts and Crafts home in Louisville, Kentucky. The program requires careful research to identify the historical significance of the property and actively safeguarding aspects of it for future generations to enjoy.

A grant for teaching and research sponsored by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), the Fulbright program, provided the opportunity for me to teach and study for a semester in 2010 at Debreceni Református Hittudományi Egyetem (Debrecen Reformed Theological University), in Debrecen, Hungary. The grant also generously funded most of the travel and living expenses for my family.

A Teaching and Learning Grant which I authored and implemented enabled the Department of Theology at Bellarmine University to consult with the Wabash Center to review its flagship course, Theology 200 Ultimate Questions. The funding supported rich conversations among department members and a visit from a consultant to provide feedback that was essential to revising the course.

The Valparaiso Project at St. Andrews Presbyterian College is one of the most meaningful grant projects that I have done. As the Project Director for this grant from 2003-2004, I worked with students to collaboratively design a year-long study of Christian practices through the lens of disability. The project was significant for St. Andrews because the college was originally founded in 1958 to strengthen education in an area where need was the greatest and provide people with disabilities access to higher education. Students in the course produced a video project at the end of the year to help churches and community organizations grow into communities of belonging.

As the grant writer for Interfaith Outreach Association from 1995-1997, I wrote and managed state grants funding programs such as Super Cupboard and utility and housing assistance.