Grant Writing in Counselor Education: Strategies for Identifying and Developing Strong Proposals

Link to Webinar and materials

Sponsors: This webinar was sponsored by Counseling Books, Etc., Liberty University's Counselor Education program, and South University Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program

Description: Grants provide researchers/practitioners the opportunity to conduct innovative, impactful, and socially significant research. Yet, counselor educators may feel unprepared to navigate the grant development process. In this webinar, we will discuss strategies for new investigators to identify a high-impact, fundable area of research science that also supports development of a grant portfolio. We will present a collaborative framework and team science approach to proposal development. Finally, we will discuss select funders and funding mechanisms with specific examples as they relate to counselor education specialty areas.

Presenters: Dr. Ryan Carlson is Associate Professor of counselor education at the University of South Carolina (UofSC), and Director for the Consortium of Family Strengthening Research. Dr. Carlson’s research focuses on vulnerable couples and families, including relationship education outcomes and implementation science, intimate partner violence, and parents of children with special needs. He currently serves as the lead evaluator for the randomized controlled trial of relationship education (Project Harmony) being implemented at the University of Central Florida. He has 45 peer-reviewed publications and conducted nearly 80 presentations at conferences. He has submitted 28 grant proposals to local and federal funders, with 13 proposals awarded. Dr. Carlson is also a licensed professional counselor in South Carolina and coordinator for the Center for Community Counseling in the College of Education at UofSC.

Dr. Naomi J. Wheeler, LPC (VA), LMHC (FL), NCC is an assistant professor in counselor education with Virginia Commonwealth University. She has collaborated on funded projects that total over $4.4 million from internal and external funding sources. Most notably, she served as a Co-Investigator and Director with the Marriage and Family Research Institute at UCF for a federally funded (DHHS) community relationship education program. Her research agenda builds from her professional experiences to examine relational stress and resilience across the lifespan including early life family adversity and couple stress/relationship quality as contributors to health.